My text this morning is going
to be Romans Chapter 6. We're going to continue in a
series of lessons that I started here several weeks ago. Romans
6 verses 1 through 7. The title is Justified from Sin. Romans 6. You know, I trust that. As you
all hear us preach from up here that you don't just Settle on
our words that you go back to this word that you check us out.
I'm not saying we can't be trusted. I'm just saying God speaks to
you and to me through this word right here. It's not through
my words. It's through this word. You need to go back and verify
that what you hear from this pulpit is contained in this word
right here. That's where God speaks in this
word. Let's read these first six verses of Romans chapter
six. What shall we say then? Now he's
answering. No, he's not answering anything.
He had a conclusion there in verse 21, and we'll look at that
again in a little bit. What shall we say then? To that
conclusion, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Is that the way to find grace
is continuing sin? That doesn't sound right, does
it? Verse two, God forbid, how shall we that are dead, that
really is how shall we who died to sin live any longer therein? Know you not that so many of
us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
death? We'll see that's not water baptism
there, but made one with Christ in his death through baptism.
Therefore, we were buried with Christ by baptism into death. Verse four. 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, we'll learn that
knowing this is knowing this through the Spirit of God as
He testifies to your heart in this word. Knowing this. that
our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For
he that died is freed, is justified from sin. That's where I got
my title from, verse 7. Justified from sin. That word
freed is justified. All right, let's look back at
verse 1. He says, Shall we continue in
sin. Now, we're going to understand
what this means to continue in sin. Paul didn't say here, shall
we continue to sin? Shall we go on sinning? Shall
we go on in immorality and breaking the law? He said, shall we continue
in sin? If he said to sin, if he said,
shall we continue to sin? None of us would have any hope.
But we're going to continue to sin as long as we live. The Scripture
says all are shapen in iniquity. All are brought forth from the
womb speaking lies. And every moment of our lives
are sinful. We don't ever have an unsinful
thought. Did you realize that? We're born sinners and we're
going to die sinners. So if Paul is talking about continuing
to sin here, we don't have any hope. So we better hope he doesn't
mean that. He doesn't. Now, this world's religion thinks
Paul did say to sin right here. It looks at passages like this
and exhorts those under its influence to straighten up. Be more zealous
in your worship. Be kinder. Be more generous. That's what this world's religion
teaches men. They see God demanding sinners
to be better, do better, act better. And you'll be pleasing
to God if you do that. Do good. Feel good about yourself. Religion. That's what this world's
religion. But the continuing in sin Paul
is addressing here is not that. As I already said, thank God
it's not that. He's not exhorting sinners to
do, but rather he's exhorting sinners to understand what God
has already done, what he is now doing and what he will do,
what he's promised to do to overcome sin. The Bible describes sin as man's
most monumental problem. There's not a greater thing we're
facing in this life than sin. It's a powerful enemy. That power
is described in three different areas. Y'all have heard us talk
about this before, but we desperately need salvation and deliverance
from sin, from these three areas right here. First, we have sin's
condemning power. Sin brought all of us Every one
of us, every son and daughter of Adam, under the eternal wrath
of God and facing eternal death. By one man, sin entered into
the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men. For all did sin. Now, this is
sin's penalty. You've heard us call it that.
It's sin's condemning power. It's penalty. Second, our sins
have separated us from God. It caused us to be alienated
and enemies in our mind by wicked works. This is sin's dominating
or enslaving power. It holds us all under this power
and lasts until God is pleased to deliver us. Ignorance of what
Christ accomplished by his death to end sin's penalty. That's
what keeps us under sin's dominion. In other words, as long as we're
ignorant of that righteousness Christ worked out there at the
cross. and that God the Father imputed and by which he justified
every sinner Christ lived and died for. As long as we're ignorant
of Christ's accomplished work and all those benefits of salvation
that he worked out there on that cross, as long as we're ignorant
of that, we are held under this dominating power of sin. Last of all, and certainly the
most persistent of sin's power is its influential power. its
very presence in our lives. We never do anything that sin
doesn't put its mark on, that sin doesn't taint. We never have
an unsinful prayer. We never have an unsinful thought
or an unsinful act or an unsinful motive. Everything we do, sin
touches it and taints it. That's why salvation has to be
conditioned outside ourselves. That's why it has to be conditioned
on Christ alone. We're never free in this life
from sin's presence. This is the one area of sin this
world's religion is caught up in. Do better, be better, let
God religion. They've assigned themselves an
impossible task. As I already said, we're born
in sin and we'll die in sin. And no degree of improvement
that we think we make in overcoming sin's influence make any of us
any more accepted with God than the worst sinner this world has
ever known now. That's an awesome statement. You mean I can never
be in God's sight based on anything I do better than the worst sinner? That's what this Word teaches.
We don't just need improvement. We need a complete transformation.
That's why God Himself has provided the only remedy for sin. That
remedy is the obedient life and penalty-bearing death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Himself and Christ alone
is God's remedy. And that's what we looked at
last time I talked to you from this passage here, back in chapter
5 and verse 21. Let's reread that verse, Romans
5 and verse 21. That even as sin did reign in
the death, even so might grace reign through righteousness into
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, you remember I
told you, even as the sin That sin, that legal guilt and just
condemnation of every one of God's elect, that sin reigned
in the death of the substitute. It reigned in the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But the death of Christ answered
every demand of God's law and justice and ended the penalty
of sin. Christ put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He bore away the penalty of sin. He ended its condemning power
for every sinner he lived and died for. Now, with that one
condition met, what condition is that? The end of sin's reign
by the death of Christ. With that one condition met,
grace now reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Grace now reigns over the whole
election of grace. Grace now reigns over every sinner
God chose from the foundation of the world and gave to Christ.
and which Christ represented in His death on that cross. Grace
now reigns over those sinners. God is already the just justifier
of every sinner Christ lived and died for based on that one
righteousness that He established. And the Father imputed to every
sinner He represented there at the cross. So in light of all
this, Paul asked this question in Romans 6 and verse 1 here.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Now, here's what I see Paul saying.
Grace now reigns over every sinner Christ lived and died for. He
reigns over the whole election of grace. Sin's reign has been
ended and grace's reign has begun. But listen, none of us, not one
of God's elect is born with this knowledge. We didn't know this.
That's why we were going about in false religion, trying to
work out a righteousness of our own. All are born ignorant of
the justification. and all the saving benefits Christ
accomplished by His death. All are born ignorant of the
righteousness Christ established in God the Father, owned and
imputed to every sinner Christ represented at the cross. And
because of this ignorance, ignorance of what Christ accomplished in
His death, because of this ignorance, all without exception, even the
elect are born going about to establish a righteousness of
our own. We're born trying our best to
make ourselves acceptable to God by some means, any means,
whatever religion taught us, whatever tradition taught us.
And we're all born under the dominating, enslaving power of
sin. We're all born under the fear
of death, which Christ Himself must deliver us from. Look at
Hebrews chapter 2. We're born under this dominating
power of sin Motive in this power is the fear of death, as we'll
see here in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. Hebrews 2, 14, for as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ himself,
also himself, likewise, took part of the same. He was made
flesh and dwelt among us. He took part of the same that
through death He might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil. That's what he took care of at
the cross in his death. He destroyed the power of the
devil to condemn his elect. And then verse 15, And deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. He came for that twofold purpose,
to end sin's penalty over his elect and to deliver them from
this dominating power that holds us in bondage until he comes
to us in the gospel through the spirit and breaks that power.
All right, let's look back at Romans 6 now. Sinners whose obedience is motivated
by this fear of death are under that dominating power of sin. And as such, in that obedience,
we are what the scripture says, continuing in sin. And he says,
Shall we do that? Shall we continue under this
dominion that grace may abound? Continuing in sin is not where
grace is evidenced in a sinner. It's not where grace abounds.
Grace is about salvation. Grace is about salvation conditioned
on and accomplished by Christ alone. Continuing in sin under
sin's dominating power cannot give evidence that you're under
grace. Continuing in sin does not and
cannot cause Christ to abound. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? So salvation is deliverance from
sin. And it's that deliverance alone
which gives evidence that you're under grace. In other words,
if you continue under this dominating power, if you go on going about
to establish a righteousness of your own, if you're never
delivered from that, You're continuing in sin and given no evidence
that you're under the grace of God at all. It's deliverance
from sin's dominating power that you see grace. Sinners must be
brought to this record that God has given of his son. They must
be brought to the gospel and the Spirit of God must cause
them to bow to this one whose wrought out righteousness enabled
God to be just and justify. And he did that even before we
knew it. He justified us at the cross. He justified us by the
imputed righteousness of Christ. And not one of us knew that until
we came to the gospel under the Spirit of God. And he made us
to own Christ's righteousness as our own and to have no other.
Grace abounds not in those who continue in sin, not in those
who remain in fear and uncertainty as to our legal standing before
God. The end of those sinners who remain there is eternal death. But grace abounds in those whose
bondage to sin is overcome by the death of Christ alone. That's
the grace that reigns through righteousness into eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus Paul's answer to the question
in verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin
that grace may abound? His answer in verse 2 is God
forbid. How shall we who died to sin
live any longer therein. Here's what he's saying now.
How shall we who already died to sin's penalty by Christ's
righteousness there at the cross, charged to our account? How shall
we who already died to sin's penalty live any longer under
sin's dominion? How shall we do that? Well, God
forbid that we should. How shall we go on in ignorance
and darkness concerning the only basis of justification revealed
in this word? How shall we go on in ignorance
and darkness concerning the one righteousness by which sin's
reign ended and grace's reign began? How shall we go on trying
to work out our own acceptance with God in fear and uncertainty? God forbid such things. Grace
abounds where these things have been repented of. Look at verse
3 now. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized in Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
The baptism here, as I already said, is not water baptism. The
sense here is that which has already taken place. Those who
were baptized into his death, not those who are being in time
baptized, but those who were all at one time baptized into
the death of Christ. Every sinner Christ represented
was made baptized with Him, made one with Him in His death. Look
over at Mark. See a little help over here in
Mark chapter 10 on this issue of being baptized in Christ's
death. Mark chapter 10. Now this is
where James and John come to Christ with a question. They
want to know something of him. They want to know, can I sit
on your right hand? Can we, James and John, one on the right hand
and one on the left in his kingdom? Look at Mark chapter 10 and verse
35. And James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, came unto Christ saying, Master, we would that
thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said
to them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him,
Grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the
other on thy left hand in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them,
You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that
I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with? And he's asking them there, Can
you bear that death I'm going to bear? Can you? Can you suffer
what I'm going to suffer? Verse 39, And they said unto
him, We can foolishly. We think we could do that. And
Jesus said unto them, You shall indeed drink of the cup that
I drink of, and with the baptism that I am baptized with shall
you be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them
for whom it was prepared. You shall, he said, drink of
the cup. and be baptized with the baptism
that I'm baptized with. Go back to Romans 6. Christ tells
these two that they would indeed be united with Him by baptism
in His death, as well as the suffering that they would experience
as a result of following Him without compromise in this world.
They would indeed, as is every believer, baptize with Christ
in His death. In our text, the sense of verse
three is that when Christ died, every sinner he represented died
with him. Their sins were imputed to him.
That's why he died. He had no sin of his own. He
died under the imputed sin of those he represented. He bore
the penalty of those sins and put them away by just satisfaction.
In him, every sinner he represented died to the penalty of sin. And
based on his just satisfaction, they were then and there. justified. They were then and there cleared
of all legal guilt and declared righteous, justified by God Himself. We were all baptized into Jesus. Every sinner Christ lived and
died for was baptized into the death of Christ. When He died,
we died. Now, verses 3 and 4, Paul gives
the answer or the contrast to continuing in sin. Shall we continue
in sin? No, let's do something else.
Look at verse 4. Therefore, we were buried with
him. Now, you see the translators put the present tense on all
these verbs, but they're all past tense. They're all aorist.
They're all indicative. They're all past. Therefore,
we were buried with him by baptism into 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." As I said, he gives a contrast
here to continuing in sin. Christ died, but He didn't remain
dead. Psalm 1610 says, Thou shalt not
suffer thine Holy One to seek corruption. Death couldn't hold
our Lord Jesus Christ because there was no sin in Him. He died
the just for the unjust. Death couldn't hold our Lord
Jesus Christ because He finished the work. He put away those sins
that were laid upon Him, not put in Him. They didn't make
Him a sinner. They didn't make Him sinful.
They were laid on Him, charged to Him. Look at this phrase,
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
in verse 4 here. Like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, Christ was raised
from the dead because He finished the work His Father gave Him
to do. He was raised from the dead because He bore the just
penalty of the sins of His sheep and put those sins away by a
just satisfaction. He was raised from the dead because
He established the one righteousness that God owned and imputed to
His elect. And He was raised from the dead
because He justified, redeemed, sanctified and reconciled every
sinner he lived and died for. Flip your page there and look
at Romans 4 and verse 25. Christ, who was delivered for
or because of our offenses. He was delivered because the
offenses of his people were imputed to him. He was delivered because
of our offenses and was raised again because of our justification. If Christ had not justified every
sinner he lived and died for, if he had not put away the sins
of every sinner he lived and died for, if he had not ended
the penalty of their sins, God the Father would never have raised
him from the dead. That's what that verse is talking
about. He was raised because of our justification. Now, Christ's
resurrection declares that his sheep are justified. That justification demands that
every sinner he died for be raised bodily as he was raised. There
is to be that full and final resurrection when these bodies
are going to be changed. In the end, when Christ returns,
when every sinner he bought with his blood will be raised in final
glory, that's when we're going to be saved from the very presence
of sin. And that's a glorious thought
to think about. I mean, it's hard to imagine us without sin. totally separated from the very
presence of sin. But that's not what Paul's talking
about here. Before that resurrection, the
justification Christ worked out at the cross demands a different
resurrection. It demands one every sinner who
died in him must and shall experience in this life, not at the end
when Christ comes, but in this life. Here Paul is speaking of
spiritual resurrection, being raised, as he says in verse 4
in the end of it, being raised to walk in newness of life, to
walk in that justified standing that Christ accomplished for
His sheep there at the cross. Just as Christ died but did not,
could not remain dead, those who died in Him cannot remain
spiritually dead. His righteousness imputed to
them by God at the cross brought immediate justification, and
that justification demands some things for them. Here are some
things that it demands. It demands justification, demands
that every sinner Christ lived and died for be given spiritual
life. It demands that they be raised
to walk in newness of life, that they be given eyes to see and
hearts to respond to all that Christ accomplished for them
in His death. Justification demands that each
of these sinners be made to behold Him whose imputed righteousness
has saved them and will keep them unto final glory. It demands
that they be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Look
over at Ephesians chapter 1 with me. Ephesians 1. Paul talks about
this sealing of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
12. He's been talking about those
who've been chosen and predestinated, chosen in Christ and adopted
and redeemed through his blood. Now, verse 12, that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.
In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. In whom also, after that you
believed, you were sealed. There's our word. Sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
His glory. Sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise. He's the earnest of our inheritance. You know, you
know what an earnest is. You go somewhere and you see
something you want to purchase. You don't necessarily have the
money to pay for it, but you say, I'll just give you down.
I'll give you ten dollars. Just hold that. I'm coming back
with the money. Hold it till I get back. That's
an earnest. It's the Spirit's abiding presence
in the regenerated sinner that continually points sinners outside
themselves to Christ, points them to his blood and righteousness
alone. See, in time, in each successive
generation, those that the Father has justified by the righteousness
of Christ imputed, they're going to come under the sound of the
Gospel. The Spirit of God is going to
be sent to them, and He's going to regenerate them and give them
life, cause their eyes to look to the Christ set forth in that
Gospel. And He's going to give them faith
and repentance from dead works. And it's that Spirit It's His
abiding presence that's going to keep us not looking in here,
not even looking in here at our graces, but looking to Christ
alone who accomplished all of our salvation. That's the Spirit's
work. This world's religion thinks the Spirit's work is trying to
get you to straighten yourself up, to do a little better. But
that's not the Spirit's work. The Spirit's work is always,
constantly, continually, 100% of the time, pointing us to Christ
and what He accomplished for us there on that cross. The Spirit
of God... Let's go on to verse 6. This talks more about the Spirit's
work. Romans 6 and verse 6, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified,
was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. I'm going to tell
you in a general statement what this verse says And then we're
going to look at the details of it. The Spirit of God testifies
to every justified sinner that his or her former standing of
legal guilt, our standing in Adam, that standing of just condemnation
that we had in Adam, was ended. It was put away in the death
of Christ, crucified with him. In order that the power of sin
be overcome and the bondage that sin held these sinners in be
ended, that they might serve not sin out of legal fear, but
serve God out of grace and gratitude. All right, that's what that verse
says. Our old man, our former standing in Adam, was crucified
with him that that which was holding us in sin's dominion
might be destroyed. In order that we might not serve
sin any longer, but serve God. All right, let's look at the
the statements here. Knowing this, it says. Now, this
is more than just understanding doctrine. Does it take doctrine? Can you understand this without
doctrine? Absolutely not. It takes doctrine.
But doctrine is not our Savior. The Christ and the work he accomplished
revealed in the doctrine. He's our Savior, not the doctrine.
We've got to have the doctrine. I'm not putting down doctrine.
You all know that. But it's the Savior revealed in the doctrine.
that we need to look to. Knowing this is the Spirit's
revelation in the heart of a regenerated sinner. Convincing a sinner that
his only hope is in the blood and righteousness of Christ alone.
That's my only hope of standing and be declared righteous by
God is in that righteousness that Christ worked out and the
Father imputed to me there at the cross. I can give you the
details. I can give you the doctrine.
I can show you what I believe this Word to be saying. But I
cannot convince you that these things are true for you. I can't
do that for you. That's the Spirit's work in the
heart. And He does it based on this Word. Based on how you see
that Christ revealed in this Word. So knowing this is more
than just knowing intellectually. It's a heart work performed in
the regenerated center. performed that regeneration by
the Spirit. And he says, knowing this, that
our old man was crucified with Christ. The Spirit convinces
every sinner he generates that that former standing we had in
Adam, that legal guilt and just condemnation that we had based
on Adam's sin imputed, that that standing was borne away by Christ
in His death. That standing no longer exists
for every sinner Christ lived and died for. Knowing this, that
our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin. In this context, I believe the
body of sin is the power of sin to dominate, to enslave every
unregenerate sinner, even God's elect who've already been delivered
from sin's penalty there at the cross. But it's the power of
sin to enslave even those who've been set free from sin's penalty. Before regeneration, we being
ignorant of God's righteousness, we also are going about to establish
a righteousness of our own. We're also, even God's elect,
are motivated by the fear of death. We are doing everything
we know to do to be accepted by God and to be free from His
wrath. Everything we could learn. Everything
we could think of. Everything religion and tradition
taught us. This is what this world's religion
taught every one of you and me before God found us, sat us down
under this gospel, sent the Spirit of God to deliver us from these
things. It's what every sinner not yet
found and delivered is still doing and will continue to do. Do these sinners going about
to establish a righteousness of their own, do they know what
they're doing? Well, I'll ask you this. When you were going
about to establish a righteousness of your own, did you know what
you were doing? No, you didn't know what you
were doing. You didn't know what you were doing until God brought
you to this Gospel. Every sinner taught of God knows what we were
doing until God convinced us that Christ's imputed righteousness
alone is all our salvation. Those who have been delivered
know that sin's power enslaved us until we were delivered by
the grace of God in Christ. Alright? It says that the body
of sin might be destroyed. The word destroyed means deprived
of strength, annulled. It means it had a power, but
that power has been taken away from it. What destroys the dominating
power sin holds over all of us by nature? What destroys it? The revelation in the heart by
the Spirit of God of what Christ actually accomplished by His
death on the cross. the revelation to an otherwise
guilty, hell-deserving sinner that his only hope is in the
blood and righteousness of Christ alone. That's the only thing
that can deliver you from sin's dominion. Let's go on. That henceforth, it says, that
henceforth sin might be destroyed. That henceforth. Henceforth means
from this time forward. It means from the time we've
been delivered, saved, from sins dominating and slaving power
by the Spirit of God in regeneration. Before that time, we're going
about just like all the other sinners in this world. After
that time, after the Spirit of God delivers us based on the
imputed righteousness of Christ, we're submitted to Christ's blood
and righteousness alone. And in the end, the last phrase,
henceforth we should not serve sin, not be slaves to sin. Not think we need to do something
to be saved or kept saved. Not be motivated by the fear
of death. Obeying out of legal fear. Not
be looking within. Not even at the graces that God
gives us. Not even at our faith or repentance
or at anything else He enables us to do. But looking to Christ
alone for all our confidence and assurance before God. Now,
verse 7. Tells us why not one of God's
elect will be left under sin's dominating power. They will each
be delivered. Why will they be delivered? Look
at verse 7. For he that died is justified
from sin. Now I'm reading you that the
way it should be read. That word dead is he that died. And that word freed is justified.
He that died. And really, it's he that died
has been justified from sin. The one who died in that death
that ended sin's reign back in verse 21, the sin did reign unto
the death, that death, the death of Christ. And we died when He
died in that death. The one who died has been cleared
of all legal guilt, all charges, and declared righteous by God
Himself. This verb tense is one of the strongest in the Greek
language. It's perfect indicative. And that means it's an action
that was completed back here somewhere that has ongoing, present
and ongoing results. The one who died has already.
Here's what it means. The one who died has already
been justified. He is now justified and he will
forever be justified based on the righteousness Christ established
by his obedience unto death. and that the Father imputed to
Him there at the cross. The sinner who died with Christ
died to sin's legal guilt and just condemnation. He's already
been saved from sin's penalty. God's elect were saved from sin's
penalty when they didn't even know it, never even heard the
gospel. He's already been justified, and that justification demands
something for him. It demands spiritual life. It demands that that sinner be
delivered from sin's dominating power. The sinner who died with
Christ must and shall be delivered from his fear of death, from
his going about, unto a new motivation of grace and gratitude. He must
be delivered to walk in that newness of life, in verse 4. It's the justification he finds
in Christ's imputed alone that provides him that new motivation.
It's this new motivation that we'll be looking at on down through
these verses here as we study them. But it's a motivation that's
going to be grounded and founded upon verse 7. The one who died
has been justified from sin. I hope God will give you an understanding
of how Christ's work itself has already delivered everyone he
lived and died for from sin's penalty. And in time, he sends
the Spirit of God into our hearts to show us what Christ accomplished
and to set us right there. Never let us leave from knowing
that all our standing, all our salvation before God is based
on nothing but the work Christ finished for us there at the
cross. Thank you, Mark. Let's stand
and sing two verses of number 221.