Alright, Romans chapter 6. Paul said in Romans 5 verse 21,
the last verse there, he said, that as sin hath reigned, it
reigned, it had dominion unto death, even so, And that word
might is shall. Even so shall grace reign. Grace shall have the dominion.
Grace shall rule through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. He said it's a certainty. It's
a certainty. Grace shall reign unto eternal
life. And so next he says in Romans
6.1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? He had said there when the law
entered, the offense abounded, but where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. And so he says, so should we
sin that grace may abound? It's amazing what people hear
and what they come away with when they've heard you preach.
I've heard people say, now you're saying, and it would be something
so foreign to what I just preached, that it's just amazing that they
came up with that. And the Holy Spirit here knew
what men would get out of that, naturally speaking, and so He
answers the question. Since grace much more abounds
over our sin, and since it's a certainty that grace shall
reign through righteousness, by our Lord Jesus Christ, should
we just sin that grace may abound? Now there's two errors here that
Paul is correcting, or rather the Holy Spirit. One, the self-righteous
man, he will say that we're justified by Christ alone, through faith
alone. But when it comes to sanctification,
holiness, Then they say we must go back to the law at Sinai.
Must go back to the moral law and look to our works and we
must get better and better. And we're supposed to use the
law as a gauge of how far we've progressed. And so that's sin. That's lawlessness. That really
is sin to do that. That's sin. And so, Paul says,
what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? And he says, God forbid. And
then there's another error. Young believers sometimes hear
us say, we're not under the law. And they entertain the idea that
we're under no law at all. That we're free to sin. And so
he asked the question, what shall we say then? Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? And look at the next verse. God
forbid. Now here's our title. I just took this whole phrase
as our title. I know it's a long one. But this
is a statement that's very important to understand this chapter. How
shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein. I want you to get what he means
by that. And what he's going to show us
in the chapter is what he means by it. And this is the sum and
substance of it. Before God, before God, before
the law of God, all for whom Christ died and rose again are
dead to sin. And we are alive unto God. and therefore before God, it's
impossible. Before the law, before God, it's
impossible for a believer to live in sin. It's impossible. The law never sees a believer
as a sinner. Never. It's impossible for us
to be charged with sin. And then because Christ reigns
in the believer, He's going to show this as well, because Christ
reigns and grace reigns in the believer, sin shall not have
dominion over us. So it's an impossibility for
a believer in whom Christ abides to live in sin. It's impossible. Now first, be sure to understand
all Christ's people All Christ's people are dead to sin, and we
are alive unto God. Look at verse 3. Know ye not
that so many of us as were baptized, and the word is unto Jesus Christ. Baptism doesn't put you in Christ.
Baptized unto Jesus Christ, and we were baptized unto His death.
Therefore we're buried with Him by baptism unto death, that like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should, the word is shall, walk in newness
of life. He's saying when we were baptized,
when we went under the water, we were confessing and showing
that we were We were crucified with Christ and we died with
Christ and we were buried with Christ. That's what our baptism
pictured. And when we come up out of that
water, we're confessing that we are risen with Christ to newness
of life. He says that's what our baptism
typified. That's what it pictured. Now,
when a Pharisee speaks of newness of life, they always turn from
Christ back to the law Now back to the believer's works. But
that is not Paul's message here. Paul is proving that before God,
because we are dead to sin and because we are risen to newness
of life, it's impossible for a believer
to live in sin before God. And because Christ reigns in
us, it's impossible for sin to have dominion over it. Now notice
it says here in Romans 6 verse 4, it says, Like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also shall walk in newness of life. Is there any remote
possibility that Christ was not going to be raised from the dead?
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory, by the power of
the Father. That's how He was raised. And
he says, even so, that means by the same glory, by the same
power, we also shall walk in newness of life. All who Christ
died for shall walk in newness of life. You go read Ephesians
1, that passage I mentioned earlier at the end, Paul is saying, I
would to God that you knew the power that it took to raise Christ
from the dead. And I preached about five messages
on that because it's not just, it is the sheer power, but it's
more than that. It's the power of justice satisfied. It's the power of sin put away.
It's the power of righteousness brought in. It's the power of
a holy and just God. He said that's the power by which
Christ was raised. And He says, and that's the same
power that raised you from the dead, that gave you life in the
new birth. Same power. Same power. You know, when the high priest
went in to make atonement, it is so important to understand
because the high priest didn't go in with the sinful blood,
I mean, with that lamb who was in tithe, had sin put on it. He didn't go in with that. Because
nothing sinful can enter into the holiest of holies. That lamb
was killed. Sin was dealt with. The scapegoat
took sins away. Then, this is the picture, the
holy high priest offered himself without spot to God. He went
in. The just for the unjust. And
he made intercession in the holiest of holies. And the scripture
says our Lord Jesus Christ has entered in. He entered into the
veil. He entered in by His own flesh
and He entered in before God and He made intercession for
us. And when He went in there with that blood, He not only
had that blood and sprinkled it to deal with our sins and
to make atonement, He also had on His breastplate engraven holiness
to the Lord. Because that priest represented
Christ. He represented Christ who is
our righteousness and Christ who is our sanctification. Christ
is both. Go to Galatians 2.20 and let
me show you this. Everywhere Paul declares this.
And this is what I try to preach to you. I try to show you this
because this is just so. But look here, Paul said in Galatians
2.20, And get how he says this. He
says, I am crucified with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. That's
our justification. That's how we were justified
and made righteous before the law. Nevertheless, I live. Now we're going to deal with
sanctification. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of, by the faithful operation
of, by the faithfulness of Christ, the Son of God who loved me and
gave Himself for me. That's how I live. Christ reigns
in me. And He has the rule over me.
And He did this through putting away my sin and making me righteous.
Do you see how that's worded there? Paul never presented this
to us as if God was just pretending and treating us as if this was
the case. He always affirms this is a certainty. I am. I am. And so we don't look for justification
and sanctification anywhere but Christ. We don't look to the
law for either one. mortification of the deeds of
the flesh, walking in newness of life. It's by Christ's work
for us and in us. Now that's the first thing I
wanted to show you. Now look here, secondly, here's
why we're dead to sin. Our old man is crucified and
destroyed by Christ's death. And we are alive by Christ's
resurrection. Look here in verse 4. At the
end he said, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also shall walk in newness
of life. And he tells us why. Because
if we've been planted together in the likeness of His death,
we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Him. that the body of sin
might be destroyed. It means the body of sin is destroyed. That henceforth we shall not
serve sin. Can a dead man serve sin? Is
that even a possibility? That a dead man can serve sin?
But for the law of God, our old man is dead. So henceforth we
shall not serve sin. Here's why. Because he that is
dead is freed from sin. You know what that means? It
means he that's dead is justified from sin. He's justified. When a man's dead, the wages
of sin is death. And when a man's paid those wages,
he don't owe a thing to the law anymore. It's done. He's justified. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe we shall also live with Him. All who Christ redeemed. We believe they shall all be
brought unto the gospel and shall all be quickened and given life
and shall hear and believe the gospel. And then they'll be raised
in the resurrection because of what Christ did for them. Look
here at verse 9. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise. Reckon. That word is impute. He is saying
because we really did die in Christ, because we really did
arise in Christ, he says, therefore you do what God does. You impute
to yourself that you are... reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Before God, before the law of
God, the old man of sin in all God's elect was destroyed when
Christ died. I'm talking before God, before
the law. Now this does not mean our old
man in our flesh is dead. He's not dead. He's very much
alive. You know that and I know that.
We're talking here before the law of God, he's dead. What Christ was doing had to
do with righteousness. That's what he was doing. And
the law can say nothing else to a man who's died. The law
canít say a thing more to him. So Christ justified us by his
death and the law canít say a thing to his people. Look at verse
6 again. Henceforth we shall not serve sin for he that is
dead is justified from sin. So the law can say nothing else
to us. You may have the worst criminal there is and you want
to see justice served on him and you want to see whatever
the law demands be carried out on him. If that man dies, that's
it. Justice can't say another thing
to him. He's paid the wages. He's dead. And we died in Christ. Now, the only way that could
be so, the only way that could be so is what we saw last time
out of Romans 5, His headship. We really were in Christ. And
we really did what Christ did. And He tells us here, Christ
died unto sin one time. There's only one way death could
have dominion over Christ. Only one way. One way. That's if He was made sin for
His people. This verse says, He died unto sin once. That's the only way death could
have dominion over him. That's it. No other way. Death does not have dominion
over a righteous man, over a man that's innocent. Death only has
dominion over a man that's been made guilty before the law of
God or in the eyes of the law. That's what he came to declare,
the righteousness of God, that God does right. You know, I was
telling you about Doseticism. And here's the subtlety of Satan.
I think this is amazing. Satan will convince a man that
he's doing what he's doing for the glory of Christ. When in
the process, he's denying the very reason Christ came to declare
the righteousness of God. The Dosetic said if he was made
flesh, then he would be made sin. And so for the glory of
Christ, they said He wasn't made flesh, it was just as if He was
made flesh. And it was just as if He was
made under the law, just as if He was made sin, and so it's
just as if we're made righteous. That is widely known by history
as a heresy called doceticism. That word from which doceticism
comes means to seem. It means seemingly. It was all
a supposition. If you read the Greek dictionary
definition of imputation, it says it only imputes what is
fact. It does not impute supposition. The illustration is if I impute
$25 to my wallet, I must have $25 in my wallet or else it's
false imputation. And that's what Paul is declaring
to us here. When Christ died unto sin, all
His people really did die unto sin. When death had dominion
over Christ, death had dominion over all His people at that point. And so now Christ dies no more. Death does not have dominion
over Him. He's justified His people. God
justified Him when He raised Him from the dead. Christ said
that. Now Christ lives under God. And we believe, because
we were in Christ and did everything Christ did, we believe, verse
8 says, that we shall also live with Him. Since Christ justified
us, since we arose in Him, each one that He redeems shall be
resurrected to newness of life in the new birth and in the resurrection. Each one. There's not a possibility
that this will not be because Christ finished the work. And
since every child born of God was in Him and did what Christ
did, therefore, Now hear what I'm saying. Because we were in
Christ and because we did what He did, because the Scripture
says, by one man's obedience, many were made righteous. And so because He made us righteous,
God imputes us to be what Christ really made us to be. He imputes
us to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God. And that's true imputation. That's true imputation. It's
used this way over and over in Scripture. Paul said, account
that we're the stewards of God, handling the mysteries of God.
That word is the same word as reckon right here. Impute. What's
Paul saying? He's saying, if you'll impute
me to be a preacher, I'll be one. No. He's saying, impute
me to be what God's made me to be. That's what he's saying. When Peter said, account that
the long-suffering of God is salvation, he's not saying if
you'll impute the long-suffering of God to terminate salvation,
then it will or God will make it as if it does. He said, no,
account it to be salvation because that's what it is. It's fact. So believer, this is God's gracious
command especially to you. You reject this and I am going
to tell you what you are rejecting. The greatest peace and assurance
a believer has right here. Listen, verse 11. Likewise, because
God imputes this way, He is saying likewise, impute ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. This is how we're turned from
going back to the law and from a life of immorality. This is how we're turned from
it. Remember in Colossians 3, Paul had been dealing with the
fact that there was people teaching him, now you have to go back
to the law and you have to observe the Sabbaths and you have to
do all this. And Paul said, you're acting as though you live in
this life. You're acting as though your
life is in these elementary things of keeping the law and keeping
these deeds and all that. And He said, you're acting as
if that's your life. And what did He say next? What
was it that He said to turn them from that, to mortify the deeds
of the flesh? He said in Colossians 3, 2, Set
your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. Touch
not, taste not, handle not. Don't set your affection on that. For ye are dead and your life
is hid. with Christ in God. And when
Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear
with Him in glory. Now be sure to understand, we are dead and we are risen
with Christ. Preacher, why do you keep preaching
on this? Martin Luther made a statement,
I don't know the exact quote, but he said, wherever men of
this world are attacking, wherever the devil is attacking, at whatever
point of doctrine, if I'm not willing to stand up for that
point of doctrine, I deny the whole Gospel. Just imagine if
Martin Luther would not have stood up for the heresy of the
Catholic Church. What would have happened? What
if he would have just said, why bother preaching on these things?
What does it really matter? I'm just going to rest here and
not worry about it. That had never been a Reformation. I'm telling you, brethren, there
were some preachers in the Reformation that got this right and preached
this right. And there were some that got
it wrong. But what says the Scriptures? That's what we have to look at.
What do the Scriptures say? And when it's clear as a bell
in the Scriptures, you've got to lay down whatever it is that
you're holding on to that's false, that's not according to the Scripture,
and bow to what God said. It's not a matter of reason,
it's not a matter of being able to reason things out, it's a
matter of faith. So believers now, get this too,
believers are not dead to sin's influence. We're not dead to
the presence of sin. We're not dead to the effects
of sin in our old man of flesh. But before the law of God, we
are dead to the guilt and condemnation of sin. And therefore, before
God, before the law, it's impossible for us to live in sin. It's an
impossibility. You can't even commit sin. Plus,
with Christ abiding in us, it's impossible for sin to reign over
us to have dominion over us. That's an impossibility. Look
at Romans 8 verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit, for those born of God. There is no condemnation. Why? Because the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. Look at Romans 8.33. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who's he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, brethren, that's risen again,
who's even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us. Now lastly, I want you to see
this in Romans 6. Back to Romans 6. This love of
Christ for His people. Manifest in this work of justification,
this work of sanctification, this love of Christ for His people
is our constraint to walk in newness of life. This is our
constraint, our only constraint. It's not law, it's love. Watch Romans 6.12. Here is the
conclusion. Let not sin, therefore, reign
in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof.
Neither yield ye 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, for sin shall not have dominion over
you. For you are not under the law,
but under grace. Just like believers do not look
to the law for justification, we don't look to the law for
sanctification. We depend on Christ for both. Sin is in our
mortal fleshly body. It's in our old man of sin. Sometimes
it brings us into captivity, as Paul said in Romans 7. So
it doesn't mean that we can keep the law now that we're born again.
That's not what he's talking about. The obedience he's talking
about is, this is my Son, hear ye Him. This is the work of God
that you should believe on Him whom He sent. That's the obedience
he's talking about. The obedience of faith and the
obedience of love. It means because Christ reigns
in us, sin shall not reign over us anymore. When Christ moves
in and Christ takes dominion of a man's heart, sin is not
going to be able to dominate him anymore. Christ does now. He says, ìLet not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body.î ìLet it not reign in your mortal body.î
And He ends up saying, ìFor youíre not under law, but under grace.î
And I love John Gillís comments on this. I think theyíre the
best. And I guarantee you this is why all Reformed folks hate
John Gill. But this is right on right here. He said, ìThis
is not a precept.î This is not an exhortation, it's not an admonition,
though some read it as such. And he's talking about when he
said, let not sin have dominion over you. He said that's not
a precept, an exhortation or an admonition. Nor does it express
merely what ought not to be, but what cannot and shall not
be. It's an absolute promise that
sin shall not have the dominion over believers. Now listen, this
is still Gil. It respects not acts of sin,
but the principle of sin. It means not its damning power,
though that is took away. That's what we saw in the first
part. What it's dealing with is its tyrannical governing power. Sin shall not lord over you. And that's how it could be translated.
He says, for in regeneration sin is dethroned. Christ enters
as Lord and He continues to be so. Saints are in another kingdom,
the kingdom of Christ and grace. And could sin reign again over
them, they might be lost and perish, which they never can.
Now this is a noble argument why saints should use their members
as weapons of righteousness for God and against sin, since they
are sure of being conquerors and are secure from the tyrannical
government of sin over them. That's good. What he said is
good. And that's so. That's what he's
telling us here. Remember the law of the bondservant we saw
last week? That bondservant, he got time
that he could go out free. But that master had loaded him
down with every provision he had. He'd been good to him the
whole time he served. He loved him like a son. And
when it got time to go, the servant said, I love my master. This
is not like servitude at all. This is like being a son. Why
do I want to leave? I want to serve Him forever.
Brethren, that's what he means here when he says you're not
under law, you're under grace. That's what grace makes you want
to do. You just want to serve Him because you love Him and
He's so good to you. That's what he means. Look at
verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not
under the law but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that
to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are to
whom ye obey? Whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked, you were
the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart, that form of doctrine was delivered to you, being then
made free from sin. You became the servants of righteousness. He is not telling us something
here that we need to do to become the servants of righteousness.
He is telling us what Christ has done so that we are the servants
of righteousness. Back in verse 7 when He said,
He that is dead is freed from sin, that word freed means justified. But here in verse 18, when he
says being then made free from sin, it means to be set at liberty
from the old slave master of sin. We've been set at liberty. If the Son will make you free,
you're free indeed. He's freed us from the law. We're
justified. We're righteous before the law.
And He's freed us from sin's dominion over us because He reigns
in us. And so Paul gives this simple
illustration of a master and a slave. Look at this, verse
19. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity
of your flesh. For as you have yielded your
members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity,
even so now, yield your members servants to righteousness unto
holiness. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free
from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those
things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. We never by our flesh brought forth anything but death.
That's all we'll ever bring forth in our flesh is death. But now,
being made free from sin, being set at liberty, having Christ
reign in you and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto
holiness and the end everlasting life. He's saying that's guaranteed. You're going to do whatever God
foreordained you to do. Whatever good work, you're going
to do it. And you're already a servant. And you're going to
have your fruit. You have it. You have your fruit
unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Because the wages of sin
is death. You'll earn that if you go that
route. But the gift, the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the sum of it. This is
what we've been seeing in 1 John. The professing believer who can
submit to sin and live in sin and apostatize from the gospel
merely proves that they were never born of God, never knew
Christ, though they profess to. That one who though he be sinful,
though he sees himself a wretch, yet he cannot do anything else
but believe Christ and love his brethren, and he cannot apostatize. He proves that's the work of
Christ for him and in him. So he gets all the glory. That's
why men say if we depart from the Gospel, it's all our fault.
That's just our flesh. We came in under our flesh, we
go out under our flesh. But if we believe on Christ and
continue in Him, He gets all the glory because He did it.
Now I want to end with this other. Now that was one application.
Let's go to Galatians 5 and I want to end with another. I'm just
going to read it. Paul says the same thing here.
Galatians 5.16. This was his answer. They were going back to the law
and this was his answer. Because they were going back
to the law, they were biting one another, devouring one another,
accusing one another and excusing themselves and all that. Here
was Paul's answer to all that. Galatians 5.16, This I say then,
walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary the one
to the other, so that you cannot do, and this is what he's talking
about right here, because the Spirit goes against the flesh,
you cannot do the sinful things that you otherwise would. That's
what he's talking about in this context. But if you be led of
the Spirit, you're not even under the law anyway. Now the works
of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness. He gives all of those, envy,
murder, drunkenness, revelings and such like. And those that
do those things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But look
at verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the
Spirit, that means the Holy Spirit alone brings this forth. You and I don't bring this forth.
He brings this forth in us. Here it is. Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
That's what Paul is saying when he says you have your fruit unto
holiness and the everlasting life. Because the Spirit has
done it in you and you have this. Every believer has love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and
temperance. Every one of them. And against
such, There is no law. You don't need a law for these
things. Think you're going to need a law in heaven? Of course
not. There's nothing for the law to
be against. The law wasn't made for a righteous
man. It was made for outlaws. Look at this. Verse 24, And they
that are Christ's hath crucified the flesh with the affections
and the lusts. You've already been crucified. Your old man's
already destroyed. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another and envying one another. Well,
let's do this. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
That's the law of love and the law of faith. Because if a man
thinks himself to be something when he's nothing, he deceives
himself. So that's what the Spirit makes
His people do. He makes you bear with one another
and you try to restore a fallen, erring brother back to Christ.
And sometimes it comes to a point where Paul said in Titus, after
the second or third admonition, You have to just leave them alone.
They're not going to turn from it. But, if the gods, if the
His, He says to us right here, it's an impossibility for them
to live in sin. The sin of going back to the
law or the sin of immorality. It's impossible for them to live
in it. Either way, they can't do it.
They cannot do it. Let's stand together and we'll
be dismissed. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We thank You that You show us things clearly in Your Word
and make them effectual in our hearts and make us bow. How thankful
we are for this fruit of the Spirit that You create in Your
people. How thankful we are that You
reign in Your people, that You've justified us. so that we really
are holy and without blame in You by what You've done for us
and in us. How thankful, how thankful, how
thankful. Lord, forgive us our sin. Forgive
us when we become self-righteous and try to bring ourselves back
under law. And forgive us, Lord, when we
cease believing You and walking in love begin to do things that
are just flat out against you and dishonorable to you. Forgive
us those sins, Lord. Keep us in Christ. We ask it
in His great, holy, perfect name. Amen.