ROMANS 6:1-2 HOW SHALL WE WHO DIED TO SIN LIVE ANY LONGER IN IT?

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

 In the first 5 chapters Paul has only spoken of salvation and our security, but has said little or nothing about Christian life, growth, or discipleship.  So far he has exposed himself to the critics who misquote him (Rom 3:8) And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come"? ——as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.  But now he is going to disprove their slander.

So what do we have to say about once saved always saved or as I like to call it the Eternal Security of the Believer.

Some were saying that the idea of “free grace” ( it cost God everything) actually encouraged sin as it promised sinners the best of both worlds since it supposedly allowed a man to indulge himself freely in sin in this world without forfeiting heaven

 In  Chapters 6-8 Paul moves from the doctrine of Justification (God declaring a man righteous based on Belief) to Sanctification (God producing actual righteousness in the believer).

1.     Justification is an act; Sanctification is a process

2.     Justification is for us; Sanctification is in us

3.     Justification is a transaction; Sanctification is a transformation

4.     Justification is the means; Sanctification is the end

5.     Justification declares the sinner righteous; Sanctification makes the sinner righteous

6.     Justification removes the guilt and penalty of sin; Sanctification removes the growth and power of sin

7.     Justification is the straight gate through which we enter the narrow way of Holiness; Sanctification is the way of holiness

1Corinth 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

1Tim 1:12-13 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, 13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

 

In chapter five, Paul made the statement "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (5:20).   Aware that some readers might misconstrue what he said, Paul quickly points out that grace is no excuse to sin since through grace they have died to sin (1-2).  To emphasize this, he reminds them of their baptism into Christ, in which they experienced a burial into the death of Christ and rose to walk in newness of life, having died to sin (3-7). 

 God delivered the Jews out of Egypt which is a picture of sin.

Jude 1:5  But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Moses was a type of Jesus who was to lead them out of sin and into the promised land which is a type of heaven.

1Corinthians 10:2  all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

Heb 3:11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’"

1Corinthians 10:5  But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

When we are delivered out of Egypt, shall we talk of going back to it again?  And go back to the cruel slavemaster of sin.

I.            WE ARE DEAD TO SIN, ALIVE TO GOD (1-14)

 Christ died for Sin, we die to sin

1.  V1 Shall we sin, that grace may abound? Ro 5:20 

Antinomians  anti means against, nomos means law …so it means against the law

Jude 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rasputin said being an ordinary sinner does not give God an opportunity to show His glory so be an extroardinary sinner

2.  V2 No, we died to sin! We ought to even be ashamed to ask such a question

Jesus came to deliver us from all unrighteousness, so how can continuing in Sin glorify a God who came to deliver us from it?

 Romans 5:6-8

9 times in this chapter it says we died to sin, v2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13,

Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. 14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Death for the Christian is like the shadow of a truck rather than being hit by it

What does it mean when Paul says we have died to sin

Ro 6:12, 6:13, 8:13

Galatians 5:16  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Gal 2:17-21 "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 "For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 "I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."

Col 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations——

Col 3:1-5

1Peter 2:24-25 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness——by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Died is in the past or aorist tense which speaks of something that was done once for all in the past.  Just as in Romans 5:1 Having been justified.

It was done when Jesus died on the cross

Romans 5:21 reign of sin in death,

Grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life

Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

Acts 26:18 ‘to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

 Lessons

1.     It is impossible to separate Justification from Sanctification Salvation is not only a transaction to make you legally righteous, but is a transformation

Once we are saved God makes you into a new creation and because of that you will begin to change, it is impossible that it cannot happen

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse wrote, “Holiness starts where justification finishes, and if holiness does not start, we have the right to suspect that justification never started either” (Romans, vol. 3 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961], 2:12).^[1]

2.     It is possible to slow down the sanctification process – Do we willfully sin because we know that God will forgive us since 1John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2Pe 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.