I want to attempt this morning
to continue to answer that question on that song you just sang. How
can it be? How can a holy God love a wretch
like me? How can it be? Well, I know one
thing, the only way he can, that there must be a perfect righteousness.
worked out and established. The only way you can approach
a holy God, and the only way you're going to find it, the
only place is in Christ. And that righteousness he worked
out at the cross, and God charges it to our account. He doesn't
charge us with our sin. He charges with the righteousness
of Christ. How can it be The title of our
message this morning is going to be, Our Death to Sin in Christ. It's taken from Romans 6, beginning
of verse 6. And I want to begin this morning, as we look at our last study,
we begin the discussion of how believers are dead to sin. The
apostle begins the discussion in Romans 6, 2. where he says,
what shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace
may abound? God forbid, how shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? In answering this objection
concerning our continuing sin that was brought up to Paul earlier,
Paul states the reality of grace. As he says, how shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? We who are in Christ, who are
justified by his blood and righteousness, are dead to sin. Therefore, we
cannot live any longer therein. Paul connects the motivation
to deal with sin the motivation to deal with sin with our justification
before God in Christ. If we're justified from sin by
the death of Christ, we're dead to sin. Well, how are we dead
to sin? We're dead to the power of sin
to condemn us because as Romans 8, 1 says, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. God's elect,
those that are justified based on the blood and righteousness
of Christ, are dead to sin, inasmuch as sin is not imputed to them
under condemnation and death. They are discharged from it.
Sin has been charged to our substitute and our surety, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Sin cannot exert its damning
power over those that are in Christ. Sin is crucified with
Christ. It's abolished and made an end
of by Christ. Now, as we begin this morning
with our first verse that we're going to discuss here, verse
six of Roman, Roman six, where it talks about the old man. says,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, with Christ,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin. Paul has established that the
elect sinners union with Christ objectively, which is outside
of ourself completely, by representation, by imputation, will without fail,
result in our union would cry subjectively. That is by experiencing
the new birth, regeneration and conversion. This is the key to
understanding who our old man is and how the old man is crucified
with Christ, with him. Some interpreters say the old
man is the old sinful nature that remains within us even after
the new birth. Many go on to claim that this
old nature is not dead yet, but is dying and will totally, totally
be dead when we die. This is not what the Holy Spirit's
teaching here, and it's not even true. Every true believer knows
that the old sinful nature is not dying, as if to say that
it's getting weaker and weaker as we get closer to our death.
If anything, we know as true believers, we know that we feel
our inward sinfulness even more as we grow spiritually. Spiritual
growth does not mean that we're getting holier and less sinful
in our persons. It means we mature in the faith
as we see our need of Christ even more. So the old man here,
is not the old sinful nature, even though the remaining sinful
nature is a product of that old man. Look at Colossians 3, beginning
at verse 8. But now ye also put off these,
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filth, and communication out
of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you have put off the old man and its deeds. Also, the
tense of the verb here shows that the old man that we're talking
about is not slowly dying or being crucified or even in the
process of dying. This is the old man. It is an
already accomplished fact of history when we look at the old
man. Literally, it should read our
old man was crucified together The with him is not in the Greek,
but it was added because it means together with or in Christ. This
crucifixion has been completed in the past. The old man here
is our old selves in Adam, according to the covenant of works. Look
at Romans 5, beginning at verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men, to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men, the justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. I want to
make myself clear here, perfectly clear. There was a condemnation
that came about due to Adam's fall. We see this in the verses
that we just got through reading, where it says, therefore, as
by the offense of one, judgment came upon all under condemnation. When we speak of our condemnation
in Adam, we have to speak of it within the context of the
everlasting covenant of grace made before the world began and
our justification in Christ. We have to do that when we speak
of condemnation. We have to think about that everlasting
covenant made between God the Father and God the Son. It's asked then, were the elect,
were God's elect ever condemned? Were God's elect ever charged
with their sin? Yes, but only as they were considered
in their representative insurity to the Lord Jesus Christ. This
sentence of condemnation comes upon all men, all the sons of
Adam, without exception, even upon the elect of God themselves,
though it's not executed upon them, but on their surety, whereby
they are delivered from it, the surety of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So sin was never charged to their persons individually, It is not
as if God condemned them as individuals and then changed his mind at
the cross. The sins of God's elect were
charged to them, but it was charged to them in Christ as they were
in Christ. Christ was always legally responsible
for the sins of his elect. Christ became surety for his
people from everlasting, engaged to pay their debts, bear their
sins, and make satisfaction for them. He was eternally accepted
as such by God the Father, who viewed his elect eternally in
Christ, on the ground of the payment and satisfaction that
Christ made at the cross. The cross is not a testimony
to the changing mind of God, but a testimony to the eternal
mind and will and purpose of God from the beginning. 2 Timothy
1 verse 9, reads, who had saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. We cannot lose sight of the elect
of God being in Adam, but at the same time, we also cannot
lose sight of the elect of God being in Christ, according to
the everlasting covenant of grace. As one old writer said, we fell
in Adam, but we did not fall out of Christ. We did not fall
out of Christ. Christ assured it. Christ who
represented us from the beginning, eternally. As we still look at
condemnation, let's look at John 3 in verse 18. He that believeth
on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not He's condemned
already because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. Also make sure that we understand
that our believing or not believing does not make us condemned or
not condemned. Our believing or not believing
only gives evidence of our being condemned or not condemned. Also
look at John 5 24. It reads, verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. There is a people that hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. To say that our old man is crucified
with him is the same as the apostle Paul is saying in 8.1. where
it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. Once again, the walk here is
what gives evidence of our being in Christ Jesus, where there
is therefore now no condemnation. Christ took care of the whole
sin problem on the cross. He took care of it on the cross
when he died for his sheep, and establish righteousness for them.
And if you are in Christ, if Christ represented you in his
cross death, there is therefore now no condemnation to you. The body spoken of here in this
verse six, it's an organized whole. made up of parts and members,
kind of like this body of believers here at our church. It refers
to the fact that all the sin of all God's elect, the whole
body of it, Adam's sin imputed and our own personal sins, was
destroyed in the view of God's justice by the death of Christ. Look at John 1 verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. And also in 1 John 1, 7. But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses
us from all sin. The last part of Romans 6, verse
6, says that henceforth we should not serve sin. The reason Christ
destroyed the whole body of sin for us is not that we should
continue serving sin in our depravity, in our unbelief. Also, that we
should not remain as slaves or be in bondage to sin. A slave
to sin is an unregenerate, unbelieving sinner who either seeks to establish
his own righteousness before God or just totally disregards
God's and his word is so to live a totally immoral life of unbelief
and unconcern. When God the Holy Spirit liberates
us into new birth, he brings us to conviction of sin, faith
in Christ, repentance of dead works, love to Christ, and obedience
motivated by grace. We do not cease to be sinners,
but we cease to be servants of sin. and become servants of righteousness,
which we'll talk a little bit more about later on in this chapter,
but look now at Romans 6, beginning at verse 17. But God bethanked
that you were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then
made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
When do we become servants of righteousness? Rather, than servants
of sin. It was when we obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Before we
heard the gospel, we were ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish a righteousness of our own. We were servants
of sins at that time. It is only when you believe from
the heart that form of doctrine, the gospel, that you became servants
of righteousness. That gospel that is preached
out to us, revealing to us who God is, who Christ is, how God
saves a sinner, based on the righteousness of Christ, based
on the righteousness that he worked out at the cross, that
righteousness that we must have to stand before this holy God,
that perfect satisfaction that we must have to stand before
this holy God. In verse 7 here of chapter 6,
it says, for he that is dead is freed from sin. This statement
proves the above interpretation of the old man to be right. Far
here means because and introduces an explanation of how believers
have been freed from the old man and sin. He that is dead. Now, we ourselves now, we're
not dead yet. We're still alive. Sin is not
dead within us yet. Even as born-again believers,
sin still plagues everything we do, everything we say, and
everything we do. We are in a continual warfare
with the flesh, which is not dead yet. But we are dead from
sin in Christ. How? How are we dead from sin
in Christ? As stated before, we're dead
to the power of sin to condemn us. Sin cannot condemn us and
to the power of sin to keep us from fleeing to Christ, fleeing
to Christ alone for all of our salvation. Freed from sin means
literally justified from sin. Our justification is an act of
God in eternity. based entirely on the death of
Christ in time at the cross of Calvary. God has always viewed
his elect in Christ, even from the beginning. He viewed his
elect in Christ as he would and did accomplish his great redemptive
work on the cross. All of God's elect, those that
are in Christ, are freed from sin. Not from being a sinner,
nor from the burden of sin, nor from continual warfare we have
with it, We're not even freed from it in our solemn services
and our religious acts as we go through this life, but they're
free from the dominion of it, from serving it, and also from
the guilt of it and from the punishment of it. They are, as
it says here in verse seven, justified from sin and made righteous
before God because of the death of Christ, our Savior. Our next
verse is verse eight. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. If we are dead
in Christ, we believe that we'll live with him. We who died with
Christ, when he died, we died. That's what scripture says, folks.
When he died, we died. We were in him, even from eternity. We were in him at the cross.
We're in him now. as we walk this life, and we
will be throughout eternity. We who died with Christ, the
same Christ who is our representative maturity, we can say he died
for me. We also believe that we shall
also live with him. We shall live eternally in glory,
but we shall also live now spiritually as regenerate people. Paul expresses
the same thought here in 2 Corinthians 5, 14, 15. It reads, for the love of Christ
constrains us, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. Believers are identified
with Christ, not only in his death, but in his resurrected
life, both now and forever. Now, Romans 6, 9, our next verse,
reads, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no
more, death hath no more dominion over him. The knowing here are
being assured that Christ is risen from the dead and that
he can never die again, we are assured that death hath no more
dominion over him. Christ was raised from the dead
as the great victor over death. He conquered death for us, so
that we would not remain dead spiritually and that we would
not die eternally. Death has no mastery over him,
therefore death has no mastery over those who are in him. Romans
6.10, our next verse says, for in that he died, he died in the
sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. In that he
died, Christ actually did die in the cross death. He actually
did shed his blood on the cross. His death was a once for all
death for sin. He died under sin once. Let's
look at some cross references here. First one we'll look at
is Hebrews 7, 27. Who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then
for the sins of his people. For this he did once when he
offered up himself, speaking of Christ. And in Hebrews 9,
12, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. I can remember when early on,
God led me into seeing his gospel. This verse right here really
caught me and stood out. Having, unlike those high priests
that had to continually offer up those sacrifices, which is
pictures and pictures and types of Christ, that sacrifice, the
blood sacrifice that they had to continually, day by day and
every year on that day of atonement, they had to offer that blood
sacrifice, which represented Christ. But Christ didn't have
to continue to do that. He did that one time, that one
time, that one offering, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. He redeemed us, folks, by the shedding of his blood. Now,
also in Hebrews 10, in verse 10, by the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. And lastly, Hebrews 10, 14, for
by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified
and set apart. Do not misunderstand this passage
here. Christ did not sin and he was
not made to be a sinner. He lived a perfect, sinless life
and remained perfectly sinless within himself, even on the cross
of Calvary. He was not a sinner. in himself. In whatever way he died to sin,
we also died to sin. He died to the penalty of sin,
imputed to him, charged to his account. He met the legal demands
of God's justice against our sin, all those that were in him,
all those he represented. He did not die as a sinner, but
he took sin upon himself that he might die for his people.
Christ lived his whole life as God, man, for the glory of God
and the salvation of his people. He is our Redeemer and Savior
and Lord. And he is also our great and
supreme example of what the resurrected life is all about, which is to
glorify God. Now, our last verse here, I'll
spend a little time on, is verse 11. Likewise, likewise, the same
way as we're talking about in verse 10 when it speaks of Christ
and that He died, He died unto sin once. Likewise, reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Even so, as it says here in likewise,
even so, or in the exact same manner that Christ died unto
sin, reckon or count ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin. However, Christ died unto sin,
we who are in him, in him by representation, in him by substitution,
who died with him are also dead unto sin. Christ died unto sin's
penalty and power to condemn. Our sins were imputed to him.
Sin, therefore, cannot be imputed and charged to our account. It
was charged to Christ. God the Father imputed it to
him, and he chose not to charge us with our sins. Look at 2 Corinthians
5, 19 through 21. To wit, that God was in Christ
from the beginning, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's head, be you reconciled to God. For he, for God the Father,
hath made him, Christ, to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. Sin cannot
be charged where justice is satisfied. and Christ satisfied justice
completely for us. No matter what people might tell
you, sin cannot be charged where justice is satisfied. If Christ
paid that debt, paid the penalty for sin and his death on the
cross, his bloodshed, it can't be charged to us. If we were
in him, we're represented by him, it can't be charged to us. It was charged to Christ. He
paid the debt. He paid it in full. We don't
owe that debt. Don't owe it. Again, we are not
yet dead to sin's presence, influence, and content, and contamination,
that contamination within us, but we're dead to sin's power
to condemn us. One day we will be dead to sin
in every way, even within ourselves when we're glorified. This is
a certainty because of God's grace in Christ, but it is not
yet a reality. Our death and the sin here in
verse 11, is a present reality, though. It's in Christ. Because
of this established fact, we are alive unto God through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. We have spiritual life imparted
by the Holy Spirit, who brought us to conviction of sin and faith
in Christ. This new life in Christ must
be the sheer consequent, the fruit and effect of what Christ
accomplished in His cross death. And very blessed we are when
from baptism of the Holy Ghost at regeneration, the soul is
quickened, which was dead in trespasses and sins, and is led
to trace that grace union with Christ from the beginning, whereby
from the Father's gift, before the foundation of the world,
being chosen in Christ, now in that time state of the church,
Christ hath accomplished the salvation of his people, And
God, the Holy Spirit, by the washing of regeneration, brings
the soul from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and
Satan to the living God. Look at Ephesians 1, 4. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Also in Colossians
1, 13 and 14. who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. And again, in Titus three, four
through seven. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us. by the washing, regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace,
we should be heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And in closing, thanks be to
God for bringing us by his Holy Spirit to the gospel of Christ
from the darkness that we're in by nature, going about to
establish the righteousness of our own, worshiping an idol,
not knowing the only true God, the God in how He saves a sinner,
that just God, that just God and a Savior, that He brings
us out of darkness that we're in by nature there, and causing
us to lay hold upon the hope of eternal life, all based on
what Christ accomplished by His shed blood on Calvary's cross. You see, we do believe that Christ
had to come in time and satisfy God's law and justice on behalf
of those he stood as surety from the foundation of the earth.
God promised it from the beginning and the God we worship here cannot
lie. He cannot lie. All those things he promised
will surely come to pass. I pray that God will use this
message for the edification of his people and the saving of
souls. Amen.