Congregation of Pilgrim Presbyterian Church, Mission Work in Dover, New Hampshire. Thankful for your prayers, thankful for your support over the years, and we look forward to joining you as a particular congregation before too long, but we're not there yet, so keep the prayers coming. We appreciate those greatly. My sermon text is from Romans 6, 1 to 14. I encourage you to turn there if you'd like to follow along as we hear from God's word this morning. Romans 6, 1 to 14. Let's listen carefully to the word of the Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word, and we ask that that word which we have heard may be clearly understood and applied in our lives. That we may know your will for our life and bring glory to you and rest in the salvation that you've given to us in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Sometimes a question is not so much a question as it is a veiled statement. Such as, if someone were to ask you, did you get dressed in the dark this morning? It's not actually a question, it's a statement that they're making to you in the form of a question. Or, is there something wrong with your dog? Is not a question particularly. I remember one time when I was asked a question that seemed to have an edge to it in this way. I was skiing and went up on the chairlift with two other guys about my age. This is while I was getting ready to go to seminary, and I found out that these young men were from Princeton, and so I commented Oh, you're from Princeton. Well, I've been looking at various seminaries and I thought it was interesting to explore what's at Princeton, a historically Presbyterian seminary, but I've decided to go to a different seminary. And the question that they had as they discerned I was a little bit more conservative than where Princeton was at, they said, well, were you looking for something that was less free-thinking? They were making a statement about what they perceived me to be in my outlook, not as cultured as they were. Well, the question that starts off Romans 6 is one of those questions. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? This is not a question that Paul has, This is part of the way he writes the epistle to the Romans. He occasionally inserts a question as though he were imagining someone being the devil's advocate. Questioning, does he really mean what he seems to be saying here? Well, before we answer this question or explain Paul's answer to it, it's worth pausing for a moment to consider why would this question even be asked? There was something clearly about Paul's preaching that was so outrageously bold in how it spoke of the grace of God that it seemed just too much. It seemed too free, too forgiving, too willing to put away sin in one's relationship with God. It seemed to suggest that we could just sin all that we want because God's grace was enough. That's the antinomian view, that one can just sin all the more because of God's grace. Look at the verse and a half before this. Romans 5, at the middle of verse 20, Paul has just written, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Simply the contrast between the consequences of sin and the more abounding grace of God might lead one to that antinomian conclusion. It just seemed too free. Is this really the way God treats sinners? Of course, it's consistent with Paul's point. that the thing keeping you from righteousness and a right standing with God is not your sin. God's made provision for that. See, this is a reminder that the gospel involves a shocking level of grace if that gospel is being preached faithfully. It will cause people to wonder, really? Really? This person? This strong? They don't say that about themselves. Maybe they do. God's grace is enough for me? Or God's grace is enough for that person? I don't believe it. Of course, it's always been that way. People looked at Jesus' friends, the people that he spent time with, and they were greatly offended by who he was with. And the people that he was speaking of God's grace to, prostitutes and those like that. They were offended by the gospel of God's free grace to the undeserving. at least for this objector that Paul imagines. One is suggesting, well, shall we then continue in sin that grace may abound if grace is of this nature? But as honest as it might be as a question, it's misguided. It's in need of correction. I mentioned my encounter with those two young men. When they asked me this question, I couldn't exactly run away. I mean, we're on this tiny little chair together suspended about 50 feet in the air. And so my response to them was, well, I actually prefer those dogmatic, archaic, narrow-minded, intolerant seminaries with no intellectual freedom. And then I laughed, because it was sort of the easiest way to diffuse the situation. I knew what they were implying, but I wasn't going to get too worried about it. But Paul doesn't confuse us with sarcasm or irony. He answers directly, are we to continue in sin? No, not at all. Don't you know what your new relationship to sin is? And in this passage, Paul would have us to see our new relationship with sin, our new relationship now that we are in Christ. It's a relationship that's changed. One of the defining tools for understanding relationships in this day and age, dare I say it, is Facebook. If you were to look at Facebook, you would see there's only a few ways that a relationship can be described, assuming that one is not single. They can be in a relationship, engaged, married, civil union, domestic partnership, or, and this one's my favorite, it's complicated. I don't often see people use that designation for their relationship, but I imagine some people do. Well, for many of us, we find our relationship with sin, now that we're a believer, complicated. We know it's wrong. We feel shame. We've probably gone to great lengths at one time or another to say, I'm going to put it behind. I'm going to flee from it, as God would have me to. even after that moment of zeal. We find ourselves still struggling with the same temptations, the same sin nature. Our sin is ever with us and if we're honest, at some level we love our sin. We love it because it gives us pleasure or promises some security that we would have for ourselves. But its pleasure is fleeting and its security is an illusion. We love our sin at our peril. It's a relationship that needs to end. Here's where Paul's inspired words are so important. He says that our relationship to sin has changed and we shouldn't allow ourselves to be confused and thinking it's so complicated that it's a hopeless situation for us. We have died to sin with Christ and we've been raised to righteousness with Christ as well. So how can we continue on if that's the reality, the spiritual reality, now that we are in Christ. Well, first let me look at how our relationship to sin has been changed by death. I'll reread the first four verses. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How can we who died to sin live any longer in it? Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Now at the outset, I should say because of the mention of baptism here in verses three and four, This has been a verse that has caused some people a great deal of confusion about what baptism accomplishes. Some have even suggested that the water of baptism itself is what saves us, somehow washes our sins away in a most literal way. Well, the less confused Christian knows that we're not saved by the water of baptism, We are saved by Christ as we believe in Him. But how have we died to sin by our faith in Christ? And what does this have to do with baptism? Well, no one's going to stand up and say, well, there's no more sin in my life, right? I think that's generally, I don't really know anyone that would claim that seriously. So they might read this verse and see how it says we've died to sin and realize that there's not an absence of sin in their life. Far less has water baptism, baptism with water, had the effect of riddiness of sin. In fact, Paul presents in the next chapter very vividly the ongoing struggle against sin in Romans 7. However, there's something profound which happened in Christ's death for our sins. Death was defeated. It was not only defeated in its guilt, it was defeated in its powerful reign in our life. Jesus not only paid for sin, he defeated and conquered sin and its miseries. I think as we think about the work of atonement, Jesus' work on the cross, We sometimes think too much about one aspect of it and not enough about another. We easily understand metaphors about paying a price, don't we? After all, that sounds like our daily life. We're constantly paying a price for this or that. And so if we understand from the Bible that we have a debt with God because of our sin and that Jesus paid that debt that he has atoned for our sin, he has stood in our place as our substitute, that makes sense. That part of the atonement, of course, is related to our justification, that we are no longer condemned as sinners, but we are forgiven, and we are counted as righteous because of Christ and his righteousness given to us. But that justification part of the atonement is only part of the picture. And of course there's more that God's Word says about what Jesus accomplished there at Calvary that impacts us in significant ways. But of course it's not wrapped up in the metaphor of debt and payment. Debt and payment has to do with justification. As you look at the work of Christ and its sanctifying power, you have to look at different metaphors or different descriptions or verses to understand our union with Christ and the impact that has on sin's reign in God's people. Let me point you to a different metaphor. In Leviticus, it describes a person making a sacrifice. And if you recall, you can look at Leviticus 1.4 to confirm this. As you recall, it's not just that an animal was required for that sacrifice, a sheep or a goat, but there were instructions about the body posture in offering that sacrifice. In other words, you didn't just bring that sheep to the priest and go home and flip on the television set. But the law itself required that you stay there, and not only stay there, that you lean on the animal. And what did that leaning suggest? This should be me. I'm identifying with what's going on here. It identified the one giving the sacrifice with the sacrifice being made. We see that's getting us closer to the reality of our participation in Christ's work. It's not just that there was a debt that was paid, but the Bible says that we were united to Christ. We have died with Christ. We've been crucified with Christ, Galatians 2.20. And we died with him, 2 Timothy 2.11. We were buried with him. It says it here and in Colossians 2. We were made alive with him, Ephesians 2.5. We were raised with him and made to sit with him in the heavenly places, Ephesians 2.6. We are co-heirs with him now and sharers in his glory, Romans 8.17. And we will reign with him, 2 Timothy 2. So the language of the scripture often points us to our personal union with Christ. our personal union and all of these things that Christ accomplished. It's not simply that he did it and it counts to us. Paul talks about us being in Christ and united with him in his death and his resurrection. Of course, baptism pictures our union with Christ. It's a concrete promise of God's grace to us because Jesus Christ has died and risen and we're found in him. In fact, not only has Christ died, we died with him at that time. And so baptism symbolizes how we were right with him in his death and burial and now share in the wonder of his new life and resurrection from the dead. If we don't have this explanation for how baptism saves us in Romans 6, We're left with an unbiblical understanding of baptism, like baptismal regeneration, that it's the water itself that suddenly saves you. You weren't saved before, but now with water baptism you're saved. No, the outward application of water is a confirming sign and seal of God's promises in Christ and that Baptism itself, that water baptism is spoken of as if it were the reality, as if it were actual union with Christ. That's what's going on here in verses three and four. Our union with Christ means that his death to sin and its curse was also our death to sin and its curse. We're united to Christ and we have the baptism by God's own appointment to prove it. So first, it describes the change that took place through a death. Secondly, our relationship to sin has been changed by a resurrection into new life. Let me read at verse four down to verse 11. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also should be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with. Now we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And of course, death brings a great deal of grief. when we lose people that are close to us. But as you know from being a Christian, there's also gladness and joy that comes when a person dies as a Christian, when they die with their hope in Christ. There's joy in knowing that this lost loved one is in heaven's glory, in God's presence. There's joy in knowing that one day we will be reunited with them. There's joy in knowing the Bible's promise The pains and sorrows of this life have ended for the person who is now in glory in God's presence. But one wonderful truth about death is that it ends our ability to sin. The one who dies in Christ, this means they can now love and glorify God perfectly because they are no longer hindered by sin. And Jesus, we read here, also died. He didn't die because he was a sinner. He died for sinners, bearing the guilt and curse of sin in himself, and then rose on the third day. But in dying for sin, he rose in triumph over it. If Christ has done this in our place, then we, by our union with him, know that this is true of us too. You could see this in verse six. Our old man, our old self, our old nature was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with and that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Death has been emptied of its power. We've been set free from sin as we are in Christ because Jesus has once and for all died to sin and now risen to new life. Sin and death has no claim on him. Christ's resurrection is the demonstration for how we have been freed from sin and given a new life. And this is the point that he's building up to, is this is the way we've got to think about our life. Verse 10, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. One great passage about resurrection is in John 11. It's the story of Lazarus. Well, first it's the story of Jesus meeting with Mary and Martha. And in that story where Jesus calls forth Lazarus from the grave after he's been in there long enough that his body is starting to decompose, we see a wonderful picture of God's power, Christ's power, bringing new life One who is dead is raised. We see the power of God through this miracle. But of course, even though it has similarities to the resurrection of Christ, it's different. The similarity is that it was an actual death followed by an actual raising to new life. And it was certainly miraculous, as is Christ's resurrection. But Lazarus rose, simply to live a few more years in the body before he died again. And during those years that he lived after Christ called him forth from the grave, he was pestered by sin for that whole time. But what about Christ? Revelation 1 is where Jesus says, fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one. I died and behold, I'm alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades. In other words, in speaking about his resurrection, the point is that death no longer has a claim on him. Sin's curse has been ended, which makes it so different from what simply happened with Lazarus in John 11. The point here is we're not united to Lazarus or someone like Lazarus, who rose from the dead only to sin and die again. We're united to Christ. who died so that sin would never have a hold on him again. And he rose in power and triumph from the grave. And that new life is now at work in our lives by the Holy Spirit. And that new relationship to sin is what informs our Christian life now. It presents a context for hearing God's call to holiness, and this is how the passage ends. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey in its lusts, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." This is the first time in Romans where Paul finally gets to a commandment, an exhortation. It's the first of many, actually. But this exhortation to Present yourselves as alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness. This is a different kind of exhortation. It's not a commandment like do this or don't do this. It's understand the context of God's grace at work in your life. Understand the context of who you are in Christ and how a life ought to flow from it. It's very different from simply Do this, don't do this. Stop doing that, don't be bad. Those things don't have any context for where the power comes from for obedience. That's the whole point here. It's an exhortation to pursue holiness because of who God has made us in Christ, who we are now. We are to present ourselves unto a holy life because sin's power has been broken in us. Apostle Paul is saying that we are to stop sinning and start doing works of righteousness because God has worked a change in us. And now on the basis of that change, it's fitting that our lives would look different because of God's grace. As he goes on in Romans, he gives many more commandments, clear and specific directions, imperatives, but they are anchored in this indicative of who we are in Christ. The commandments of righteousness are firmly planted in the statements of who we are in Christ. We can deny sin its reign in us because it has no reign in us. We come before God presenting our various forms of service because he has made us new creatures. We know sin should not control us because the power of sin and the condemnation of the law have been replaced by the transforming force of grace in our life. This is very profound. It's not just giving a list of rules or how to direct our life. There's a place, of course, for rules, for laws, for commandments. But these things always come with a context. And here the context is how our union with Christ transforms everything. You see, our union with Christ is behind our justification. It's because we're in Christ that we're not condemned. It's because we're in Christ that we're counted righteous. But Our union with Christ is also behind our sanctification, the way in which God is making us new and sin's power has been destroyed in God's people. Because we are united to Christ and we share in his finished work, we are in Christ's death and in his resurrection. And this is why the new life in Christ is so often described in terms of fruit, because now we have this vital union with Christ. And as a branch that's been grafted onto a new tree, our lives are now engrafted into Christ to bear fruit in Christ, fruit of the Holy Spirit, fruit in abundance. Paul's use of the expression here, consider yourselves or present yourselves or reckon yourselves, it calls us to view ourselves as we are so that we would live in a way that fits who we are. 1 John says, if we say there's no sin in us, we make God to be a liar. Nevertheless, a relationship change has taken place, a relationship change that can't be undone. One preacher says this, regenerate Christians should no more contemplate a return to unregenerate living than adults should return to childhood. or a married person return to their singleness, or a discharged prisoner go back to jail. For our union with Jesus Christ has severed us from the old life and committed us to the new. So as Christians, we need to understand our new situation in regard to sin. It's not at all the situation of our former life when we were in complete slavery, bondage to sin. That feeling of being trapped may remain, But the reality of the case for Christians is very different from that feeling. We have a new status, a new relationship to sin as a result. And because of this reality of our union with Christ and His once for all work on the cross and His resurrection, we've been brought to new life. If you want to see what God is working out in you, look at Christ in His risen glory, His exalted state. This is what God is working out in your life, sometimes slowly, but surely God is bringing you to the perfect glory and perfection of the risen and exalted Lord Jesus. And as we understand that, we will be filled with the power of the Spirit to live that reality out more in our life. It is an already and a not yet. Jesus is already risen and exalted. He has already defeated the power of sin and death, but there is a not yet, where the completion of that work is yet to be seen in all of God's people. But that is the reality in our life. So it's reality for you. You have been given a new master. You have been bought with a price. You have been freed from sin's power so that you might live a new life in Christ. So present yourself as such and look for power not in yourself but in the grace that God gives you through Christ that you may bear fruit in him. Let's pray. Lord, you are full of mercy and grace to us. And Lord, we rejoice that the gospel is not about our works or what we might deserve, but it is of your grace to the undeserving. Lord, help us to wrap our minds around that, that you are glorified in showing grace to the undeserving. That's why we can so often come back to you, confess our sins and look to that grace that is in Christ. Father, we yearn not only to rest in the comfort of justification that we are no longer condemned but found acceptable and declared righteous before you. We want the power of Christ's new life to be at work in our lives. We want to know the power of your sanctifying work in your people. Pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand who we are in Christ and to meditate upon the truths of your word that speak of our union with Christ. Father, we pray that we would live fruitful lives, not only in faith, but lives of service, obedience, dedication for you. We pray that you would grant these things that you would have from us. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you.