Americans spend over $60 billion each year trying to lose weight. The National Institutes of Health estimates that includes $25 billion dollars spent on weight loss supplements. Most of the companies that pitch those products promote the idea that you can just take a pill and watch the pounds melt away. The products make grandiose claims like 97% “success rates”, or “clinically proven results” and even offer 90-day money back guarantees.
But the fact is that a pill that allows you to eat whatever you want and lose weight is nothing more than a pipe dream. If anyone ever actually developed a pill that could do that all the other companies would go out of business overnight.
So it’s really no surprise that for the last 10 years the Federal Trade Commission has brought more than 80 law enforcement actions against companies for making false or deceptive weight loss claims for the products they are selling.
By now you’re probably wondering what weight loss supplements have to do with Romans chapter 6. I would suggest to you that as Paul wraps up this chapter, the point he is going to make is that sin is a lot like those weight loss products because, just like those products…
Sin never delivers what it promises
I think all of us have enough experience with sin in our lives that we know that to be true. But the real question we must answer this morning is how knowing that truth makes a difference in the way we live our lives.
So once again this morning, we’ll let Paul answer that question for us. This will be our 4th week in Romans chapter 6, and while it might seem that is a bit of overkill, I am completely convinced that it has been time well spent since this is such a crucial passage when it comes to our development as mature disciples of Jesus.
Hopefully you’ll remember that this chapter began with a question: If God’s grace abounds where sin increases, shouldn’t I just live a lifestyle of sin so that I can experience more of God’s grace? Paul answered that question with a resounding “No!”. He went on to explain that when we place our faith in Jesus we are so closely united with Him in His death and resurrection that we have died to sin and been transformed into completely new creatures who have been freed from the power of sin. Therefore, we can no longer live as slaves to sin.
That gave rise to a second question which essentially asked: I understand that I can’t be a genuine disciple of Jesus and live a lifestyle of sin, but is it OK if I just dabble in a little sin once in a while? Again Paul answered with an emphatic “No!”. He went on to explain that when we sin, we put ourselves back into slavery to sin again and since we become like the master we have chosen to serve we fall into more and more sin as a result.
This morning, as Paul concludes chapter 6, he is going to show us the end result of the person who chooses to return to serving sin once they have been freed from that master. So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Romans 6 and follow along as I read beginning in verse 20.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:20-23 ESV)
I’ve already shared with you part of Paul’s main theme in this section:
Sin never delivers what it promises…
But as we’ll see this morning, that’s only half of the story. We’ll complete that statement before we finish this morning.
Let’s begin by taking a look at…
WHAT SIN PROMISES…AND WHAT IT DELIVERS
1. It promises freedom; it delivers slavery
How many of you have ever heard someone say something like this: “I don’t want to submit my life to Jesus because if I do that I have to give up my freedom. I want to be free to get drunk or to have sex with whoever I want. I don’t need any religion to take away my freedom and tell me how to live.”
But what Paul makes clear in verse 20 is that the only freedom these people have is freedom from righteousness. Just as we saw last week, they are not really as free as they think they are because they are actually enslaved to sin.
Sin is a lot like a fishing lures that I use when I go trout fishing in a stream. To the fish, that lure looks like a nice tasty meal. But what the fish fails to see is that there is a sharp hook attached to that lure and that when it pursues that lure, what looked so good to it at first becomes the instrument that actually catches it and enslaves it to me.
Sin is like that. It looks good at first. It promises pleasure and freedom. But in the end the alcoholic becomes enslaved to his next drink, the glutton becomes enslaved to his next meal, the proud man becomes enslaved to the praise of other people and the gossip becomes enslaved to searching out and sharing that next sordid bit of information about someone else.
Sin masquerades as freedom, but in reality it is nothing but a trap to enslave us.
2. It promises acceptance; it delivers shame
One of the allures of sin is that it offers to make you popular and promises greater acceptance from others. If you don’t believe that, think about all the people you know who say something like this: “I really don’t want to go to heaven anyway because all my friends are going to be in hell and we’re going to have a big old party together there.” That is a lie straight from the devil himself. The Bible is clear that hell is a place of everlasting separation, punishment and torment. There won’t be any parties going on there – that’s for sure.
Just think of how many commercials are designed to lead us to believe that engaging in some sin will make us more popular with other people. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” comes to mind here.
But look what Paul writes in verse 21. He reminds his readers that when they look back on what their life was like when they were still enslaved to sin, and see the fruit that resulted from that sin, the result is shame. Those same sins that promised popularity and acceptance produced shame instead.
The casual sex that promised companionship delivered STD’s and unwanted pregnancies. The beer that promised to make you popular with women delivered DUI’s and liver disease. The pornography that promised pleasure delivered a broken marriage.
Ultimately, every sin that offers acceptance on the front end ends up delivering shame down the road.
3. It promises life; it delivers death
No one initially sins out of duty. They do it because sin seems to offer a really enjoyable, fun life. The idea of living life on my own terms, satisfying all my own desires is pretty attractive to most people. And as we’ve seen over the past few weeks, it’s even possible for a Christian to get sucked back into that way of thinking if we don’t guard against it by taking to heart the words of Paul in this chapter.
But Paul tells us twice in this passage that sin does exactly the opposite – it robs us of life and results in death.
At the end of verse 21 he points out that the end result of living as a slave to sin is death. And then he states that same idea in a slightly different way in verse 23 where he writes that “the wages of sin is death”.
Most of us are probably familiar with verse 23 since it is often used, appropriately, as part of the “Romans Road” to share the gospel with unbelievers. But since Paul is primarily writing here to Christians, this verse is also relevant for those of us who have already placed our faith in Jesus. Paul is primarily using this idea to support the overall theme of this chapter which is that being under grace does not give us the freedom to return to a life lived in slavery to sin.
I have often heard the phrase “the wages of sin is death” used to explain that when we commit acts of sin, the wage that we earn is death. In fact, I know I’ve used it that way before. But that phrase should more likely be understood to mean “the wages that sin pays is death.” In other words, the focus is not so much on my acts of sin as it is on the kind of master that sin is.
What Paul is saying here is that no Christian would ever want to intentionally sin because sin pays such a terrible wage. If we put it the terms that I used last week, we could say that when we go back to work for our old boss – sin – the wages that he pays bring death, not life.
When Paul writes about death here, Is he referring to our physical death here on earth, or spiritual death, or something else? The word that is translated “wages” here is important in helping us to understand the answer to that question..
There are at least a couple of Greek words Paul could have used for “wages”. There is a word that means money paid at the end of the pay period. Paul actually used that particular word back in chapter 4:
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
(Romans 4:4 ESV)
But Paul doesn’t use that word here. Instead he uses a word that came from the Roman military that described the food rations that a soldier would receive each day. So the point Paul is making here is that there is a daily wage that accompanies our sin. Every time we choose to sin we die a little bit. Without faith in Jesus, our sin does eventually result in our physical death and permanent spiritual death in hell. But it’s also a terrible ride on the way there.
There is a sense in which a life of sin is punishment in itself. We saw that all the way back in chapter 1 where Paul indicated that God is currently pouring out His wrath by giving up unrighteous men to their own earthly lusts and passions.
While it might seem, at least for a while, that sin offers life, in the end, it always delivers death.
So far we’ve seen that…
Sin never delivers what it promises…
But, as I promised you earlier, that’s not the entire story here. So let’s complete our main idea from this morning’s passage…
Sin never delivers what it promises
but Jesus always does
WHAT JESUS DELIVERS
1. Real freedom
Since we’ve dealt with this idea throughout the entire chapter I won’t belabor the point. But as we’ve seen, no matter what someone might think, everyone serves a master – either the master of self and sin, or the master of obedience to Jesus. But when I put my faith in Jesus, he does give me the freedom that I didn’t have up until that point – the freedom to choose which master I will serve.
Before becoming a disciple of Jesus, I had no choice. Because I was born with a sin nature, I was automatically a slave of sin, whether I acknowledged that or not. I lived only for self, gratifying my earthly passions. I couldn’t help it because that is who I was.
But the moment I placed my faith in Jesus, he freed me from that slavery and gave me the ability to become His servant. And He also began the process of sanctification in which He is transforming me to become more and more like Him. You’ll notice that Paul mentions the idea of sanctification again here in verse 22, but since we don’t have time to cover that adequately in this message, we’re going to use the “Connections” time to explore the question of how much of the process of sanctification depends on God and how much depends on me.
I also want to point out once again that the verb “have been set free” in verse 22 is a passive verb. That means that I can’t set myself free from slavery to sin. That is something only God can do. And it is something He delights in doing for those who will place their trust in Jesus.
So Jesus delivers 100% on His promise to set me free from my slavery to sin.
2. Permanent acceptance
We saw this idea earlier in our study of Romans, but it certainly bears repeating again here. The very moment that I place my faith in Jesus, I am made to be positionally right before God because the righteousness of Jesus is credited to me. That means that when God looks at my life, He no longer sees my sin, because Jesus has already paid the penalty for that sin on my behalf.
And unlike the fleeting acceptance that we experience from other people, usually based on what we’ve done for them recently, God’s acceptance is permanent because it’s not based on anything I’ve done.
Not only that, as we’ll see a bit later in Paul’s letter, Jesus also takes away the shame that is a natural consequence of our previous slavery to sin:
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
(Romans 10:11 ESV)
Jesus offers the kind of genuine, permanent acceptance that is far beyond anything that this world offers.
3. Eternal life
Unlike sin, which offers the wages of death, God offers eternal life to us as a gift. Obviously a gift is not something that we earn. Wages are an obligation. A gift is an act of grace. God never pays wages because He doesn’t need our work. Instead He freely gives gifts to those who trust in Him.
But what exactly is eternal life? Is it merely a gift that I receive and store away for the future? Is it only a gift that becomes operational after I die here on earth? Or is there something more to it? Let’s let Jesus answer those questions with His own words:
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
(John 17:3 ESV)
We see clearly here that eternal life is not a personal possession. I don’t “own” eternal life. Instead, eternal life is a relationship in which I come to know the one true God and His Son, Jesus. That is the idea that Paul expresses here at the end of Romans 6 with the phrase “in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
So eternal life is not something I have, but rather an experience in which I participate. And that experience begins the very moment that I trust my life to Jesus and submit my will to His. It’s no accident that Paul refers to Jesus as “our Lord” here. Once again Paul confirms the truth that it’s impossible to have Jesus as our Savior unless we’re also willing to make Him our Lord. Just as a quick aside the plural pronoun “our” there also confirms that there is a corporate as well as personal aspect of eternal life.
Eternal life, therefore is not just something I save up for the future. It is a gift that Jesus intends for me to experience and enjoy today.
Jesus delivers what sin could never deliver – eternal life.
What we’ve shared so far obviously has some very practical implications for my life. But I want to draw your attention to a couple concrete ways that we can apply what we’ve learned in order to make sure that we don’t get duped by the promises of sin, promises which sin can never deliver.
APPLICATION
IMPLICATIONS FOR ME
1. Make getting to know Jesus a priority
This ought to be our first reaction to what we’ve learned about eternal life this morning. If, as Jesus said, eternal life is a matter of knowing Him, then the best way to enjoy eternal life right now and prepare to enjoy it for eternity is to make getting to know Him a priority in our lives.
The best way I know how to do that is to make sure that I approach my Bible reading and study with the attitude that I’m doing that for the purpose of getting to know Jesus better. One of the things I’ve found that really helps me approach God’s Word that way is to pray for God to reveal Himself and His Son from the pages of Scripture before I open my Bible.
I know of nothing that will make our Bible reading come alive more than viewing it as an opportunity to get to know Jesus rather than merely an obligation or duty or something to check off my “to-do” list.
Although the Bible is certainly the primary way I get to know Jesus, there are also other spiritual disciplines like prayer and corporate worship that can also contribute to that process as well. And the more that I embrace those practices as a means to get to know Jesus better, the more likely it is that I will be able to continue to serve Him rather than serve sin.
2. Be a “fruit inspector”
In this passage Paul points out that both slavery to sin and slavery to Jesus produce fruit. So one of the practical ways that I can evaluate my life to determine who I am serving is to look at the fruit that is begin produced in my life.
As Loren reminded us in our Monday morning Bible Study, that is where another of Paul’s letters, the one to the churches in Galatia is very helpful:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
(Galatians 5:16-23 ESV)
Periodically I need to evaluate my life against the two lists that Paul presents here and see what kind of fruit I’m producing. If my life is characterized by things like sexual immorality, jealousy, envy and division, then there is a pretty good chance that I’ve let sin become my master again.
However, if my life is characterized by things like love, joy, peace, gentleness and self-control, then chances are that I’m doing a pretty good job of letting Jesus take control of my life.
Sin never delivers what it promises
but Jesus always does
And the good news is that Jesus has made it possible for me to choose whether to live in slavery to sin and experience its endless broken promises or to make Jesus my Lord and serve Him and experience the freedom, joy and fulfillment that only He offers. But each one of us has to make that choice.
[Prayer]
Share with someone else:
• What is a past sin in my life that didn't deliver what it promised? How did I get victory over that sin?
• What would you say to someone who doesn't want to commit his or her life to Jesus because they think it will take away their freedom?
