Romans 6:1-11
Getting on the Same Page as God about being dead to sin
Introduction
A. Back to our Series on Getting on the Same Page as God
B. I thought that we should review what we have studied since it has been about a month
C. We have look at Getting on the Same Page as God about:
a. Who we are in Christ (1:1-7)
b. Putting our Faith in Action (1:8-17)
c. His Wrath (1:18-32)
d. Hypocrisy (2:1-16)
e. True Religion (2:17-3:8)
f. Our Guilt (3:9-20)
g. How Salivation works (3:21-30)
h. Faith (4:1-25)
i. The Benefits of Salvation (5:1-11)
j. Basis of Salvation
D. If you missed any of these, please see me, I will either get you the notes or the tape, or you can go to sermon central, and look under contributor type in my last name and from there you will be able to find them
E. Today we are going to look at being Dead to sin
F. Paul once again was anticipating objections from his reader
G. Knowing what their objection would be he states them and then respond
H. The argument would go something like this:
a. The Objector: You have just said that god’s grace is great enough to find forgiveness for ever sin
b. Paul: Yes I did
c. The Objector: you are in fact, saying that God’s grace is the greatest and most wonderful thing in all of this world
d. Paul: Yes I am
e. The objector: Well if that is so, let us go on sinning, the more we sin the more grace will abound. Sin does not matter for God will forgive anyways. In fact we can go further tan that and say sin is an excellent thing, because sin gives the grace of God a chance to operate. The conclusion of your argument is that sin produces grace; therefore sin is bond to be a good thing if it produces the greatest things in the world.
I. Paul reaction to that – By No means! Paul then begins to explain how this all works
J. Today we are going to look at being dead to sin, specifically
a. The reality of being dead to sin
b. The reason we are dead to sin
c. The results of being dead to sin
I. The Reality of Being Dead to Sin (1-5)
A. Explanation
1. What is the point of Baptism?
2. The word Baptism has two basic meaning. One is a literal meaning, to dip or immerse and the other is a figurative meaning – to be identified with
3. It appears that Paul has both concepts in his mind when he was writing this section
4. We read in Acts 10:34-48 about Cornelius. As soon as he believed He and his whole family were baptized.
5. Symbolically showing an inward change
6. Let’s take a look at the more literal meaning of baptism
7. To explain this one what happens when we are baptized
a) Usually this is done in a body of water
b) Then the person who is getting baptized is lowered into the water, the lowering is symbolic of Christ death
c) Then the person is under the water, to illustrate being buried
d) Then we raise the person out of the water, to tell of the resurrection
B. Application
1. Now lets apply this to our lives
2. Once we accept Christ, we are identified with Christ, we are one with Christ
3. Because we are identified with him we are buried with Him
4. We go through what He went Through
5. Now since we were buried with Him, and since He broke the power of Sin
6. We are no longer slaves to sin
7. We are free from sin, not free to sin, but free from sin
8. Here is where we go wrong. Too many of us live between Good Friday and Sunday, we are stuck in Saturday
9. We realize that Christ died for us, to save us from our sins
10. What we fail to recognize is that Christ freed us from sin
11. The phrase “The Devil Made Me do it” wrong! We are free from sin
12. Sin has no power on us.
C. Illustration
1. Back around the Civil War time, slavery was a hot topic. Finally after many battles, slave owners began to let there slaves go free. I could just imagine the huge joy in their face, just as exited as could be.
2. However, there were many slaves who chose not to go free, they did not know anything else, they were not educated, and so they chose to stay as a slave
3. Here they had the freedom, but they did not exercise it.
4. When we act like slaves to sin, we are doing the same thing
5. Christ broke the power of sin, we are free from sin
6. Exercise your freedom from sin
II. The Reason we are Dead to Sin (6-7)
A. Explanation
1. Here we have one of the most often confused phrases in the Bible
2. “Our Old Self”
3. When a gentile converted to the Jewish religion, he had to cut his hair, his finger nails, basically get a makeover
4. Then he would be baptized, and when he would come out he would be a new person, they would hold up a baby to symbolize that “Re-Birth”
5. That brings us to the phrase “done away with”
6. What is interesting about this phrase is that “done away with” is the same word that is used in 7:2 when Paul says the women whose husband is “released” from the law
7. The best way to define this term is to use the definition of the original Greek word – done away with—literally means to be rendered inactive.
8. It is still there but it does not do anything
B. Illustration
1. When we were wiring up the lights to the sign outside we got lucky. We found the wire that used to power the lights that used to be on the sign.
2. I am not sure when we stopped using the lights on the sign. But here we have this wire that was just sitting there
3. It was not connected to anything, did not have power going to it, it was just there
4. Completely rendered inactive.
5. If you were to touch the wire, you would get no shock, it was totally inactive
C. Application
1. Let’s apply all of this to our lives
2. The reason that we can be dead to sin is the fact that Christ died for us
3. That means the sin that was so prevalent in our lives, is completely inactive
4. It has no power. It is exactly like that wire was
5. However, what we do is the same thing we did with the lights,
6. We took that inactive wire and wired it up, now if you were to touch that wire, you would get shocked, it is not longer inactive
7. WE are free from sin, we sin is no longer active
8. However, often we do what we did with the sign, we wire it up
9. We make the old self active again
10. If you are struggling with this let me suggest some courses of action
a) If you have not seen this victory over sin, it could be because you have not experience salvation, you have heard of salivation, you understand it, but you have not experience it. If this is you I want you to come and talk to me. Do not be afraid, I am sinner too. I make mistakes often
b) If you are still struggling with sin and you know that you have received salvation, we need to talk. You are not exercised your freedom from sin, I would love to talk to you about this. Please feel free to call me, stop by; set up an appointment, this is what I am here for.
11. Because of what Christ did, we have freedom from sin
III. The Results of Being Dead to Sin (8-11)
A. Explanation
1. Since we have this freedom, what does that mean for us?
2. First of all that we must understand where this comes from
3. This freedom that we have been talking about comes from Christ and Christ alone
4. This freedom from sin, being dead to sin, is a result of What Jesus did on that Cross
5. We know that Jesus was raised from the dead
6. Since he was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.
7. He died once and for all.
8. Second for us who identify, aka baptized with Christ, we have the same victory
9. Instead of viewing ourselves as slaves to sin
10. We need to view ourselves as alive in Christ
B. Application
1. Let’s put this in action in our own lives/
2. All of this is more than a mere ethical change in our life.
3. This is about union with Christ, this is about real identification with Christ
4. This is about being “IN CHRIST”
5. The phrase “In Christ” can be confusing let me explain it
6. We cannot live our physical life unless we are in the air and the air is in us
7. If we did not have air we would die
8. The same is true with Christ
9. Unless we are in Christ and Christ is in us, we cannot live the life of God
10. To limit Christianity to an ethical demand, and to leave out this “in Christ” element is to leave Christianity less than half-way
11. Christianity is far more then an ethical demand.
12. The result of this is that we can have real union and real identity
C. Illustration
1. Marriage can be used to illustrate many things; today we are going to use it to illustrate this concept. In Marriage the Bible tells us that the two shall become one. This means that the two of you basically become one. Basically your identity, is the same as your spouses
2. Now we now that this often does not happen due to one reason or another, you then get two people who are married but have not become one
3. In marriage terminology when we see this happen what do we do, we recommend that the parties involved go get help
4. If in your relationship with Christ the two have not become one, go get help.
5. Here is the only bad part about the deal. Most of the time in Marriage it is both partners fault
6. When we are Talking about relationship with Christ, it is our fault. Never Christ fault
7. But if you are here today and you do not have that two become one identity, seek help
Conclusion
A. Here is the thing, notice how this is all Worded
B. This passage never told us to become dead to sin and alive in Christ.
C. Never told us that
D. You looking at me saying isn’t that the whole point of everything we have been talking about?
E. NO!
F. What this passage tells us is that we ARE, not to become, we ARE dead to sin and alive in Christ
G. Our job is not to become dead to sin, our job is to act on the fact that we are dead to sin
H. If you have not been acting dead to sin, your missing it
I. If you are here today and have not been able to apply this victory over the sin, your missing the power
J. Christ defeated sin, sin has no power, if sin is still ruling in your life, it is because you have let it
K. Claim the victory
L. Christ did this for us, we do not have to become dead to sin, we have to apply the victory to our lives
M. If you have not done that, come talk to me, talk to another person here
N. The question is are you on the same page as God about being dead to sin?
O. Pray
