Sermon: The Glorious Results of Our Union with Christ Romans 6:1-14

The Glorious Results of Our Union with Christ

Romans 6:1-14

Truth Taught- Because Christ has set us free from sin’s dominion we must submit to God and not to sin.

Introduction

The Apostle Paul, told us in Romans 5:20 that where sin was present in those God intends to save, His grace overpowers that sin.

Romans 5:20 (ESV)

²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

So, if in a believer, sin is always overpowered by grace, where sin increases grace increases all the more.   Some might conclude that righteousness is not something we should focus on, after all, what’s all the fuss about living a life of godliness if my sin is met with more grace and God forgives me anyway?

Does the believer have a license to sin?

Human Need

We must see that God’s grace does not give us a license to sin but must be cherished and answered by a life that seeks to be Christ like.

Father, You have Gathered Your people that You may let us hear Your words, so that we may learn to fear You all the days that we live on the earth, and that we may also teach our children…amen

Romans 6:1–14 (ESV)

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

1. The Believer’s Death to the Effects of Sin

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Last week we saw that we have two representative heads. As a human, Adam is our head. Due to his sin and its consequences, namely, the day you eat of it you will surely die, death has reigned in all humans due to Adam’s sin and secondly due to our own sin. There was one original Law God gave Adam…don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will surely die.

So, even before there was the Mosaic Law death still reigned because of the one original Law or command of God. Then God, through Moses gave us the rest of His Law. When the Law increased our guilt increased because more of our sin was exposed because the Law of God increased. As the Law increased our guilt because of sin also increased.

Romans 5:13–14 (ESV)

¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

So the Law increased and so did our guilt. The Law increased from don’t eat of the tree to don’t covet, commit adultery, murder, steal etc.

Romans 5:20 (ESV)

²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

So as our guilt increased so too God’s grace had to increase to stay ahead of our guilt due to the increase of the Law. Now, lost and even immature believers might conclude that since God’s grace increases to stay ahead of guilt then we may as well keep sinning because God is just going to forgive us anyway.

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

There is here a phrase Paul uses and it’s important that we understand what he means by it. We Who Died to Sin, does not mean that we have died to sin and are now sinless. It literally means that we have died to the eternal effects of sin. We have been freed from sin’s reign over us due to our union with Adam because now we are united with Christ.

Remember that Adam as our head brings death because of sin but we who believe now have another Representative Head, namely, Jesus Christ. He died with no sin but bearing our sin. Just as in Adam all die so too all who are in Christ live. The reason this is so is because His death is credited to us just as Adam’s sin was credited to us. So, when Christ died because of sin…our sin, in God’s sight we too died. Now the guilt of sin is done away with and it can be said of all who are in Christ that we are dead to sin, meaning the eternal effects of sin.

At our salvation by Grace through Faith we are united with Christ. He is our new Head and like our old head Adam, everything that happened to Jesus happens to us. Remember Adam sinned and experienced death because he is our head we too experience death. At salvation we receive a new Head, Jesus Christ. So, we receive His sinless life, we experience death to sin, resurrection from the grave and no we too, like Jesus can live for God’s glory. Everything that happened to Jesus as our head happens to us.

1. Shown Visibly By Baptism

³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

The meaning of Christian baptism by immersion is that we symbolically died and are buried. We are thus showing that we are dead to the effects of sin. When we are brought up out of the water it is a picture of Christ’s resurrection and then the believer is shown to be free from the guilt and eternal consequences of sin to now live a life of righteousness.

1. Shown By Christ’s Death

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Here verse 7 is the summary of 5-7. Notice what it means…Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin. So, the guilt and judgment is gone because Jesus paid it.  Because of our union with Christ and with Christ now as our head, we too died to the effects of sin. No longer are we slaves to sin (the day you eat of it, you will surely die) but have been set free because we died with Christ. Paul’s amazing conclusion is that the one who has died has been set free from sin’s eternal effects. Just as Christ died to sin, for the effects of sin and now lives free unto God so too we are set free from the effects of sin because we died with Him and we too can now live for God.  Jesus’ death 2000 years ago is credited to us. When we sin we die. According to God we already died. We died when our Head died. Just like we sinned when our Human head, Adam sinned, and we were all counted as sinner, now because of our new head, Jesus Christ, everything He did is also credited to us.

2. Christ Died for Sin and It’s Effects

⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Sin’s weapon of mass destruction is death and because God counts us as having died with Christ, sin’s death grip on us is now broken. We no longer have to obey sin. It is our old master and we have been transferred to a new kingdom with a new Master. Sin’s reign and dominion are now broken. Just like death lost its grip on Jesus when He was raised from the dead at His resurrection so now we too being united with Christ have been raised and death has lost its authority over us.

Paul then concludes this section by saying,

¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Now because we have been set free from the reign and authority sin had over us we must begin to live like it.

Paul has taken us from…

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

To a life strategy to fight sin. It does not have the authority it once did we no longer have to sin. We have been set free from slavery to sin…

3. Since We are Free From Sin’s Dominion We Must Now Yield to God

¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Our slavery to sin has been broken by the cross. The chain that held us to sin and death has been severed by the death of Jesus.
The eternal effects of the penalty of sin are done away with. As believers, there are no eternal consequences for our sin. Now because we have been set free from sin and the penalty we must now live for the glory of God. The way we do this is to not set ourselves up to sin.

¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

We used to obey sin now we must obey God. We used to be passionate about sin now we must be passionate about God. We used to give in to sin now we must submit to God.

God has declared us righteous at justification now we must begin down the road to actually being righteous.

So, the conclusion is that a true believer will never go on sinning so grace will increase but will begin to fight against sin and begin to overcome it because the believer has been set free from sin’s dominion.

In Adam we are under the Law and deemed guilty

In Christ we are not under the Law any longer but under Grace.

¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

I’ve read a story of an eagle that was tied to a stake with a small rope by a cruel owner. All the eagle could do was walk around the stake. One day a new owner came and cut the rope. Even though the eagle was free it still walked around the stake in the same old rut. Beloved we are meant to fly free from sin. We are no longer chained to it but in Christ we are set free from sin. Like the eagle who still walked when he could fly we often continue in sin when we are free from it.

It’s time we get serious about living lives for His glory rather than lives for sin’s glory. How retched we are when we scorn the freedom we have to not sin.

If Christ has set us free, we are free indeed!!!