We know that Paul did not write
the scripture dividing it into chapter and into verse and such
like. So there is no break really here
at this chapter division. So in chapter 5 verse 20 and
reading through. Moreover, he said, the law entered
that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall they, or we, that are
dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us,
as were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death? Therefore we are 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
walk in newness of life. For if we have 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,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dies no more, death hath no more dominion
over him, or in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in
that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey in it the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourself
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 ye are not under the law, but under
grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid! Now, this morning, we have our
first on the subject, Grace, No License to Sin. We'll be looking
this morning principally at the fact that in Jesus Christ, we
are what Paul calls dead unto sin. Now, has this been a long
time controversy between various sections of Christendom over
this matter? and particularly between Calvinists
and Armenians concerning the belief and the preaching of free
and unmatched grace of God in the salvation of sinner. It has
been the argument of some that if salvation is by grace and
by grace only, not by deeds of law or good works or our own
effort, then that will lead people to sin in the shadow of the grace
of God. That if works have no partnering
at all in the salvation of our soul, then many, and particularly
Armenians believe, that those who believe in this for salvation
will be led unto sin. They will argue such a view of
salvation that requires nothing of us and free grace is saving
us and saving us all together. then that will lead to licentious
practices and a life of looseness and of sin. That if one loosens
off of people these shackles, then they will practice a life
of sin by saying, oh, I'm under grace. I'm saved by the grace
of God. I'm saved everlastingly. I'm
not under the law. Therefore, they argue that this
will lead unto a life of sin. In that light, before we press
on to our text, I should like to make the point, in order that
we might counterbalance this argument, how many there are
who do not believe in grace alone, They do not believe that grace
and grace alone save. They believe that one must keep
themselves and keep themselves in the faith, that they must
be good and true and faithful even unto the end of their life,
who insist that they must hold out unto the end, in order that
they might be saved. And these people who seem to
run in their very own strength, and I remind you how many of
them have fallen away, how many of them have fallen also into
corruption and have twisted the scripture to their own destruction. But as to our text today and
our subject, Paul raises the same question twice, basically,
in the verses that we read. In verse 1, and again in verse
15. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? In verse 1. And then we have
it in verse 15, shall we sin because we are not under the
law but under the grace of God? And of both of them, Paul vigorously
answers, God forbid. To both, he gives that standard
answer that is his so frequently in his writing and particularly
in Roman. Owing to the relaxed relationship
under the grace of God in Jesus Christ and grace as the triumvir
and the reigner over sin and over death. And so thus we best
ask ourselves the question, Why Paul raises this matter at all? Why does he make this an issue?
Why does he bring it up? Why does he give it such an elongated
answer as we have here in chapter 6 and 7 and part of chapter 8? Well, the answer is Paul is anticipating,
and he was great at that, he was anticipating an objection
that might be raised against The things that he has already
said, particularly in the end of chapter 5, verse 20 and verse
21, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin has reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, under
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That even when the
law entered in alongside of the transgression of Adam, and it
increased that transgression, yet did grace abound all of the
more to overcome the condemnation that came upon us in and by the
sin of Adam. even when the law entered in
along beside. And even though the law is the
strength of sin, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and verse 56, and
even when death reigned from Adam to Moses, and even over
them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,
Romans 5 and verse 14, grace outreigned sin and provided a
saving righteousness and eternal life for some, yea, many. who otherwise would have perished
in their sin, grace reigned by them and to them unto eternal
life. And it could be that Paul hearkens
all the way back to the third chapter of this great epistle
of Romans. He wrote there, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus chapter 3 verse 24 25 along in there Now, Paul's first question in
Romans chapter 6 and verse 1 raises the question, what will be the
effect of free grace in salvation on personal sanctification? What will be the effect of free
grace without works, without duty, without merit, and without
law? in Romans chapter 6 verses 1
through 8 deals with sanctification in relationship to the doctrine
of justification by faith without the deeds or works of the law. Or, as a very good author that
I read, James Frazier, put the question, quote, how shall we
judge this doctrine that justification is holy and merely by grace,
unquote? How shall we judge that salvation
is holy and merely by grace? Will it not be favored by libertines? Will they not snatch it and seize
it as an occasion to sin and to say, oh well, all is well
for I am under the grace of God? Will it not encourage the hypocrite
to be more hypocritical if he thinks he is saved by grace?
Will not false professors take their refuge here in this and
turn the grace of God into lasciviousness as it is declared some do in
Jude and verse 4. And who would quicker latch on
to this teaching than those who believe in in eternal security
or in everlasting salvation, once saved, always saved, seems
this would be the perfect doctrine for them to espouse. Now we will
grant Right now, we will rant up front what John Gill and others
have said, that the doctrine of grace can be, has been, and
will be abused by wicked and evil person and hypocrite. The best things in the word of
God can be corrupted and can be perverted, and they have been. Just as there was a helm in the
ark, and there was a Judas among Christ's apostles, there are
tares among the wheat, there are wolves in sheep's clothing
in Christianity, and there were foolish virgins among the wise
virgin in Matthew chapter 25. However, none of these, or all
of them together, negate the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Truth is not to blame for the
perversion of it. It is not because it is true
that it is perverted. It is because men do not believe
the truth that it is perverted. And it does not lose its character
when some twist it to their own destruction, as Peter said in
2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 16. Now, the question, therefore,
is simple. If grace abounds, if grace out
abounds sin, does it then follow? Let us continue in sin in order
that grace may abound. If grace abounds by sin, and
it does, if grace out-abounds sin, and it does, does it follow
or is it reasonable? Let us sin, then, in order that
grace may abound all the more. God forbid, remember, is Paul's
answer. And I think, we won't go there
now, but there is a like case with this in the third chapter
of the Roman Epistle and verse 1 through 8. We might be there.
in the Second Servant. Now, as noted, Paul twice asked
the question in the verses that we have read today. Shall we
sin because we are not under grace? Shall we sin because we
are not under the law? His two answers are, in verse
2, we are dead to sin, And in verse 14 and 15, sin cannot,
it is impossible that sin lord it over you or make you its slave
because you are not under the law but under grace. Notice it. Sin shall not be your
master, and you shall not be its slave, for you are under
grace and not under the law, and this makes the difference.
Now Paul has already told us, chapter 5, verse 20 and 21, that
grace reigns unto the justification of life, and that it does so
through righteousness. We need to catch that. It reigns
unto eternal life through righteousness. Now he will show how grace reigns
also in their sanctification, that they do not continue to
live in the way of sin. And Paul establishes for us here
the very close connection between justification and sanctification. Both of them are a work of the
grace of God. Justification being more a forensic
or a legal sentence that is passed whereby righteousness is imputed
to them apart from works or law, and that justification is not
so much an internal work, while sanctification is and internal
work of the grace of God carried on by the principle of grace
in those that have died under sin in Jesus Christ. And that
grace is working in the soul and constantly is at work. But there can be no real spiritual
sanctification apart from or prior to justification. One must follow the other. One
must go before, and thus it does. And sanctification, therefore,
does not lead to justification, but justification leads unto
sanctification. And without that, Without that
work of grace in them, they are only what our Lord called whited
supplicars, as he described the Pharisees, painted without, full
of dead men's bones within. But if you look at the second
verse of Romans chapter 6, as to why they will not sin in order
that grace may abound, the answer is this, they have died under
sin. Now looking at that, the tense
seems to be more like this, we died, we died, we died under
sin, we who have died under sin. How can we live any longer therein? Because death, therefore, puts
an end to so many things. How shall we die? How are we to explain or understand
our having died under sin? But Paul will answer his critics
here, and answer them well, and defend his gospel from the charge
of licentiousness by stating a premise that such as are justified
through the Lord Jesus Christ, such as he died for on the cross,
have like him and with him died unto sin, and are at the same
time dead to the law by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ as we
see in Romans 7 and verse 4. So as to the question, shall
we sin that grace may abound? Paul answers, not only, God forbid,
but he also adds, how shall we that are dead to sin live any
longer therein? Now that raises the question,
as it must, how does the apostle wish to be understood? What does he intend by the words,
we died unto sin? What do they mean? How does he
mean us to understand that? Have we reached sinless perfection? Is that what Paul means? We that
are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Have they or we reached sinless
perfection? Or is sin eradicated out of us
completely and gone forever? Have we attained, as Paul expresses
it in one place in Philippians? Now, obviously, as James Fraser
wrote in that book, published in 1774, Paul is bringing an
argument, he said, that has a force against the
false inference that free grace will lead to licentiousness. Therefore, he is not saying that
the Christian ought to or is obliged to be dead under sin,
or is it an incumbent duty that is pressed upon them as if he
says to them, be ye dead unto sin or die unto sin. That the Christians die more
and more to sin as they live along in their life. He does
not say that the Christian is dying to sin, but that they are
dead to sin. and that they are, not that they
are dying by degrees, but that they are dead unto sin in the
Lord Jesus Christ. They have died to sin. How is
it then possible that they live any longer therein. In fact, they have been crucified
with Christ. Paul says of himself in Galatians
chapter 2 and verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. Oh, what a statement. That's
the position of every child of God. I am crucified with Christ. And then he adds, yet I live. Not I, but the grace of God that
liveth in me. He says again, chapter 2 and
verse 19, I through the law am dead to the law that I might
live unto God, the first being necessary unto the second. I through the law am dead to
the law that I might live unto God. Here in Romans chapter 6,
I'd like for us to kind of scan the scripture ahead of us, just
read it and be on our way, but let's look again at at what Paul
has written here. First in chapter 6 and verse
2, dead on the sin is the premise that he is setting forth. Dropping
down to verse 6, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. Now look at verse 7. Boy, here's
one. He that is dead is freed from
sin. We'll come back to that later
on. Then look at verse 11. Likewise reckon ye also yourself
to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Then over in chapter 7 and verse
4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that you should
be married unto another. Chapter 7 and verse 6. But now,
we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were
held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in
oldness of the letter. And then in chapter 8, verse
1, And verse two, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. And look at the second verse
closer than you ever have in your Christian life. For the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that made me free
from the law of sin and death. Now back to chapter 6 and verse
2. incompatibility of being dead
to sin and living any longer therein. He leads with a couple
of very strong reasons why this is effectual to secure their
sanctification, that is, that they not live in sin, that they
not make it a habit and the principle and the rule Their life there
are two things that the Apostle brings up here to confirm the
fact that we're dead in sin and ought to consider they had to
sin and ought to consider ourselves so first of all Number one he
brings up their baptism you'll find that verse 3 verse 4 and
verse 5 and what is symbolized in their baptism and the implication
of their being baptized in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. That's in verse 3 through 5.
Then secondly, he brings up their vital union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that predates their regeneration
and it predates their conversion. And this we have in verses 6
through 11. They are dead to sin Because
they died to it in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ just
as he Died unto sin once Paul writes that right here in our
tech death hath no more end dominion over him. That is over Christ. He is done with it. He has died
for sin. He has given himself to death.
He is alive again and he is done with it and he lives unto God. There is nothing more that the
law can require of him. There is nothing more that the
law can exact from him. Sin cannot demand another death
from Him, and it cannot condemn us because of our union with
Christ. but this death, the sin of the
elect. And their vital union with Christ
has been in their baptism symbolized. It has been implicated in their
baptism in the name and person of Christ. For example, why were
they baptized? Why did these people submit under
baptism? What did it signify when they
were baptized in water? How is it relevant to Paul's
argument here that we will not live in sin because we are dead
unto it. He says in verse 3, Surely you
cannot be ignorant, brethren, of what was signified when you
submitted unto baptism in the name of Christ, that when you
were baptized You were baptized into Christ. You were baptized
into his death, as seen in verse 4 and verse 5 of chapter 6. There is seen in this ordinance
of baptism the death, the burial, and the resurrection. There is
a dying. There is a burying. There is
a raising again to walk in newness of life. and to live unto God
forever free of the condemnation of sin. For there is no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. We read that in chapter 8 and
verse 1. And then look at verse 4 of our
text. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism unto death. Verse 5. This is interesting,
for having been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. We'll come back. to that in a
moment. But coming to verse 6, as we
transition here to the truth of the vital union of the elect
with Christ, that there is a union of sorts, that Christ's death
for sin is the ground of our death to sin. that Christ dying
for sin is our means of dying unto sin. That when he was crucified,
our old man was crucified with him, in verse 6. That we no longer
be the slaves of sin, seeing that the body of sin is destroyed
in the death of Christ. It is destroyed, it is done away
with, toward them. Now, let's drop back again to
verse 5 and get here, if we might, a vital picture of something
that Paul said. And first of all, I give them
to you in the words of the King James Version. planted together. Look at those words there. And
that in the likeness of his death. Planted together. For if we have
been planted together in the likeness of his death. Marshall's interlinear has that
word united instead of together. It has the word united. Also,
I noticed that the NASB translates it as united. So does the New
Geneva Study Bible translates it as united. And the Greek guys,
that is those who understand the Greek, say that the meaning
of the word is grown together. For if we have been planted If
we have grown together, grown along with, when we look at it,
it is from a combination of two words. Number one, the word soon,
meaning union, or with, or together. And I guess the second word would
be phuo, meaning to swell up, swell up with, swell up together. to sprout or to germinate, we
might say the word. Spring up and grow is the way
that the word might be expressed, that we are united, that we are
grown together in the likeness of his death. Shedd called it,
quote, a new figure derived from vegetable life, unquote. You remember what the Lord said
in John chapter 15? I'm the vine, ye are the branches. My, there is that vital union. Me the vine, you the branches. Receiving your life, your strength,
your nurture all through and by the root are the vine. A.T. Robertson here in Romans
chapter 6 calls this quote, an old verbal adjective meaning
to grow together, unquote. For if we have been planted together,
if we are grown together with Christ, Robert Haldane wrote,
when referring to trees, this word signified to plant them
in the same place, in the same bed, in the same spot. Here is that comment from Haldane. Quote, it signifies the closest
union of any kind as being incorporated, growing together, joined with,
united, unquote. We have been united grown together
in Christ by his crucifixion and his resurrection. Let us
take note that Paul is not describing a process, but a fact, a condition,
a state. Union with Christ figured in
baptism, and he draws a conclusion that if grown together in his
death, then in his resurrection as well, to walk in newness of
life, knowing that our old man has been crucified with Christ. We no longer live in sin or be
a slave or be under its dominion. Now, let's consider verse 7 of
Romans chapter 6, for it is, in a way, kind of a summing up
of the matter so far as we have it. Notice, far, that is, since
or because. The one having died to sin is
freed from sin. First, we ought to ask, what
death does Paul mean? What death does Paul want us
to understand? Well, there's spiritual death,
there's physical death, and there is eternal death, or the second
death, as it is called in the book of Revelation. And I think
the answer is, neither of these three are in his mind. but to
that death back in the second verse, dead unto sin, as the
reason why we no longer live under the dominion of sin. Now it's time for us to look
at another word, and that is the word freed that we see here
in verse 7. It is the same word that is in
the New Testament translated some 30 times by the word justified. It is that same word justified
in about 30 other places in the New Testament. The majority of
them are from the Apostle Paul, and most Calvinist commentators
did catch this. And they understand verse 7 to
say this. He that is dead, or literally
the one having died, is freed or justified from sin. For the word is the common word
for justified, to be fully acquitted, to be regarded as just and innocent
and counted as righteous in the sight and in the eyes of God. And this justification is the
result of the death of the believing elect that he has undergone with
and in the Lord Jesus Christ, having in Christ died unto sin. In Christ. We must concede that
even believers, and even the most spiritual of them, are not
freed from the presence of sin in their life, or from sin in
them, nor are we in any sense yet free from sinning. And any who would claim otherwise,
John calls them a liar. We're not free from the warfare
of sin that Paul described of himself in chapter 7, nor are
we free from sinning. And sometimes even a Christian
falls into sin. You have the experience of David,
of Peter, and Paul describing his warfare with sin. But we
are justified from sin and from the condemnation of sin, from
the guilt and from the dominion of it. And we're free from being
its slaves. On them the second death hath
no power. There is no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 and verse 1 again. Now the death Paul intends in
Romans 6 and 7, he that is dead is freed or justified from sin
is made perfectly clear in verse 8. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
that is, since we died to sin in Christ, so that, verse 11,
we may reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God, and so forth. When we contemplate what Paul
sums up under the reign of sin, there are two columns or two
headings that we must fill out. Number one, of course, is the
corrupting, depraving influence of sin that dwells in all, whereby
every single faculty in us is defiled. None escape. Everyone
operates under the influence of sin. The whole nature is corrupt,
according unto the scripture. The whole nature is corrupt.
That's the mind, and the will, the heart, the conscience, the
understanding, the affection, all of them are dead, entrespassed,
and in sin by nature, and until regeneration. Number two, the
guilt and condemnation of sin, the curse of the law, the penal
consequences of Adam's sin visited upon the entire race. The reign of death, chapter 5,
verse 4 Romans, chapter 5, 17 through 20. In Adam all die. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22. Half the people that go to church
every Sunday don't believe that. In Adam all die. Comes then, thank God, the reign
of grace that Paul speaks about, and the only remedy for the two
things that we have just mentioned. Number one, justification, which
is a forensic center passed by God, who is the judge of all
of the earth, founded upon the death of Christ. whereby he imputes
unto them a righteousness, not imputing sin, and declaring them
to be justified in the name and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then the second remedy also
is the breaking of the dominion and the servitude of each one
unto sin in practice. regenerating the objects of the
grace of God, regenerating them, quickening their faculties once
dead in sin. Not only doing that, but giving
them the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in and to be the earnest
of our inheritance and opening the understanding in the heart
and the mind to the Word of God giving them a new heart as the
Old Testament prophet promised and as the Lord spoke about to
Nicodemus in John chapter 3 in Regeneration. Thus, coming down
the homestretch and to recapitulate Paul's first argument, why free
grace apart from law and works will not lead one to be a libertine. It will not cause sin to abound
in them. Paul's answer, this will not
be for we died to sin, having been crucified with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Romans 6 and 8, if we be dead
with Christ, 7 and 4, dead to the law by the body of Christ,
8 and 2, the law of the spirit of life making me free from the
law of sin and of death. So, rather than sin or rather
than grace being the occasion of sin, rather than grace leading
to a life of sin and of sloth, it must be to prevent a life
of sin and a life of sloth. It must reign unto righteousness
by Jesus Christ, as it is grace that teaches us to live godly,
righteously in this present world. Titus chapter 2 verse 11 and
12. Grace teaches us to live godly. Now, I close by saying there
are some Calvinists and most Armenians who do not trust grace
alone to be the believer's rule of life and conduct and would
bind them with some manner of yoke or another. a parcel of
works, the yoke of the law, do's, don'ts, don't touch, don't taste,
don't handle, and all of those things, and even parts of the
ceremonial law have been imposed again upon some who are in Christ. Well, the argument is this. Will
grace lead to more sin? God forbid. How shall they that
are dead to sin live any longer therein?