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.
Grace doesn’t give us a green light to sin all we want; it gives us the ability to reject sin.
Follow along as I read Romans 6:1-14…
For the past few months we have been reading along as Paul constructs this theological house for us. So far we have learned how the doctrine of revelation is the foundation to our theological house. The doctrine of sin was the first wall he built. The doctrine of salvation came next.
For the past few weeks we have seen how salvation is only found in Jesus Christ. Through His death and burial and resurrection he has paid the price, taken our place, and forgiven all our sins. Our justification comes through faith in Him.
Generally speaking evangelical Christians talk about three stages in the salvation process. 1) Justification- being made right with God, 2) Sanctification- being conformed to the likeness of His son, and 3) Glorification- spending eternity with God.
So far Paul has focused his attention on the first stage of the process, justification. It is vitally important that we clearly understand that justification is by faith alone through the grace of God alone. It doesn’t come from the Law or from good deeds, or from anything else we do.
Justification is the process where we make Jesus our new representative. Last week we talked about how we are all born into death because Adam is our representative. Justification makes us new.
As we move into chapter 6 today Paul begins to discuss the next phase of our salvation, sanctification. Paul is very deliberate and very clear about how justification and sanctification are distinct aspects of our salvation. They are both important, but they are not the same.
Justification is the process where God brings us back to life, sanctification is the process where He begins to clean us up. Justification is God adopting us into His family. Sanctification is where we begin to learn the boundaries of life in the family of God. And just like the rules we set in place for our kids is for their well being and happiness, the rules that God sets in place for us our for our well being and happiness.
Breaking the rules doesn’t mean that God will kick you out of the family, although He will punish you just like we punish our own children. And an inability to keep His commands might be an indication that you are not a part of the family in the first place.
Does this make sense? Do you understand the difference between justification and sanctification? Over the next few weeks we will see a much fuller understanding of sanctification. But as we see in this passage, it all starts with death.
In this passage we see two truths. First, we have died, second, we are alive. Look at the first two verses with me again…
These verses follow from what Paul was talking about in the previous chapter. There he says that were sin was found, the grace of God abounded. So in chapter six he asks the question, does that mean that we should sin even more so that God will have a chance to show His grace all the more.
No way, that’s just completely absurd. That’s like saying that we should encourage our kids to disobey so that we’ll have more opportunities to show them we really love them. No there are more productive ways to accomplish that goal.
Why does Paul say the idea of continuing in sin is so absurd? Because we have died to sin! We can’t live in sin because we have died to it.
God frees us from slavery to sin. He rescues us from the power of sin. He saves us from the control of sin. How completely absurd to think that somehow we should continue to live in sin even after we have died to it. It just doesn’t work that way.
I think this passage isn’t just saying that those who have died to sin shouldn’t continue to live in sin, I think Paul is saying that those who have truly died to sin cannot live in sin. Look at the way he words this, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” How is it even possible. It just doesn’t happen.
It’s important to note here that Paul is not talking about occasional sin. He isn’t talking about the kind of sin that we as believer still struggle with from time to time. He is talking about living a lifestyle of sin and rebellion and open defiance to God.
In verse 1 when Paul asks, “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” The word “continue” means to persist or to live there, or to make a habit. It means to wallow around there like a pig in the mud. Once we have died to sin we just can’t live there anymore. We need to move on to something bigger and better.
If you have truly died to sin, you will no longer be interested in wallowing in the mud.
Next, we are dead because we have been baptized into Christ’s death. Look at verse 3-4 with me…
These verses say so much about the nature of baptism and the nature of our relationship with Christ. We have been baptized into Christ’s death. In order to understand what Paul means here we really need to understand the purpose and meaning of baptism at that time.
During the time of Christ, and following, baptism was done for three main reasons, 1. As a ceremonial cleansing or washing 2. As an identification with a particular person or message and 3. As a testimony to others about a change you had made in your life.
The reason that we Baptist baptize the way that we do is because we believe that it is consistent with what the Bible has to say on the subject. We baptize by immersion, or completely dunking a person, because that symbolizes what Paul is talking about here. Our connection to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
We baptize believers not babies, because only those who have accepted the free gift of grace that Jesus offers are truly identified with Him. An infant does not have the ability to identify themselves with Christ in this way. Baptism is a symbol of the means of our salvation.
When baptism is done for infants it demeans its value, purpose, and meaning. Just look at verse 4 again…?
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.
We have been buried with Him through baptism. We have died with Him. We have abandoned our old life. We are dead to the life we once lived. And we are identified with Christ’s resurrection so that we can walk in a new life. We can live in a whole new way.
It is also important to note that while baptism is very important, it isn’t a requirement for salvation. Water baptism is only an outward symbol of the inward reality. It is a demonstration of our cleansing by the Holy Spirit, our identification with Christ, and our transformed life.
Those who make baptism a necessary requirement for salvation are guilty of the kind of legalistic, works based religion that Paul is specifically preaching against here. Salvation is by faith, not by faith and the act of baptism.
But Baptism is important. If you have never taken that step of obedience and been baptized as a believer as an outward identification with Jesus Christ, I would encourage you to do so.
We might not be physically dead yet, but as believers in Jesus Christ we are aligning ourselves with His death, burial and resurrection. We are claiming His death so that we can have new life.
The next indication that we are dead is that we have been crucified with Christ. Look at verses 5-8…
Our old self has been crucified with Him. Last week we talked about how we are all born into the family of Adam. And Adam has passed down to his descendants a sin nature. We are all born spiritually dead. We Have a natural bent towards sin. With Christ, that old sin nature gets nailed to a cross.
In Galations Paul says…
Galatians 2:20 20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
This is really an amazing statement. Can we make this same claim? Can we confidently state that we have been crucified with Christ? We too have been put to death with Him. And because of that it is no longer us living our lives, but Christ living in us? Do you live you life as thought Jesus Christ was living in you and through you?
The reason that our old self needs to be crucified is so that that old sin nature can be done away with. So we will no longer be slaves to sin. The reason that Christ’s death and resurrection are so important because at His death Christ paid a penalty for sin in our place, and when He rose from the dead He demonstrated how death and sin had no power over Him.
When we accept Christ, the same thing is true for us. We died with Christ, our old sin nature is dead. But we also live with Christ. That sin nature no longer has control. It can’t tell us what to do anymore. It doesn’t characterize our life anymore. We are a new creation.
Because of this truth, we no longer have to live lives controlled by the power of sin. We have the ability to obey because we want to obey. We want to please God. We want to have a healthy relationship with Him, just like our children want to have a healthy relationship with us.
As believers in Christ we are dead. Dead to sin, dead with Christ, dead to our old way of living. We are different, because we’re dead to the kinds of things that the rest of the world lives for.
If, in fact, we have died to sin, how can we keep living in it? We can’t; we won’t. We will live for Christ.
We didn’t just die, but we now live. We are alive. Death couldn’t hold Jesus down, and death doesn’t threaten us anymore. We are alive with Christ. That dead spiritual nature we were born with has been regenerated. It has been brought to life. We are dead to sin, but alive in Christ.
We are alive because Jesus Christ beat death. He overcame the power of the grave. He took the curse of death and reversed it. Look at verses 8-10…
It says Christ died to sin. He died to the penalty of sin and to the power of sin. The penalty of sin has been paid by Christ. The power of sin has been broken by Christ. So the reason we can now live is because Jesus Christ beat death. The life we live we live to God.
We were born dead because of our sin nature, but now we live because of our relationship with Christ. We were born as children of Adam, blind to the things of God, but now we are alive to God. Verse 11…
Jesus Christ is dead to sin and alive to God. Paul says, even so, or in the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Because we are identified with Christ through faith, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, baptized in identification with His death, burial and resurrection, we are connected to Christ. We are joined together with Him.
Paul mentions our identification to Christ through baptism because he wants us to understand that the life that Christ live, we can live too. Spiritual life is available to us. We can do what God wants us to do. That’s the central idea behind this passage; we can and should live godly lives because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God. Think of your old sin nature as the person you used to be. That person is dead. You are dead to sexual immorality, you are dead to lying, you are dead to drunkenness and substance abuse, you are dead to violent outbursts. Who you used to be is dead.
You are dead to that way of living, but alive to God. You are now empowered by God through His holy Spirit. We have the ability now to live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
When you think about the kind of person you are, think about those things now. It doesn’t matter what kind of lousy, sinful, rotten person you were like before you came to Christ, that’s not who you are now. Satan does love to try and remind us of who we used to be, but don’t dwell on that any more. That person is dead. God has brought your spirit back to life.
Paul drives his point home in the last couple of verses here. Because we are now alive, we can be instruments of righteousness. Look at verses 12-14…
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.
Paul began this passage refuting the claim that God’s free gift of grace means that we can sin all we want. Just because God freely forgives, doesn’t mean that we can freely sin. Paul explains that because of our identification with Christ, and because of how Christ has died to sin, we too have died to sin.
Therefore… since this is the case, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies. Don’t let sin rule your life. You have a choice now. Before you were slaves to sin and unable to do anything other than sin. Now you have a free will. Now you have the ability to choose. Now you can refuse to allow sin to rule you. Not by your own strength, but through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in you.
Verse 13 says, “Don’t go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.” Instead we are to be instruments of righteousness. We can either be tools, used by the devil, accomplishing evil purposes, piling up condemnation. Or we can be instruments in God’s hand; used by Him to do great things for Him.
I’ve mentioned before that I worked my way through seminary working as the maintenance guy for my school. I learned a lot during that time, but one of the most important lessons I learned was the importance of having the right tool for the job. And making sure that the tools were good quality.
Have you every tried to use the wrong tool for a job? On my way to work the other day I saw a lady trying to nail a board into her fence using a brick. Or have you ever needed to remove a screw but didn’t have a screwdriver handy? I’ve fond myself there a lot. I’ve tried to use a dime, or a letter opener, or my fingernail. That never works.
The only thing worse than trying to use the wrong tool for a job is trying to use flimsy tools. Have you ever bought a set of screwdrivers that was so cheap that the handle turns instead of the screw? Or have you worked with a hammer with a loose head?
God wants us to be useful, effective tools for His use. He wants the work that you do to build up the kingdom and build up others. He set you free from sin so that you could help get the job done. He saved you from sin and made you knew so that you’d be worth using.
Because before we were broken, flimsy, ill-fitting instruments. The only thing we were good for was to demonstrate God’s wrath and judgment. Don’t keep presenting yourself as an instrument for sin when God has recreated you to be an instrument for righteousness.
What a loving, caring heavenly father we have. He doesn’t just ask us to clean up our act by giving us a bunch of rules. He gives us a new life and the ability to be used by Him for great things. God wants what’s best for us, just like we want what’s best for our kids. Part of growing in our relationship with Him is learning how to follow when He leads.
“Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
