Romans 6:15-23
So Far In the plan of salvation I have spoken about:
1.Grace and Faith
2. Repentance
3. Baptism
4. Holiness
Tonight I will be speaking about sanctification another form of the word holy or consecrated.
Two of the beads deal with Holiness, the white one is how God sees us and the green one is us becoming what God has made us or allowed us to be, if we choose to accept this mission.
The writer of Hebrews gives us instruction in chs 5&6 that we need to :
1.grow up in Christ, get off the milk of babies and start eating solid food
2. Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,
Heb 6:2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
Then he gives us a very serious warning:
1. Heb 6:4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
Heb 6:6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.
Heb 6:7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;
Heb 6:8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
So the next step in God’s plan of salvation is sanctification
The Greek word is hagiasmos- any word ending with asmos in Greek describes a process and not a completed state. What will become more apparent for us is that God’s concept of sanctification is not one of perfectionism, but of the continuing work of the new creation which is carried on in the believer through the work of the obedient life and the Holy Spirit.
My Definition of sanctification is: Preparation for perfection. It means the progressive conformation of the believer into the image of Christ.. It is the process in which the believers life is made morally Holy. It is the understanding that once you belong to Christ – you become a slave to obedience.
It is NOT momentary like baptism, but is a life long process that begins when we are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is by joining the Holy Spirit with our Spirit that we begin the mastery over sin.
Many in churches today would like to believe that once they were baptized into Christ their sinful nature has been dealt with once and for all- that Jesus blood on the cross took care of it and they are saved regardless of how they presently live their lives. That sin is no longer our problem but Gods.
They want to believe that God’s primary business is forgiveness.
We see this issue raised in Roman’s 6 don’t we?
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Well, if God forgives us by His grace why not sin all the more that God’s tremendous Grace might be seen by everyone all the more!
Friends sin was not the original plan of God for our lives and thus neither was forgiveness!!
In baptism one is saying I am going to die to sin and therefore my point of view and logic regarding sin are to become those of Christ Jesus!
After baptism our justification- being made “just as if we had never sinned” must become a reality to the new Christian.
Bruce shields writes “ The baptismal experience of the Christian if taken seriously, should make it impossible for the Christian to entertain the notion of willfully sinning.”
In baptism we have been brought or really bought if you will from death to life.
Once the believer receives the Holy Spirit he is anything but powerless. The believer can say “NO” to sinful temptation and “YES” to the will of God.
We still have the free will choice to be slaves to sin but now we have the power to be “slaves to obedience”
Sin is still here crouching at the door waiting to devour us, steal from us what is our inheritance and destroy our witness in the world so the name of Christ can be blasphemed among the lost.
It is no different today then it was for Cain. Remember what God told Cain after God had no regard for his offering?
Gen 4:5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."
Well, friends sin is still here, still crouching at the door and like Cain God is still commanding us to master it!!
Sin in the Christians life is there without excuse, because God promises us that He will never allow us to be tempted with more than we are able to bear and when tempted He always provides a way for us to escape the sinful action.
It may be just keep our mouth shut, maybe close our eyes, maybe walk away from the current conversation or situation that is going on around us- but the escape is there. It is always there.
I believe one of the reason’s that Christianity in America today is not on a more rapid increase is because we allow sin to exist in the church.
Charles Taber wrote in his Oct 1st Christian Standard article entitled American Rice Christians these words:
Today, churches in this consumer society have been disastrously ready to fall into the trap of seeing themselves as marketing a product (the gospel) to satisfy the (unregenerate) needs and desires of “customers”. So they allow themselves to become a three ring circus providing an endless menu of “services” to gratify the fickle customers, many of whom have not a clue about what it might mean to follow Jesus of Nazareth and not much desire to find out.
If we are followers of this Jesus then we must realize, that it is absurd to think about sinning so that GRACE might increase, and that GRACE is the precise reason that sin is not in charge in our lives.
Open your bibles to Romans ch 6 begin with verse 15
Rom 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Rom 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
You see in death- the watery death of baptism we present ourselves as bondservants to Christ Jesus. It is here that we are said to be in Christ.
1. We die and now live "in Christ"
2. We are no longer slaves to sin but rather slaves to an obedient life
3. Notice that all men are either slaves to sin or slaves to obedience-There is no middle of the road where we manage the sin in our lives and are Christians by name only.
4. For Paul , there is no such thing as passive Christianity. Either your life reflects active Christian living or it is an illusion.
5. Notice the focus in this chapter on death- here death of the old self.
6. Also, notice in these first two verses that sin results in death- obedience results in righteousness.
7. It is worth taking note that Paul writes that slaves to sin die- after his discussion about the role of baptism in the believer’s life.
8. So one can conclude that the wages of obedience is righteousness, the wages of sin is death
9. If we attempt to serve sin we will become slaves to it. I don’t care how well we think we have managed it or hidden it; but on the other hand if we are obedient to Christ, the effect will release us from our sins.
10. Only bey replacing one addiction with another can we be free. Replace being a slave to sin, by being a slave to Christ in obedience.
11. Those are the only two roads in life which one are you on?.
I love the way Paul preaches because as he exhorts he encourages look at the next verses:
Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
Rom 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Rom 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
1. Inasmuch as all of us were slaves to sin at one time, satisfying the desires of our sinful nature-we made an obvious change- we are not the person we used to be and we are committed to participating in the gospel of Jesus Christ and walking the talk
2. The more we practice our new nature the more it overtakes the fleshly nature that we have crucified with Christ in baptism, the more our new nature becomes our first nature and the more people see a Spirit filled life in us. The process is called sanctification and it is your preparation for heaven- you are being made Holy, set apart, separate from the world, consecrated by God.
When we live an obedient, sanctified, consecrated, holy life, God is glorified and others want to come to Christ so they can have what you have.
Now I want you to know that this concept of sanctification is not one of perfectionism, but it is a concept of a continuing work of new creation and is our preparation for the perfection that will come at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Rom 6:21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
1.Paul continues with the slavery metaphor because it was very common to readers in the 1st century especially in Rome.
3. What Paul is saying is that slavery to sin means you are free from righteousness-
In other words you ain’t got any.
4. Slavery to obedience is freedom from sin- when you obey the gospel- you join the Holy Spirit in the work of your sanctification.
Phil 1:4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,
Phil 1:5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
Phil 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
5. What benefit did we derive from our past sins? None- only shame.
6. So why would we want to continue to live a sinful lifestyle or even return to sin.
7. If we choose sin we choose death- if we choose obedience we choose life.
8. We have to be stupid to continue to live in sin or go back to our former way of life- especially now since we know what we know.
Again the writers of Hebrews is real serious with us about the consequences of backsliding or falling away;
In Hebrews chapter 10 after we are told that the blood of Jesus Christ- sanctifies us, we must realize that God has made us Holy through His son - and in that realization we must act worthy of the name and the blood spent on us.
We must understand that if we continue in sin- we continue to crucify Christ.
Heb 10:26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,{ Don’t be a volunteer for evil. Do not choose to continue to live a sinful lifestyle.}
Heb 10:27 but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.
Heb 10:28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Heb 10:29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30 For we know Him who said, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY." And again, "THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE."
Heb 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Rom 6:22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul brings the answer to the questions regarding sin to a poetic conclusion in these last 2 verses.
We have died to sin- there is no benefit in sinning- the only outcome is death- we have been set free from death, set free from sin. Why in the world would we want to risk eternal life for a few minutes of sin. When we become slaves to God, slaves to obedience-we reap this benefit called holiness and the result of holiness is eternal life.
If we voluntarily choose to sin we die a fiery death- but the free gift of God is eternal life by being in Christ.
The road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
The words holiness and sanctification are not prominent in much of Protestant theology. We have tended to speak of justification without a commensurate emphasis on sanctification. ... Holiness means that one belongs wholly to God. This is also the meaning of sanctification, being set apart as God’s own possession. When this process begins internally, with the heart, the transformation becomes something that affects the total person.
Not only will our holiness lead to our eternal life, but it will lead others to Christ.
It is a part of God’s plan for our salvation. It is the green bead on your bracelet, the bead I hope we are all practicing.
In conclusion even after baptism which was the situation with these Roman readers, the will of the individual continues to be an important factor in the living out of the gospel. Sin/death seems always to be ready to make another grand entrance into any life; so we as Christians are to make those daily detailed decisions about seeking righteousness, doing God’s will and taking those steps that lead to eternal life.
At the end of this grace period this period of time that can be used as preparation for perfection all of us will receive our wages- be they the gift of God through Christ Jesus or be it eternal death- The gift is there all it requires is obedient living.
You will not be totally perfect, until the perfectly holy one comes for you, but live a life that spends each day in glory and starts each day in glory. Confess and repent of any sin in your life and you can trust in the blood of Christ to cover that sin. If you will do this, you can count on God, the Word and the Holy Spirit to join you in the process of your sanctification.
