* The Gospel of free grace and justification does not encourage more sinning, but God’s grace changes our whole attitude about sin, and grace seeks to set us free from sin altogether.
* Romans 6:1 (NASB), What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
* Romans 1-5 is all about justification. How God rescues us by grace from the condemning penalty of sin. Salvation PAST.
* Romans 6 is about sanctification. How God rescues us by grace from the power of sin. Salvation PRESENT.
**Title: Free Grace is Freeing Grace (Romans 6:1-14) **
**1. KNOW the “old self” has died with Christ. **
Romans 6:3 (NASB), “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for the one who has died is freed from sin.”
• Victory over sin, means first, we must KNOW something -- that by faith are united with Christ, baptized into Christ, buried with Christ into death. Our old self, the self that we were IN ADAM, has been crucified, so that old body of sin has been done away with and we are free to walk in a new life.
• Christians must KNOW their TRUE identity is in Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection.
• Once you know your TRUE identity, you will live out that identity.
• Baptism symbolizes the “old self” has died and been buried with Christ.
• When Christ died, we died.
• When Christ was buried, we were buried.
• “Christ’s death for sin becomes our death to sin.” - Robert Mounce
**2. CONSIDER the “new self” alive in Christ.**
Romans 6:8 (NASB), “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
• V. 11, is the first command in Romans! (after almost 150 verses of teaching on justification)
• Consider this: In Christ, I am dead to sin! I am alive to God!
• This is not a Jedi mind trick. This isn’t make believe.
• God’s grace has made this a biblical reality.
• Never measure your sanctification against another person (Christian, or non-Christian).
• Measure your sanctification by V11: Am I dead to sin? Am I alive to God?
• Compare yourself against the Word of God.
• You can also compare yourself against what you once were.
• You should consider your own state of holiness. “Am I as dead to sin as I was 6 months ago? Am I as alive to God as I was 6 months ago? 6 years ago?”
• The ULTIMATE measure of our personal sanctification/holiness is our conformity to Christ.
• Am I as dead to sin as Jesus?
• Am I as alive to God as Jesus?
• The Puritans used to say, “God does not take away our ability to sin; He gives us the power not to sin.”
• John Wesley, “Sin remains but it does not reign.”
**3. PRESENT your body for service to righteousness. **
Romans 6:12 (NASB), “Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace."
• V13 - There is a negative and a positive command.
• DO NOT present the parts of your body as instruments of unrighteousness.
• DO present the parts of your body as instruments of righteousness.
• The word instruments, means “tools” or “weapons.”
• In Christ, we weaponize our bodies and faculties for righteousness and service.
• My eyes
• My ears
• My mouth [what I say, what I eat or drink]
• My hands
• My feet
• My heart
• My mind
• My will
• My emotions
What would happen to us, if all of our bodies, and parts, and faculties were totally dead to sin and alive to God?
Service, not sin, is the proper response to God’s amazing grace.
CONCLUSION
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “We are not only dead to the reign of sin; we are under the reign of grace and all that that means. I am alive under the reign of grace – and grace is a tremendous power.”
• The Gospel of free grace does not give license to sin more and more.
• The Gospel of free grace sets us free to serve the Lord more and more.
