Post by arete on Aug 11, 2014 22:57:44 GMT
Introduction:
There is a false teaching in some circles that is usually labeled “antinomianism” which means “against the law.” It is the belief that there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey. Antinomianism takes a biblical teaching to an unbiblical conclusion. The biblical teaching is that Christians are not required to observe the OT Law as a means of salvation. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled the OT Law. The unbiblical conclusion is that there is no moral law God expects Christians to obey. The Apostle Paul deals with the issue of antinomianism in Romans 6 which we will study…
Context:
Paul has spent several chapters now to explaining that man is sinful and his greatest need is to be reconciled to God. God saw this great need and provided salvation in God’s promised messiah. Now that messiah has been revealed as Jesus Christ who paid our sin debt by his death on the cross. Paul moved next to explain how one messiah could pay the debt of so many sinners. Because of Christ the reign of sin was conquered by the reign of grace. No matter how great the sin, the grace of God is greater. Paul moves next to a possible but wrong response to God’s grace…
Body – Romans 6:1-14 – ESV
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Dead to Sin vv. 1-4
Since Paul went to such great lengths to explain that grace is greater than sin – he moves to a possible rationalization of those in his audience. Since grace reigns – maybe we could sin more and then grace will reign more?
Paul answers that as strongly as he knows how. By no means! Or the KJV says God forbid! In the language used – Paul makes it clear that we shouldn’t even permit the birth of that thought
Paul doesn’t just shout a “No” at us; he also wants to explain why we shouldn’t excuse our sin. If we belong to Christ then we are dead to sin. He uses the idea of baptism to clarify this. He is not speaking of water immersion, but the idea of Jewish baptism – where a new convert to Judaism was baptized – washed clean of Gentile uncleanness. Baptism into Christ is the cleansing of all the uncleanness of sin
This identifying with Christ is very real and it requires identifying with his death. In other writings, Paul also shows how water baptism is a sign that we identify with his death and resurrection as we are put under water and raised up again.
Paul also explains that just as Christ was raised in glory – we too are raised in newness of life. We receive eternal life immediately upon saving faith
Illustration:
What Is Sin: Man calls it an accident; God calls it an abomination.
Man calls it a blunder; God calls it blindness.
Man calls it a defect; God calls it a disease.
Man calls it a chance; God calls it a choice.
Man calls it an error; God calls it an enmity.
Man calls it a fascination; God calls it a fatality.
Man calls it an infirmity; God calls it an iniquity.
Man calls it a luxury; God calls it a leprosy.
Man calls it a liberty; God calls it lawlessness.
Man calls it a trifle; God calls it a tragedy.
Man calls it a mistake; God calls it a madness.
Man calls it a weakness; God calls it willfulness.
Application:
Since beginning this letter, Paul has been clear that mankind twists the truth of God. This twisting is seen in how we approach grace as well. This has been called cheap grace.
Illustration:
Dietrich Bonheoffer defined cheap grace this way, "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
Application:
Paul was not talking about unbelievers that think it okay to sin who may not even know how to define sin. He is talking to believers. He is talking to us here. We are too eager to excuse sin in ourselves – even when we demand sinlessness from those around us. We are all too capable of rationalizing our sins so we can commit them. We are too eager to sin because we treat the grace of God as a get out of jail free monopoly card. We know that God is just and merciful and will forgive us when we repent. But we dare not abuse his grace by planning to sin and planning to ask for forgiveness later. True repentance is more than treating God like a Laundromat. True repentance is a process of turning from sin and to God and making amends for any wrong done. Cherish God’s grace & forgiveness, but do not treat it like a common thing
Death to Life vv. 5-11
Paul moves to an “if” that is really a “since.” He is not using if to imply that we might not be saved, but explaining that the reality of our salvation also points to the future reality of our resurrection and life with Christ in heaven
Paul explains how this works out. Our identity in Christ begins with our own crucifixion. Our old self (our fallen nature that was enslaved to sin) has been nailed to the cross. That moves us from being a slave to sin to being a bondslave to Christ. In essence we are freed from the necessity to sin.
Paul does another “if”. The reality of dying to sin is also a guarantee of the reality of life in Christ now and in heaven
For example, Paul points out that we know that death has no dominion over Christ. This is because he died to pay the debt of sin and his payment is enough that it never need be paid again or by us. The life Christ was raised to is lived fully to the glory of God
Because of what Christ did on our behalf, we must consider ourselves dead to sin – knowing that we are not slaves to it as we were when we were lost. The idea of considering as Paul wrote it is to see that the idea adds up and must be acted upon.
What must be acted upon – both being dead to sin, but also alive in Christ
Illustration:
Whatsoever is good in a natural man is depraved by a self-end; self-love rules all his actions. He keeps within himself and makes his chief end himself, and he is a god to himself. God is but his idol. This is true of all natural men in this world; they make themselves their last end, and where the end is depraved, the whole course is corrupted.
Application:
Natural man, apart from God, cannot accomplish righteousness. Natural man is free only to sin. This is because all that he does is in rebellion to the true God and the true God’s revelation of himself. Only by dying to sin can any man be free to accomplish righteousness. Even this righteousness is not powered from within the saved man but is empowered by God. What this means for us is that we cannot expect those who have not been saved by Christ to act as if they have been. This gets confusing though when confronted with people that appear to do good & righteous things. Even such people must be saved by Christ alone. This means that as Christians we are expected to share the good news of Christ with both the nice and not so nice people all around us. But we who believe are not off the hook. A major part of sharing our faith is living it. We must be dead to sin. We must not dabble in unrighteousness. When we do – our repentance must be as public as the offense so that the lost see true Christian life and have no reason to blaspheme God. In a village we know we all live in a fish bowl – but we must always strive for more transparency and not less. Christians who hide their lives (whether by living like hermits or by putting on a face in public) are sinning. Groups of Christians must also remain open and transparent. Such scrutiny is not comfortable – but transparency is necessary.
Dominion of Grace vv. 12-14
Paul now comes to a conclusion based on what he has said so far. We who have been saved by grace through faith are not to permit sin to reign in our bodies – to obey the evil passion of sin.
We are not to bow ourselves before sin – presenting ourselves to sin as our king. We have only one king that we must present ourselves to
We have been purchased by the blood of Christ and moved from spiritual death to eternal life. This should cause a particular response – that being that we present ourselves to our real king who paid our debt with his blood. That we should bow to God alone and be willing instruments of God’s righteous reign
This is our reality when we have been saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Sin is not our dictator. Instead – rather than being ruled by Law alone which cannot save and can only highlight sin – we are under God’s grace. Not that we do not obey God’s commands – but now we have the grace of God to empower us to live those commands and the grace of God to forgive us when we break those commands.
Illustration:
In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception “that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior.” He goes on to say, “It is revival without reformation, without repentance.”
Application:
To fully enjoy the dominion of grace, we must subtract sin, change our behavior, and repent where repentance is due. God’s dominion of grace does not ignore or make little of sin. God’s holiness cannot ignore sin and since it was his Son’s blood that paid sin’s debt – it cannot be made little either. As Christians, we must get real about sin. Each and every person here this morning still commits sin. Each and every person requires grace. If any do not know Christ as savior, that grace is needed to be saved. For we who are saved, grace is needed every bit as much to live right. God’s grace should inspire awe and even fear when we must lay bare our sin and repent. Let us not lose sight of the true evil of sin nor the true wonder that od extends grace.
So What? What do we do with this?
As believers, we dead and eternally alive. We are dead to sin in that we are no longer its slave. Before Christ, we couldn’t do anything that wasn’t sin. In Christ, we have life and grace to live right before God.
Living right before God requires that we live as God commands. The evil teaching that man can live however he wants and treats grace like something God must supply on demand cannot be tolerated.
As mentioned in the beginning, this is often called antinomianism. For those who prefer something a bit more down to earth – let us call it lawlessness. It sounds chaotic and it is.
Lawlessness is unbiblical in that it misapplies the meaning of God’s gracious favor. Lawlessness is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. God expects us to live a life of morality, integrity, and love. Jesus Christ freed us from the burdensome commands of the Old Testament Law, but that is not a license to sin, but rather a covenant of grace. We are to strive to overcome sin and cultivate righteousness, depending on the Holy Spirit to help us. The fact that we are graciously freed from the demands of the Old Testament Law should result in our living our lives in obedience to the law of Christ. 1 John 2:3-6 declares, “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”
So let us be dead to sin and alive in Christ. May the grace of God enable us to obey him in love and to walk in the way of Jesus
Benediction
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- " (1 Corinthians 1:3-6 NRSV)
There is a false teaching in some circles that is usually labeled “antinomianism” which means “against the law.” It is the belief that there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey. Antinomianism takes a biblical teaching to an unbiblical conclusion. The biblical teaching is that Christians are not required to observe the OT Law as a means of salvation. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled the OT Law. The unbiblical conclusion is that there is no moral law God expects Christians to obey. The Apostle Paul deals with the issue of antinomianism in Romans 6 which we will study…
Context:
Paul has spent several chapters now to explaining that man is sinful and his greatest need is to be reconciled to God. God saw this great need and provided salvation in God’s promised messiah. Now that messiah has been revealed as Jesus Christ who paid our sin debt by his death on the cross. Paul moved next to explain how one messiah could pay the debt of so many sinners. Because of Christ the reign of sin was conquered by the reign of grace. No matter how great the sin, the grace of God is greater. Paul moves next to a possible but wrong response to God’s grace…
Body – Romans 6:1-14 – ESV
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Dead to Sin vv. 1-4
Since Paul went to such great lengths to explain that grace is greater than sin – he moves to a possible rationalization of those in his audience. Since grace reigns – maybe we could sin more and then grace will reign more?
Paul answers that as strongly as he knows how. By no means! Or the KJV says God forbid! In the language used – Paul makes it clear that we shouldn’t even permit the birth of that thought
Paul doesn’t just shout a “No” at us; he also wants to explain why we shouldn’t excuse our sin. If we belong to Christ then we are dead to sin. He uses the idea of baptism to clarify this. He is not speaking of water immersion, but the idea of Jewish baptism – where a new convert to Judaism was baptized – washed clean of Gentile uncleanness. Baptism into Christ is the cleansing of all the uncleanness of sin
This identifying with Christ is very real and it requires identifying with his death. In other writings, Paul also shows how water baptism is a sign that we identify with his death and resurrection as we are put under water and raised up again.
Paul also explains that just as Christ was raised in glory – we too are raised in newness of life. We receive eternal life immediately upon saving faith
Illustration:
What Is Sin: Man calls it an accident; God calls it an abomination.
Man calls it a blunder; God calls it blindness.
Man calls it a defect; God calls it a disease.
Man calls it a chance; God calls it a choice.
Man calls it an error; God calls it an enmity.
Man calls it a fascination; God calls it a fatality.
Man calls it an infirmity; God calls it an iniquity.
Man calls it a luxury; God calls it a leprosy.
Man calls it a liberty; God calls it lawlessness.
Man calls it a trifle; God calls it a tragedy.
Man calls it a mistake; God calls it a madness.
Man calls it a weakness; God calls it willfulness.
Application:
Since beginning this letter, Paul has been clear that mankind twists the truth of God. This twisting is seen in how we approach grace as well. This has been called cheap grace.
Illustration:
Dietrich Bonheoffer defined cheap grace this way, "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
Application:
Paul was not talking about unbelievers that think it okay to sin who may not even know how to define sin. He is talking to believers. He is talking to us here. We are too eager to excuse sin in ourselves – even when we demand sinlessness from those around us. We are all too capable of rationalizing our sins so we can commit them. We are too eager to sin because we treat the grace of God as a get out of jail free monopoly card. We know that God is just and merciful and will forgive us when we repent. But we dare not abuse his grace by planning to sin and planning to ask for forgiveness later. True repentance is more than treating God like a Laundromat. True repentance is a process of turning from sin and to God and making amends for any wrong done. Cherish God’s grace & forgiveness, but do not treat it like a common thing
Death to Life vv. 5-11
Paul moves to an “if” that is really a “since.” He is not using if to imply that we might not be saved, but explaining that the reality of our salvation also points to the future reality of our resurrection and life with Christ in heaven
Paul explains how this works out. Our identity in Christ begins with our own crucifixion. Our old self (our fallen nature that was enslaved to sin) has been nailed to the cross. That moves us from being a slave to sin to being a bondslave to Christ. In essence we are freed from the necessity to sin.
Paul does another “if”. The reality of dying to sin is also a guarantee of the reality of life in Christ now and in heaven
For example, Paul points out that we know that death has no dominion over Christ. This is because he died to pay the debt of sin and his payment is enough that it never need be paid again or by us. The life Christ was raised to is lived fully to the glory of God
Because of what Christ did on our behalf, we must consider ourselves dead to sin – knowing that we are not slaves to it as we were when we were lost. The idea of considering as Paul wrote it is to see that the idea adds up and must be acted upon.
What must be acted upon – both being dead to sin, but also alive in Christ
Illustration:
Whatsoever is good in a natural man is depraved by a self-end; self-love rules all his actions. He keeps within himself and makes his chief end himself, and he is a god to himself. God is but his idol. This is true of all natural men in this world; they make themselves their last end, and where the end is depraved, the whole course is corrupted.
Application:
Natural man, apart from God, cannot accomplish righteousness. Natural man is free only to sin. This is because all that he does is in rebellion to the true God and the true God’s revelation of himself. Only by dying to sin can any man be free to accomplish righteousness. Even this righteousness is not powered from within the saved man but is empowered by God. What this means for us is that we cannot expect those who have not been saved by Christ to act as if they have been. This gets confusing though when confronted with people that appear to do good & righteous things. Even such people must be saved by Christ alone. This means that as Christians we are expected to share the good news of Christ with both the nice and not so nice people all around us. But we who believe are not off the hook. A major part of sharing our faith is living it. We must be dead to sin. We must not dabble in unrighteousness. When we do – our repentance must be as public as the offense so that the lost see true Christian life and have no reason to blaspheme God. In a village we know we all live in a fish bowl – but we must always strive for more transparency and not less. Christians who hide their lives (whether by living like hermits or by putting on a face in public) are sinning. Groups of Christians must also remain open and transparent. Such scrutiny is not comfortable – but transparency is necessary.
Dominion of Grace vv. 12-14
Paul now comes to a conclusion based on what he has said so far. We who have been saved by grace through faith are not to permit sin to reign in our bodies – to obey the evil passion of sin.
We are not to bow ourselves before sin – presenting ourselves to sin as our king. We have only one king that we must present ourselves to
We have been purchased by the blood of Christ and moved from spiritual death to eternal life. This should cause a particular response – that being that we present ourselves to our real king who paid our debt with his blood. That we should bow to God alone and be willing instruments of God’s righteous reign
This is our reality when we have been saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Sin is not our dictator. Instead – rather than being ruled by Law alone which cannot save and can only highlight sin – we are under God’s grace. Not that we do not obey God’s commands – but now we have the grace of God to empower us to live those commands and the grace of God to forgive us when we break those commands.
Illustration:
In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception “that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior.” He goes on to say, “It is revival without reformation, without repentance.”
Application:
To fully enjoy the dominion of grace, we must subtract sin, change our behavior, and repent where repentance is due. God’s dominion of grace does not ignore or make little of sin. God’s holiness cannot ignore sin and since it was his Son’s blood that paid sin’s debt – it cannot be made little either. As Christians, we must get real about sin. Each and every person here this morning still commits sin. Each and every person requires grace. If any do not know Christ as savior, that grace is needed to be saved. For we who are saved, grace is needed every bit as much to live right. God’s grace should inspire awe and even fear when we must lay bare our sin and repent. Let us not lose sight of the true evil of sin nor the true wonder that od extends grace.
So What? What do we do with this?
As believers, we dead and eternally alive. We are dead to sin in that we are no longer its slave. Before Christ, we couldn’t do anything that wasn’t sin. In Christ, we have life and grace to live right before God.
Living right before God requires that we live as God commands. The evil teaching that man can live however he wants and treats grace like something God must supply on demand cannot be tolerated.
As mentioned in the beginning, this is often called antinomianism. For those who prefer something a bit more down to earth – let us call it lawlessness. It sounds chaotic and it is.
Lawlessness is unbiblical in that it misapplies the meaning of God’s gracious favor. Lawlessness is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. God expects us to live a life of morality, integrity, and love. Jesus Christ freed us from the burdensome commands of the Old Testament Law, but that is not a license to sin, but rather a covenant of grace. We are to strive to overcome sin and cultivate righteousness, depending on the Holy Spirit to help us. The fact that we are graciously freed from the demands of the Old Testament Law should result in our living our lives in obedience to the law of Christ. 1 John 2:3-6 declares, “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”
So let us be dead to sin and alive in Christ. May the grace of God enable us to obey him in love and to walk in the way of Jesus
Benediction
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- " (1 Corinthians 1:3-6 NRSV)