Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. Now,
today I'm going to continue preaching through the book of Romans, chapter
6. And the title of the message
today is Living Unto God. Living Unto God. Now, you know
a lot of people claim that they are living for the Lord, living
for His glory, living unto the Lord, or at least they desire
to do so. Well, what does that really mean?
What does it involve? Well, the Apostle Paul has been
showing here how that salvation, everything about salvation, all
of the blessings of salvation, salvation itself, all the blessings
of salvation, all the benefits of salvation, the power of salvation,
everything about salvation is based upon a person's legal,
living, vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
the foundation of everything in salvation, even living unto
the Lord, or living unto God. He brought that out in the first
few verses of Romans chapter 6, when he talked about being
baptized into Jesus Christ. And I dealt with that in the
last, or a few programs ago. And that's talking about how
believers, true believers, true children of God, sinners saved
by grace, have a living union with Jesus Christ. And that living
union, we can talk about it in several aspects from the scripture. For example, Christ is the representative,
the substitute, the surety of his people. He was set up to
be so, the scripture teaches, before the foundation of the
world. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy chapter one, and
he described salvation as that which was given to us, that is
to God's elect, God's people, given to us, believers, in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world. Now, how is that possible? Well, it's because of that representative
union with Christ. Christ was set up in the everlasting
covenant of grace to be the representative of his people. just as Adam represented
the whole human race in the fall, as Paul wrote in Romans 5.12,
that in Adam we all sinned, and when Adam fell, he brought death
into the world. Death passed to all men for all
sin. Well, Jesus Christ represents
the whole election of grace. That's what the scripture says. concerning or describing the
people of God. They're called the election of
grace. That's not just to the Jews.
For example, and we know that's so because all Jews are not saved.
Some are. Those who come to faith in Christ
and the same with the Gentiles. Peter called the Gentiles elect
of God. So Christ was set up to be the
representative. He was set up to be the surety
of His people. Now, what does that mean? Well,
that means that Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second
person of the Trinity, God in human flesh, that's who He is,
Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus Christ took upon Himself,
as God the Father appointed Him and gave it to Him, He took upon
Himself the responsibility of the sins of all His people. God's elect, the Church. They're
called His sheep, sometimes in Scripture. His brethren, that's
another term for them. In other words, Christ became
surety for my debt. Now, in the Bible, sin is sometimes
called a debt. The wages of sin is death. As a sinner, when I sin, you
can look at it as running up a debt to God's law and justice. Well, before the foundation of
the world, Christ was made surety. to pay the sin debt of his people. Their sins were imputed to him,
charged to him, laid to his account. That's what it means. He's our
surety. You know, in human terms, in human relationships, if a
person becomes surety for another, What they say, and they sign
a document like on a house payment or a car payment or something,
some debt like that, a human who becomes surety says something
like this, they say, I'll pay it if he can't. But that's not
the suretyship of Christ. There has never been a time in
the history of humanity, fallen sinful humanity, that it could
ever be said that we could pay the debt and Christ is only our
surety if we can't pay it. No, we cannot pay our debt. Listen,
that's why the wages of sin is death. We've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We cannot pay the debt. The debt,
the payment of the debt is perfect satisfaction to God's law and
justice. And we can't render that. There's
none righteous, no not one. Righteousness is the payment
of the debt, you could say. But we don't have righteousness.
And I've spoken on this program several times about the doctrine
of sin in the scripture, the doctrine of total depravity that
says we don't have righteousness, we cannot work righteousness
by our efforts to obey, and what's worse, we don't want righteousness
God's way. Because we're all too proud,
we're all too sinful, unbelievers. And that's our problem. But Christ
was set up, and this is part of that union now that I'm talking
about, that's the foundation of all of salvation, even living
unto God. Christ is the surety of his people. And then there's a substitutionary
union. Christ, in order to pay that
debt, had to become incarnate. That means he had to be conceived
in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit. He had to be
born of the Virgin. He had to be every bit man, human,
without sin. So he is God in human flesh,
and as God-man, he substituted himself in the place of his people
to go to the cross of Calvary in obedience unto God to pay
the debt. So that when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I arose. Now Paul writes here in Romans
chapter six that he did that in order that his people might
be resurrected with him and henceforth not serve sin. In other words,
this salvation is totally by grace. It is not conditioned
on sinners. Now most people today, when they
hear what they call gospel, it is a cleverly disguised system
of works because, and Satan is subtle in this, you need to understand
this, it in some way sets salvation conditioned upon the sinner in
some way, to some degree, at some stage. And my friend, let
me tell you something, that is totally, totally opposite. totally against the gospel of
God's grace. The gospel teaches that salvation
was and always will be conditioned on Christ and Christ as the substitute
and surety of his people fulfilled all the conditions. Even faith
is not the condition that we must meet in order to attain
or maintain salvation. Faith is the fruit of Christ,
Jesus Christ, having met those conditions. And that's what this
scripture teaches. Now, in verse 7 of Romans 6,
he makes this statement. He says, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now, that dead means dead to
sin. And we're going to see what that
means. What is it to be dead to sin?
Well, it means to be justified from sin. That word freed in
Romans 6 and verse 7 literally means justified. Now, what does
that mean? Well, that means I'm not guilty.
Now, I explained this last time, but let me go over it again because
I want you to think about this. The issue of guilt, all right,
When a person says, well, I'm guilty, he can mean this. He
can mean, well, I'm just the one who committed the crime.
And that's true. But what this means, this free,
this justified, being not guilty in God's sight, even though I
am the one who committed the crime, I'm a sinner, it means
I cannot be condemned. In other words, the legal pronouncement
of guilt from the judge of all pronounces me not guilty even
though I did commit the crime. Now, is God pretending there?
Is God just looking over sin? No, absolutely not. You see, Christ as the surety
and substitute He died in my place, he paid the debt, the
guilt, the condemnation was laid upon him. He became legally accountable,
responsible for my sin. And even though I'm the one who
actually committed the sin, he took my place and died for my
sin so that the debt is paid. And I'm not guilty. Now, if you
doubt that, listen to the scriptures. Over in the book of Romans, chapter
eight, it's very plainly stated here. And he says in verse 31,
now listen to this. He says, what shall we say then
to these things? And the sorts of things that
I'm teaching you from the book of Romans. And he says, if God
be for us, who can be against us? Now God is for his people
in Christ. And don't ever let anybody fool
you on that. God is not for anybody outside
of Christ. And he says, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? I dealt with that
last week. But verse 33 says this, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. David
of old, in Psalm 32, he made this statement. He said, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Listen to this
over in Romans chapter 4 when the Apostle Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit interpreted Psalm 32 He made this statement
in verse 6 even as David also described the blessedness of
the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without words saying
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
or charge sin and So in other words, a believer, a child of
God who is in union with Christ, cannot be charged with his sin.
Why? Because those sins were charged
to Christ. That's what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians
5.21 when he said he was made to be sinned. God made Christ,
the Son, to be sinned. In what sense? in the sense that
Christ was charged with the guilt, the debt of the sins of his people. Now, that's salvation by grace. So to be justified is to be not
guilty. But to be justified is also to
be declared, pronounced righteous in God's sight. Not only am I
not guilty, but I'm righteous in God's sight. Now, I have no
righteousness within me. And there's nothing that I do
that can be equal to the righteousness of the law. Perfection? My best efforts to obey God,
I want to obey God. But my best efforts fall short
of perfection. So where am I going to find perfection?
Where can you find perfection? There's only one person. in whom
we who are sinners can find perfection, righteousness, holiness. Christ
is my righteousness. So as God imputed my sins to
Christ, he also imputed Christ's righteousness to me. Now that's
not God pretending or make-believe or anything like that. It's real.
That's what substitution, that's what satisfaction, that's what
suretyship, That's what the cross is all about. That's what grace
is all about. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, many people, when
they hear things like what I'm saying, they'll say, well then,
that just gives you, you're saying we can do anything we want to
do. We can go out and sin all we want to. We can throw caution
to the wind. We don't have to fight sin. We're
just saved by grace. It has nothing to do with how
we live. That is a lie. And you know why
people attack the gospel that I'm preaching that way? It's
because they don't know grace. You see, grace is not just a
doctrine. Grace is not just some truth
that stands out fair. But because of our union with
Christ in eternity, because of my union with Christ on the cross,
there is also a living, vital union with Christ by the power
of the Holy Spirit when He brings me to the new birth, when He
births me again, literally. And that's what Paul's teaching
here. Now listen to what he says. Verse seven, for he that is dead,
that is dead to sin, is freed from sin. Now what is it to be
dead to sin? Well, I'm not dead to the contamination
of sin. I'm not dead to the power of
sin to influence me, to keep me from being perfect in all
my thoughts and imaginations and goals and actions. But I'm
free from sin in Christ. I'm dead to sin's condemnation. I cannot be condemned. Romans
8, 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but walk after
the Spirit. And again, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? I'm righteous in Christ. But
listen to what he says in verse 8. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
there's that vital union that is the foundation of all of salvation. You see, my works, my efforts
to obey God are not the foundation or the ground or the cause of
salvation. What is? I'm dead with Christ. It's His substitutionary work. It's His righteousness imputed,
charged to me, that is the foundation of salvation. So if I'm dead
with Christ, we believe that we shall also, what? Live with
Him. Now that living, that's talking
about spiritual, eternal life. that is applied by the Holy Spirit
in the new birth when He brings a sinner, when He imparts spiritual
life to the dead sinner. We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. And the Holy Spirit brings us
under the preaching of the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
to salvation to everyone that what? Believeth. Believe what? Believe the gospel. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. What is the righteousness of
God? It's Christ and His work. of obedience on the cross that's
imputed to his people. So those for whom Christ died
will live with him. They're not going to stay dead.
Christ did not die for any who end up condemned and damned forever. If we be dead with Christ, if
he died for me, if he was buried for me, if he arose again for
me, then I'm going to live with him. And he says in verse nine,
knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more,
death hath no more dominion over him. When Christ died, his death
was a victory. And he didn't stay dead. His
death was the total putting away of all the sins of his people.
He paid the debt. Your death can't pay the debt.
My death can't pay the debt. But His did. Why? Because of
who He is. You see, salvation is in a person.
The Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. And His death was
a victory over sin. And how do you know it? Oh death,
where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. In other words, the reason people
die is because of sin. And the power of sin to condemn
is because the law of God requires perfection. And so where sin
is charged, there's death. But what if sin's not charged?
It was charged to Christ. He died. It's not charged to
me, I'll live. Now, his death was a victory. So not only did he put away sin,
he established righteousness. Sin demands death, righteousness
demands life. You see that? So he dies no more. Christ died once. By what offering
he hath perfected them that are sanctified forever. and he cannot
die again, and death has no more dominion over him. Verse 10 says,
for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he
liveth, he liveth unto God. Christ lives unto the Father. The Son of God incarnate arose
from the dead and went unto his Father. Now look at verse 11. Now here's the key to what I'm
saying. Somebody says, well, if that's
true, I don't have to live, I don't have to try to live an obedient
life. I don't have to do it. Listen,
look at verse 11. He says, likewise, or in the
same way, reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now in the exact same way that
Christ died to sin, you reckon or account you also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. Now who's he talking to here?
He's talking to believers. Those who have been born again
by the Spirit. Those who have been brought to
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of sin, of dead
works, of idolatry. Those who have been given a new
heart, a new spirit, new life. They have a new knowledge. They
know things they didn't know before. They know their sinfulness
in the light of God's holiness. God is holy and I'm a sinner. Like that old publican, God be
merciful to me the sinner. Be propitious. Satisfaction. I need grace, I need mercy. I'm
not looking for God to give me what I deserve. Because I know
I deserve nothing but condemnation. I'm not looking for God to give
me what I've earned. The wages of sin is death. I
need grace and mercy. And that's only to be found in
Christ. They have a new motive. Their motive now is not legal
fear of punishment or mercenary promises of earned rewards. No, their motive now is love,
grace, gratitude to God. They have a new goal. Their goal
is the glory of God in Christ. Just like John the Baptist said
it, Christ must increase, I must decrease. Whatever you see me
do by way of obedience, I don't want it to glorify me or draw
attention to me. I want it to glorify Christ.
I want you to know that it's not from me. I'm not the source
of it. It's Christ in me, the hope of
glory. So he says, likewise, reckon
yourselves, and he says in verse 12, let not sin therefore reign
or rule or dominate in your mortal body that you should obey it
in the lust thereof. Now, sin is there. That is, even
a believer still has sinful thoughts, evil desires, motives, but don't
let them dominate. That's what he's saying. By the
power of God, fight them. Don't throw caution to the wind.
You see this? This is the word of God. Yes,
salvation's by grace. Salvation's conditioned on Christ,
not on me. Salvation is by the work of God
in Christ, not by my works, not at any stage, to any degree,
in any way. So what am I to do as a believer?
Am I to say, well, therefore, I won't even try? No. He says,
when God the Holy Spirit gives life within a dead sinner, brings
that sinner to life, he gives him a new heart to desire things
that he didn't desire before, to honor God as motivated by
grace, to walk in newness of life, to walk after the Spirit
and not the flesh. And there's a warfare within.
Every true believer has a warfare within. Those who claim to believe
salvation by the grace of God, but who throw caution to the
wind and have no warfare, no struggle, and have no continual
repentance and godly sorrow over sin, not striving to honor God,
they don't know grace. They're just sham professions,
sham religionists. Don't obey it, he says in verse
13, neither yield you your members, that's your physical members,
your hands, your eyes, your ears, all your body, neither yield
you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. Now what he's saying is here,
don't give way to sinful desires, sinful motives, sinful goals,
but give way to God. And he says, yield yourselves
unto God, not in order to attain or earn or gain eternal life,
but do it as those that are alive from the dead. You've been made
alive if you're a believer. Those who are sinners saved by
the grace of God are alive unto God. And so he says in verse
14, for sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not under
the law, but under grace. In other words, that verse there
establishes the motive. In other words, sin will not
rule over a child of God in this sense. Now listen, that doesn't
mean we're not sinners, that doesn't mean that we can stop
sinning as some say, but sin will not rule over us in the
fact that it cannot condemn us. We're not under law, we're under
grace. Under law means to be under a
curse. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Galatians 3.10. But to be under grace is to be
in Christ. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. To be under law is to be sinful
without righteousness. To be under grace is to be righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no way that a sinner
saved by the grace of God can be condemned under the law. Why? Because Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. I
hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.