Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the so great salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, a salvation that comes in three tenses, justification, sanctification, and ultimately glorification, and all by grace through faith that it may abound to your glory. We pray, Lord, that as we study the great book of Romans that we'll be impressed once more with what you revealed through the Apostle Paul to this church at Rome and the necessary basics of Christianity for those believers and also for us as well. Pray Lord, we might take heed to the great doctrines that are taught here and understand how to start putting those into practice so that we're not. Here's only but doers also of the Word of God and we pray Lord that we would understand the dynamics of sanctification as we move into this new section in the epistle and we give you thanks Lord that you're at work in this realm as well and Just give us eyes to see and ears to behold the wonderful truths here contained. We asked Lord that you would help us to be a testimony to the world around us, knowing that without Jesus Christ, men are going to continue in their futility of thinking. They're going to suppress the truth and unrighteousness. They're going to go further and further away from the word of God. And in a nation where we've had so much of the word of God historically, We know principally that as rejection is increased at some point, there's just going to be a dearth and famine of the Word of God and already is. And therefore, the nation just continues to catapult into apostasy, rejection of you and into paganism. So we pray, Lord, that the truth would permeate through our lives into the surrounding culture. And not being ashamed of the gospel, not being afraid to Proclaim the truth in an ever religious pluralistic society. So help us to maintain our dignity and our integrity before you standing up for the truth, the absolute truth of all the truths of scripture and to proclaim them so men may understand. Help us to be gentle and reverent. Help us to take time to befriend others so that we can have an influence in their lives and they'll listen to the scriptures. And we just ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Some of you may not know, or probably most of you don't know, but Molly Resh has had some medical issues this last week, and so this week she's been moved over to Windcrest. So if anybody would like to visit her, she's over there, and I'm sure that would encourage her. Also, if you're planning or thinking of planning to go to Israel, then of course there's a deadline that's coming up here in just a few days. So we already have a pretty good group together. If you'd like to add your name to that list, then just let me know or Pam know. Alright, let's turn to Romans 5 and 6. There was a question asked last week relative to Romans 5, verse 20. And that question is the question, is the doctrine of super grace taught in Romans 5.20? In light of the fact that Romans 5.20 says that as sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Well, the term super grace was coined by a Bob Thame, who was a pastor, teacher of Baraka in Houston from 1950 to 2003. And he coined this term out of his studies in James 4, verse 6, where it says, but he gives a greater grace. Maison de dédommie Corinne. And he was using the term super grace as a synonym for spiritual maturity. So if you wonder what he exactly means, he's referring to spiritual maturity and the idea that there's a special or group of special blessings that come to believers who reach spiritual maturity. And he saw his role as pastor teacher to train believers and to grow to spiritual maturity so that they could enjoy these super grace blessing. And James 4.6 does teach the concept of a greater grace that's made available to believers who are humble rather than, you know, arrogant, naive, immature believers. So James 4, 6 teaches that the humble believer will receive a greater grace and this greater grace enables the mature believer to overcome satanic opposition. It enables him to have a close fellowship with God and also establishes his exaltation by God. So the concept of super grace is a biblical concept. whether you like the terminology or not. And the question then is, do I see this doctrine taught in Romans 520 by the expression, grace abounded all the more? Now, no, I don't see it taught here contextually in Romans 520. We see grace did abound all the more here, but that's relative to the number of personal transgressions that resulted from the law that was given at Mount Sinai. The point was that the amount of grace had to increase in the bringing of Christ's imputed righteousness to us. Relative to the number of personal sins that abounded due to the laws being given. So Christ's grace and the imputation of righteousness is greater than, verse 20 teaches, the amount of sin that came about as a result of the law. So to answer the question succinctly, is the doctrine of super grace taught in Romans 520? No, the doctrine of super grace is not taught in Romans 520, although it's taught in other places in the Bible. Now, we are studying, of course, the Book of Romans verse by verse, and we've just finished Romans chapter 5. Now, this is a transition point, and because it's a transition point, this is a good place to review some of the background, some of the basic things that may be in the introductory material to the Book of Romans if you have something like a study Bible, and so also to review some of the teaching in chapters 1 through 5 that lead up to the new teaching in chapter 6. So let's review some of the background of the letter. When was the book of Romans written? According to the introduction in your study Bible notes. Just kidding. The book of Romans was written about A.D. 57. It was written from Corinth. And what is this book considered by many who have studied it throughout church history? It's considered by most to be Paul's magnum opus, by which we mean his greatest work, a literary masterpiece. And he wrote it to whom? He wrote it to the church at Rome. Church at Rome. And at this time in AD 57, what was the makeup of that assembly in the city of Rome? Well, the makeup was a group of Jews and Gentiles who believed in Christ. Now originally the church had not been made up of Jews and Gentiles, it had been made up of Jews only since Luke notes in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost that there were Jews from Rome in Jerusalem and that there were from among the number who believed that day and added to the number of believers on the day of Pentecost some from Rome. And when they returned to Rome, these Jewish believers went around spreading the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ to their Jewish brethren. And of course, in the course of time, it was realized that the gospel was also available to Gentiles as well on the same basis, the death and resurrection of Christ, the same condition, faith alone in Him. And so the gospel in Rome began to spread to Gentiles. And so by the time that the letter was written here in 1857, to the church at Rome, we have a mixture of Jew and Gentile. We would say we have a picture of the complete body of Christ being one Jew and Gentile and one new man. The body of Christ, of course, here on a local scale. And since this church was not established by an apostle who traveled to Rome and evangelized and then followed up quickly by training and discipleship, Paul wanted to go to them. His desire in coming to them would be to encourage them, to make sure they were well grounded in the fundamental truths of Christianity. And in order to prepare them for his hope soon arrival, he wrote this book of Romans. Now this letter is unique among all the New Testament letters that Paul has written in that it reads much less like a personal letter and much more like a systematic theology. What's a systematic theology? Well, a systematic theology is a treatise that presents categories of doctrine in a logical progression. It's a treatise that presents biblical doctrine in a logical progression. So why do we need systematic theologies? Well, we need them because they teach us how to think clearly about truth. how to think about various categories of truth and how those categories relate. And God wants us to think clearly about truth because he himself is a perfectly clear thinker. And we've been made in his image and given minds in order to organize and think his thoughts after him. So Romans is referred to as the first systematic theology by many theologians. And it serves as the justification for all those who've come along down through church history and written systematic theology. They may have called them dogmatic theology, as that term was popular years ago, or some other term. But the bottom line is that there have been a number of systematic theologies that have used Paul's book of Romans as a basis for doing so. Now in Romans, Paul categorizes or systematizes six doctrines. And he logically and interconnectedly puts them together in a progression. So the first thing that he discusses is what doctrine? Condemnation. Condemnation. This is where he's answering, why is man not right with God? What's wrong with man? Well, he stands under God's condemnation because of his sin and Adam and so forth. We'll expound in a moment. The second section or doctrine that he discusses is justification. And here he's answering the question, how does a man get right with God? The third issue or doctrine that he discusses is sanctification. And this is the doctrine that answers the question, how does a man who is right with God live a life that is righteous before God? Oh, sorry, I'm writing all this down just for my own pleasure. Do I have what? Alright, so you're writing this down. I've got condemnation, justification, sanctification. I've just given the logical order of the doctrine in systematic fashion. The fourth thing that he discusses is glorification. And here he's answering the question, how does a man who is right with God get fitted to dwell with God for all eternity? So, glorification. Then fifth, he discusses an explanation for a question. And that question is, well, what about Israel? God's covenant people. What about Israel? They're the covenant people. What's happened to them now? And the sixth thing he discusses is application. And that is, so what? That answers the question, so what? Now I'll need to reboot this too, right? Yeah, okay. So you see then that there's a very systematic organization of Bible truth in the book of Romans. And it's because of that that many, many Bible students have found Romans to be the most influential book in their entire lives. Now in our verse-by-verse study, we've already covered the first two categories of doctrine. The first two that are in your list. First, condemnation. Paul teaches that in what chapter and verses? Condemnation. Chapter 1, verse 18. All the way to chapter 3. Good. Verse 20. Okay. Condemnation. What's that? That's the legal pronouncement of man's guilt due to our sin in Adam. So in this section, in brief, Paul proves that man's fundamental problem, what's wrong with man? Man's fundamental problem is he lacks righteousness before God. And this lack of righteousness is manifested several ways. By man's natural inclination to suppress the truth that he knows about God in unrighteousness. Now the evidence of God is that man is suppressed is available in creation. It's available in conscience. And it was available in the canon of Scripture given to the Jews in the Old Testament. Paul's conclusion is that man has suppressed these modes of revelation. And therefore, in chapter 3, he says, all are under sin, both Jew and Gentile. There's no one righteous, not even one. So we refer to this section, chapter 1, verse 18 through 320, to be the doctrine of condemnation because it teaches that man lacks a positive righteousness with God. The second doctrine that he has covered is justification. What verses does he teach it in? Chapter 3, verse 21 through chapter 5, verse 21. Now, justification, what's that? It's the opposite of condemnation. It's the legal pronouncement of righteousness due to Christ's imputation. The imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer's account. So in this section, Paul is stating that the righteousness of God, which man lacks, has been provided by Jesus Christ. And this righteousness is available as a free gift to all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. At the moment of faith of an individual, Christ's righteousness then is imputed to the believer's account in heaven, even while Romans 4-5 said, while that individual himself on earth is ungodly, so that he is at the same time both righteous and a sinner. He also states that by virtue of following in the footsteps of Abraham and having faith, we become heirs of the world to come. And in chapter 5, he shows that as a result of our free grace justification, we have peace with God, we have access to God in the most holy place in the heavens, and we have hope through difficult times because God has given us His indwelling Holy Spirit to assure us. So we refer to this second section as the doctrine of justification because it teaches that that which we lacked, a righteousness with God, is provided for us by imputation at the moment of faith in Christ. Now, the third doctrine that we are going to look at today is sanctification. And where does Paul teach it? Chapter 6, verse 1 through 8, 17. I'm going to leave a little room at the end of chapter 8 to deal with glorification, even though it's mixed with sanctification in that passage. Now what's sanctification? Sanctification is actually an impartation of Christ's righteousness through us so that we live lives pleasing to God. Paul might say it this way, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me so that there's this righteous production, the production of Jesus Christ through us that makes possible the sanctification life. I don't want to spoil everything that we're going to learn in this section today just by giving it away in advance. But Paul has already alluded to where he's going by stating a very critical positional truth in chapter 5, verse 5. So we have the concept of positional truth. What's positional truth? Positional truth means that by virtue of this truth, I have a standing with God. I have a status with God. It's not an experience. It's not a feeling. Nothing came over you. It's simply a status that God provided for you so that you have a position with Him. And so we're going to make three points up front about sanctification in this doctrine before we go into the verse by verse. And two of these points are what we call positional truth. OK, positional truth. Now, the first positional truth we have to look at, which Paul has already discussed, is the indwelling Holy Spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit. In Romans 5.5, observe that Paul said, here in the context of the results of justification, that God has given us the Holy Spirit. Okay, aorist tense. We don't really have an aorist tense in the English. And it refers really more to the kind of action than the timing. But here, contextually, the timing is past. It's just a past completed action. In other words, when we first believed in Jesus Christ, of course, we were justified by God in heaven. And at that same time, He gave us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has many ministries in our lives, but the basic ministry from which all the others stem is what we call the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. So that when He comes to indwell us, at that moment He regenerates us, He baptizes us, and He seals us in Christ. So the indwelling ministry is basic to all the other ministries of the Holy Spirit during this age. The doctrine of the indwelling Holy Spirit basically states this, that beginning on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in the church, indwelling each believer. Let's state that again. The doctrine of the indwelling Spirit states that beginning on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in the church, indwelling each believer. This was not done in the Old Testament. He did not indwell believer. He indwelled certain believers for certain occasions, such as kings, priests, and prophets for a temporary basis. But now he has come to indwell believers permanently. Now we say this is permanent for several reasons, but one of which is in 1 Corinthians 6.19, even the sinning believers at Pentecost who were sleeping around with prostitutes were said to be indwelled. And also we find in Romans 8-9 that even if someone does not have the Spirit, they're not a believer. And so all believers, since the day of Pentecost, have the indwelling Spirit of God. This is something that you didn't come to know at the moment of salvation because you had a feeling come over you. This is something we know by virtue of revelation. What I consider to be the sixth sense. You've got sight, touch, and so forth. But here's one sense that you don't know and that's something you cannot detect because it's beyond the ability of your senses to capture. And the Scriptures tell us, by revelation, that this happened at the moment of salvation. The Holy Spirit came to indwell you. And His indwelling then is the basis for, as I mentioned, baptism, sealing, regeneration, but also those things that come on a momentary basis, such as the ministry of the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is necessary for us to have victory on a day-by-day basis in the Christian life. So Paul has mentioned the Spirit in Romans 5, 5 and his indwelling ministry. But interestingly, he's not going to mention the Spirit again and all the way until chapter 8. And so we're going to have this great segment of Scripture, all of chapter 6 and 7, that come in prior to him returning to the Holy Spirit. So why does Paul do that? Well, basically, he wants the believers at Rome to realize the severe need that they have of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill God's demands of us as Christians. So we would say then that apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, there's just no possibility that we could be sanctified. So the first thing that you've got to have that's essential to sanctification is the indwelling Holy Spirit. And this is a positional truth for all who have believed. The second thing that we have to know after we know that we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit that's necessary for sanctification is another positional truth. And this positional truth is that we have been delivered from the sin nature. We have been delivered from the sin nature. In Romans 6, 1-11, Paul is going to reveal that we've been delivered from the power of the sin nature. Now, we'll just skim through a few things in verses 1-11. And what I want to point out is that the verbs here are all in the indicative mood. What's the indicative mood? The indicative mood is simply a statement of fact. It's just stating facts. Note in verse 3. All of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus. There's no command. There's no question whether it's true or not. It's just simply a statement of fact. You have been baptized into Christ Jesus. Note in verse 4, another indicative. We have been buried with Him. It's just a statement of fact. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. No command to follow. It's just happened. And note in verse 6, another indicative. Our old self was crucified with him. That's just a fact. And in verse 7, another indicative. He who has died is justified from sin. By the way, that word freed is not the word you might think of free. It's a word for justification. You've been justified from sin. So these are all statements of fact. And Paul is teaching us a positional truth that we have been delivered from this power of the sin nature. And what this basically means is that we are no longer required to be in subjection to the sinful nature. Whereas as unbelievers, we were obligated to follow the sinful nature. But no longer. So there are two positional truths so far that are the basis for sanctification to proceed. The first one is the truth of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And the second one is the fact that we've been delivered from the sinful nature. Delivered from its power over us. The third thing, and this one's not positional. It relates to our position, of course. It looks back to our position, but it's an experiential truth. And this one is the responsibility on our part to yield to God. Responsibility to yield to God. In other words, it's not automatic that you're going to do that. You have an experiential responsibility to yield to God, to let Him have His way. And this is revealed in Romans 6, 12 through 23. Romans 6, 12 through 23. This is where Paul is talking about our responsibility to yield. Now, I said the statements in 6, 1 through 11 were all indicative mood verbs. When you get to 6, 12 and on, they're all imperative in mood. The verbs are imperatives. What's an imperative? It's definitely not just a statement of fact. It's a command to follow. So let's skim through this section and see some of the commands we have to follow in order to be sanctified. Verse 12. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. That's a definite command. that we have a responsibility to follow. Don't let it reign. Don't let it be king in your mortal body. Note also in verse 13, another imperative command. Paul says, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. You know, quit it. That's a command. But instead, what? Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead. So there's this command to positively present ourselves to God. And also note the end of verse 19. So now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in what? Sanctification. So this again is another imperative that's laid on us. We need to present ourselves to righteousness and that this is necessary for our sanctification. So I brought in three truths related to sanctification up front. One, because we've already seen it in Romans 5.5, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And the next two, because they're the nature of the subject in chapter 6. The first one being, we have been delivered from the power of the sin nature. And the last one being, experiential on our part, responsibility on us to yield to God on a daily basis. These are all indispensable elements of our sanctification so that we can advance. There are the three. The first two are positional. The last one's experiential. There's your systematic outline of the Book of Romans as given by the Apostle Paul, just discovered by us. So what we've done here since the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is talked about as early as 5.5 is seen that now there's a connection between our sanctification in chapter 6, 7, and 8 back to our justification. And this is the transition. And we like to say those two are distinct. You've got justification, then you've got sanctification. And they are distinct. But we have to understand that you can never be sanctified apart from being justified. Justification is the ground upon which sanctification could possibly advance. Nobody can be sanctified apart from already being justified, in other words. Now, as far as chapter 6 is concerned, I like to outline it thematically. as I've alluded to before. First, chapter 6, verses 1 through 11 is all indicative. It's all statements of fact. And then we come to Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 11. All indicative, meaning in this context, it's stating over and over that we have been delivered from the power of the sin nature. So you don't need to be delivered from the power of the sin nature over and over. That's not what needs to happen. It's something that has happened once for all. The power of the sin nature over you has been broken. But then we find out that the Christian life is not automatic after that because in verses 12 through 23 we find all these imperatives. And Paul is here saying in order to see the new life, lived, well, you've got to reckon these things to be so. You've got to reckon the fact that you're dead to sin. And we do this by yielding to God, presenting ourselves before Him, and so forth. So this is a once for all, I mean, a daily thing. It's not once for all. We have to do this every day. We have to reckon these things to be so, so that every day we can continue to have victory in our experience. So both are necessary. You've got to have the indicative. The power of the sin nature has to be broken. But then also, we have to consider those things to be so on a daily basis in order to enjoy sanctification by the indwelling Spirit of God. Now the final introductory remark is simply to say this, and that is that this is far and away, far and away the most important passage on sanctification in the entire Bible. There's another passage that's quite extensive, and that's 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 through 12. And I encourage you to read that. But Romans 6 through 8 is far more extensive. And so if you're wanting to learn the nuts and bolts of how to live a successful Christian life, which I think is the number one difficulty among Christians, I think that it's more problematic than any other issue. How do I live a Christian life? This is the passage. And I would say that, you know, there are many genuine Christians out there who are just failing miserably in the Christian life. And because of that, so many people have come along and just marked them off and said, well, they're not even really believers. Look at the way they're living their life. They couldn't possibly be a believer. But what if the real problem is, is they simply don't understand how to live the Christian life because it hasn't been taught to them well. They haven't really delved into this passage. Though this is the passage to really delve into if you want to learn how to actually live the Christian life. And I'll tell you up front, it's not by Operation Bootstrap. It's not, I'm going to do this thing. You cannot force it. You have to understand there are certain positional truths that are in place. And if you don't know those or understand those, you are never going to make it. You have to have knowledge about the position that you have, what has happened in Christ, and who you are now, and how to reckon yourself dead to that old man. Otherwise, you're just going to continue to struggle. So, in chapter 6, verse 1, let's begin the verse-by-verse. And here Paul makes a marked transition, obviously, to a new topic. You know, what shall we say then? And A.T. Robertson says that this initial question is a debater's phrase in the ancient world. Paul's predicting a logical inference that somebody might draw from what he said. And he uses the inferential conjunction un. Then to signal that, indeed, this is an inference, a logical inference that somebody may draw. Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Now that may seem like a logical inference from what Paul said back in chapter 5, verse 20. So what did Paul say in chapter 5, verse 20? He said, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So applying simple logic to that statement, we might conclude that, well, you know, believers really shouldn't worry about sinning since all it does is result in a greater manifestation of God's grace and thereby God's glory. And of course, many Christians have exploited this false logic in order to pursue a sinful life, to pursue licentiousness. God's grace will cover it, right? Whatever. Well, God's grace. God's. Now, of course, That type of argument is wildly contrary to grace. Grace is not permission to sin or license to sin. What grace is, is God's enablement that prevents sin. Prevents, not permits. It prevents sin when we avail ourselves of it. So the point is, of course, that we no longer have to sin. That should be something that's quite obvious from that question. We don't have to sin any longer. But if we really want to grasp the meaning of this passage, we have to look at the grammar. There's no way around it. Not at least in this translation of the Bible. Therefore, the first thing that we have to note is the word sin used in this verse and 16 other times in this chapter. It's used in identical fashion. This is sin preceded by the definite article. Now the definite article is just the, okay, in the English. The indefinite, of course, would be a. Sixteen times in this chapter, Paul says, the sin. That's not translated that way. I understand that. But that's what it says. And the sin equals what? The sin nature. It's not talking about personal sin. Shall we continue in personal sin? That's a bunch of nonsense. What this is saying is, shall we continue in the sin nature? Shall we continue to live in the sin nature or by the sin nature? Now this changes the entire focus of the passage. The passage then relates to the believer's life relative to his sin nature. Now we would point out right away that while many theologians today deny that we even have a sin nature, since we're believers in Christ, they say, well, no, that was done away with. Paul takes it for granted in verse 1 that we have a sin nature. And he takes it for granted that someone could persist to live in the sin nature. Otherwise, what's the point of the whole question? So we have this thing called the sin nature. What's the sin nature? We've defined it several times in previous weeks. It's a predisposition to sin. Due to our sin in Adam, we're conceived and born with this propensity. It just comes quite natural to live by the sin nature because that's who we are by nature, sinners. So Paul is going to use the sin throughout chapter 6 16 times and every time he's talking about the sin nature. So the passage is about how a believer is to live relative to the fact that he has a sinful nature still with him. Now second thing in verse 1 is the word continue and This refers to something which you once persisted in. To continue. Something which you once persisted in. So what did you once persist in before you were a believer? You persisted in your sin nature, meaning you lived in your sin nature continuously. So the question really is, Are we to continue, persist in the sin nature which we once persisted in as unbelievers? Is that how we're supposed to live? And certainly if that's true, then boy, grace is going to abound all the more and God's going to get all this glory. Isn't that good for God? Paul's response in verse 2 makes it quite clear what he thinks about that line of thinking. May it never be. Meganoita. Now this is the strongest possible way in the Greek to say no. May is an adverb, negation, genoita, become, became, to be, not, it's an optative mood, fifth class, meaning no possible way we'd say it shouldn't exist. They didn't know how to translate this over into English very well. Dan Wallace says, Meganoitai usually has the force of abhorrence. It's a very strong negative. It's a horrible thought that we should continue in the sin nature. We might say it this way. We might say perish the thought. Or as the King James Version says, God forbid. So Paul's point is that now that we're justified before God and have the indwelling Spirit, by no means should we continue living by the power of the sin nature. Never. Why not? Well, Paul's rhetorical question in verse 2 answers why not. How shall we who died to the sin nature still live in it? See, again, it's the sin. Talking about the sin nature. Now before salvation, we were obligated to live by the sin nature. There's no other way to live. How else are you going to live as an unbeliever? You don't have any other capacity. You don't have any other predisposition or propensity. Your propensity is driven by the nature which you are, which is sinful and Adam. So that's why the unbeliever is in a heap of trouble with God. But Paul reveals that something has happened now so that we don't have to live by the sin nature anymore. And in the question, he reveals what happened, and that is that we died to the sin nature. We died to it. And died in the Greek is emphatic, meaning it's the emphasis. And it's aorist intense. Again, all the aorist verbs. Aorist means it's done. I mean, it happened. You're dead to it. It's over. It's a once for all thing that happened. So this means we don't have to die to the sin nature every day. We're already dead to it. The day we believe we were dead to it. We were justified that same day. We were regenerated and dwelt by the Holy Spirit the same day and 30 other riches of divine grace happened on that day at that moment. It was not moment by moment, but it was in one moment. So God did tremendous things for us at the moment we believe. And the one being reported here is that we died to the sin nature. The word died means to cease to have vital functions. We usually think of it in terms of physical death. But he's saying here we don't have to live according to that sin nature anymore. That was then. This is now. Things have changed. We're not alive to sin, to sin nature anymore. So he's asking, then shall we still live in it? How shall we live as we did when we were unbelievers? The verb live is a future tense here, zao, and it refers to the life post-faith. Your life post-faith, or we would say in tense 2. You have been justified. That's tense 1. That's past. That's completed. It's done. But now tense 2. How shall we live? in it any longer. Now, intense too, in sanctification, in the ongoing experience of a Christian. Now, Paul's point is it's just inconceivable that we would go on living that way. It's just unthinkable. We can. Paul doesn't say that we can't still live in the sin nature, does he? But he's just saying it's unimaginable that we should. We're dead to that way of living. Why live that way? I mean, why would you even want to, really? That's not life, to live by the sin nature. The sin nature produces sin, and sin is death. And sin is always a foolish way to live. And so, to think that we should go on living that way borders on ignorance. So Paul asks in verse 3 whether they're ignorant or not. Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? He speaks to those who are the ignorant, the agnoete, those who are possibly ignorant. They don't perhaps know this very important fact that he's now about to spell out. Now they may know the first fact in verse 3, that is that we've been baptized into Christ Jesus, but do they not know the second fact too, that we've been baptized into His death? What does this mean? He's been baptized into his death. Is this water baptism? More than half commentators that I looked at launch immediately into some kind of spill about water baptism. The problem is that whatever this baptism is, it's what causes one to die to the sin nature. It's very hard. It's impossible. for me to imagine that going out into a river and getting baptized by some fellow is going to cause me to die to my sin nature. I'm just not seeing it. That's a spiritual truth. What happens in the water? That's a ritual. It's symbolic. It's a picture. It's a picture of what? It's a picture of the real baptism of the Spirit. It's a picture of the real baptism of the Spirit, which is what is here under discussion. The baptism of the Spirit is something that really happens. to you. It accomplishes something spiritual. And in this context, what the Spirit does in this baptism is He slays me, kills me to the power of the sin nature over me. He kills me to that. What the water baptism does is it paints a picture of what the Spirit does in His baptism. And it's a picture here in verses three and four, of course, that the Spirit really does. But when we go out into the water, it's a picture that we see here is portrayed in three stages. We go out into the water. We have two people. And One man is going to baptize another individual, right? Now here's the picture. When that individual is above the water, that's a picture of that person dying on the cross with Christ. Which really happened by means of the spirit of baptism. But this is a picture of that, right? Now when they are put under the water, that's a picture of the fact that that individual was buried with Christ. And when that individual comes back up, it's a picture of the empty tomb that that individual has been raised with Christ. So the baptism comes in three stages, the death, the burial and the resurrection. And that really happens spiritually speaking by means of the baptism of the spirit. And the water is picturing that the water baptism portrays that it's a ritual that gives us that picture and reminds us what the Holy Spirit did for that person at the moment of faith in Christ. So no man is the baptizer here in Romans chapter 6. This is the baptizer being the Spirit of God. He baptized me. He baptized you. And he did that at the moment of faith in Christ. Let's be clear about this word baptism. Which nobody wanted to translate. It just comes from the Greek word group, baptiso. All these words that come in the Greek depend on this root. What does this word mean anyway? It means to dip, to plunge, and this is the important part, so as to so essentially change the nature of something that it has a new identity. It really is two steps. in baptism. The first is the process of dipping or plunging and the second aspect is the result. The results which ensue. Now in the ancient world it was just in the mundane usage. They would take a fabric, say somebody wanted a purple tunic rather than a white one. So they would take a white tunic and they would dip it or plunge it into the dye. And then they would pull it up out of the dye And the tunic would be so essentially changed that it would be said to be a new tunic. It would have a new identity. And that is what baptism is all about. It is about a change in identity that has taken place. And that mundane usage of the term is used in scripture, but it's also used in a far more important theological usage. And this is the concept that we are seeing here. That is, when you believed in Jesus Christ, what God the Spirit did was He actively plunged you into the death of Christ so that you are now identified with Him in His death. It's just so that as He died for sin, so you died to your sinful nature by being put retroactively back through the cross by the Spirit of God. You're taken back, literally, in some sense by the Holy Spirit through the cross. It's not something you felt. You didn't feel nails going into your hands and feet or something of that nature. But it's a positional truth of something that truly spiritually happened. You don't feel these types of truths. And if you're waiting to feel it, you're just going to be waiting forever. It's not something you're going to feel. But it's something that happened. And it's something that is necessary to have happened for our sanctification to advance. You have to have died to the sin nature because otherwise you're an unbeliever and you're alive to the sin nature and you're obligated to live by it. And so if that is the situation then you could never do anything that was pleasing to God. You have to have been killed to the power of the sin nature over your life. Now, another thing here to point out in verse 3 is that both verbs, have been baptized, are aorist again. They're all aorist. It just means a past completed action. At a moment in time, it was done, it was accomplished, you were baptized. Similar to when we go out in the water and it just happens. I mean, it's quick. You know, we put you down, we bring you up, unless you're really bad and then we hold you down for a little while. And then you're standing there before God and you say, you know, the last thing I remember was they put me underwater. This is just something that just happens once you've been baptized into Christ's death. You don't need it to happen again. You shouldn't be seeking something more. What's happened is already totally sufficient, done by the Spirit of God. He doesn't do things halfway. So you don't have to have the power of your sin nature broken every day or day after day. We'll see later in verses 12 through 23. Yeah, you have to reckon that to be so every day. But whether you reckon it or not to be so, it's done. Now this is just another reason why we have eternal security. I'll keep this picture here. It's been quipped that you can get to eternal security a thousand and one different ways. And I found that to be true. Here's one. We have been baptized by the Spirit of God into Christ's death. Alright, so if we could lose our salvation, speculative, what would have to happen? Well, we'd have to be un-baptized out of Christ and baptized back into Adam. And then made alive once more to our sin nature. And friend, that's a reversal of everything that's pictured here. Where did you ever find a verse that teaches the reversal of this process, of this event that happened? It's not a process, it's an event. Would you ever read any passage that talks about a reversal of we died in Christ and now, oh wait, wait, wait. Now we're alive back to Adam. And oh, you were dead to sin but not anymore. Now you're alive to the sin nature once more. Now you have to live by it and you're obligated to live by it. No, the power of the sin nature was broken once for all the day that you believe. Now a final thing to notice is that This is interesting. As unbelievers, we were so identified with our sinful nature that he doesn't just say in verses 3 and 4 that our sin nature was baptized into his death. It says that we were baptized into his death as total people. So that the concept is that we were so thoroughly permeated and identified with sin prior to salvation that we were sin. There's no real distinction. There's just no other way around it here in verses 3 and 4. We would say that what this means then is that when you believed in Jesus Christ, God didn't say, well, I'm going to keep these good parts that you have here. and carry those over in your Christian life and add to that some good stuff, some more good stuff. The point is there was no good parts to keep and so the entirety of us had to die with Christ and therefore the entirety of us as we see will become made alive with Christ, we're new people. Now we are new people as we're going to see but there's a point of clarification and this point is that just because we're new people doesn't mean that we don't still have the sinful nature. We're dead to the sinful nature, but it does not say that the sinful nature is dead to us. Did you catch the difference? We are dead to the sin nature, but it does not say anywhere in the passage that the sin nature is dead to us. And verse 16 points out very clearly that we can still present ourselves as a slave to the sin nature and let the sin nature have its way or reign over us. Which reign is one of death, an experience of death? We'd say being at a fellowship with God. But as a position, see, we are dead to the sin nature. That means we don't have to allow it to rule over our lives anymore. We don't have to do that. That is what you have to get in your mind. You have to get in your mind that you are no longer obligated to live by your sin nature. You can, verse 16, you can present yourselves to sin and let it reign over you, but you're not obligated to sin. You were obligated as an unbeliever, but now things have changed. Now what came about after Christ's death? If we were to look at Christ's death, and we have it pictured here through water baptism, but what happened after Christ's death? Well, they took his body and they buried it, right? They put it in a tomb. In verse 4, what came after our death with him? Well, granted, these things all happen in a moment of time, but verse 4, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. In other words, to show the death that really happened. What was the burial of Christ really all about? I mean, who cares? Why does Romans 15 verses 3 and 4 say, I'll tell you the gospel, right? Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried. raised on the third day according to the scriptures and then appeared to many. Why does it add the burial and the appearances? What function do they have? The burial was the historical evidence that he really died. The appearance are the historical evidence that he really rose. Those aren't essentially the gospel. The gospel essentially is he died and he rose. Those are the historical evidences in space and time in public so that men could know, yes, he died. He was buried in a tomb. I mean, the guy's dead. And he rose. He appeared to lots of people. I mean, it's obvious he rose. More than 500 at one time, he appeared to. The burial here is the historical evidence that Christ really did die. And what's the historical evidence? That we really died to our sin nature. It says we have been buried with Him. Again, Aristenses. These are all Aristenses. This all just happened at a moment in time when we believe. We were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, spiritually speaking. Now, if you think this is unique, turn briefly, hold your place here, and go to Colossians chapter 2. If you see Ephesians, keep going right. If you see Philippians, keep going and then you're there. If you're over in 1st and 2nd Timothy or something like that, go back to the left. Colossians, written a few years later. And instead of just starting in 2.12, let's look at 2.9. One of the most solid statements on the beauty of Christ in all Scripture. For in Him, that's Jesus Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Now how could Jesus Christ not be God? I mean, how could it get more than the fullness? All the fullness. Verse 10. And in Him, it's in Jesus Christ, who's God-man in the flesh, you have been made complete. Complete. Entire. Do you need anything else? You're complete. "...and He is the head over all rule and authority." What does that mean? It means He's seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven above all angelic powers. In verse 11, "...and in Him you are also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." He's talking about the destruction of our sinful nature. "...having been buried with Him in baptism." Hey, there it is. Same thing talked in Romans 6. in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, with Christ, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And he's taken it all out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Bingo. I mean, you want to talk about a package deal. We died. We were buried. We were raised, forgiven of all our sins. The whole thing is canceled and wiped out. Why? To live a new life with Him. He is our life. He is our everything. The life I live, Paul says, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. He says I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. I just wanted to show you these truths aren't isolated. See, they're over in other places. So let's go back to Romans 6. What happened after the burial? We have the death, then we have the burial. What happened after the burial? After three days, what? The resurrection. Why the resurrection? It's a new life. Christ is a new immortal human life. He has immortality. He's a genuine human. I mean, there's actually a physical body sitting on the Father's throne in heaven right now that is the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. A true human's at the helm of the universe, friends. That's a startling thought. The true human's sitting there. So, what happens to us after our death and burial, spiritually speaking, by means of the Spirit, with Him? In 6.4 we have a purpose clause. Why were we baptized into His death and buried with Him? So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Now this newness of life, this is a resurrection life that we're to live now. In other words, we're already spiritually resurrected. We're still here in our mortal bodies, but we have been spiritually resurrected in the sense that we have a new nature that we are to live by. that's contrary to our old sin nature. And he says we're to walk in that resurrection life now. I mean, it's not something in the future. It's something we're to live in now. We've already been raised spiritually. This is just an indicative. It's just a statement of fact about who we are. We were baptized into his death, point of fact. We were buried with him, point of fact. We were raised to walk a new resurrection life, point of fact. Now the way of that new life is of course the same way that Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father. We have glory here, doctrine, glory, but in this context we're looking at in terms of majestic power. How was Christ raised? Multiple passages say over and over and over that Christ was raised by the majestic power of God or by the power of God or by the strength of God's might. Glory here refers to the majestic power of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And it's that strength, that omnipotence that is toward us to live a new life. There's no difference in the source of power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the exact same power that is toward you to live the new life. There's no difference whatsoever. The verb walk from Peripateo, from that verb. This verb is one of my favorite verbs. John uses it all the time elsewhere. He says, little children, I love to see you walking in the tree. It means the manner of how you go about your life, how you conduct your life. You know, day by day living. Peripateo, to walk, means to walk around, technically. It just means to walk around. Perry is where we get perimeter, right? Perimeter, the distance around an object. Patel, to walk. To walk around. How do you walk around? How do you live your life? That's what this word's all about. And he's saying there's a new life that we're to walk in, right? A new life. And this new life is the life that we're dead to sin. The sinful nature. And alive to God. And now, therefore, we can live this new existence. Now to tap into how, How that all works, our responsibility, of course, we have to go to verses 12 through 23. That tells us our what we're supposed to reckon daily and consider daily in the realm of these positional truths so that in our experience we have that new life. Well. All right, so what have we seen? Well, we've seen important things in six one. Paul expects a possible logical inference from his statement in 520 to the effect that the more we sin, the more grace abounds, so shall we just go on living in sin so that grace may increase? In 6.2, Paul answers, perish the thought. We shouldn't live that way. How shall we who died to the sin nature still live in it? Perish the thought. In 6.3, Paul answers by questioning their knowledge. I mean, do you not know that as many as you were baptized into Christ Jesus, you were baptized into His death? You've been identified with Christ in his death and you're dead to your sin nature. You're not obligated to obey the sinful nature anymore. Six for not only did we die with him, we were buried with him through baptism. So that in the exact same way that Christ was raised from the dead by the majestic power, the omnipotence of the father to raise him out of the death that covered the planet, only one raised up. So to in that same strength God's power can focus on you to enable you to live a new life. In conclusion then, what can we learn? Five things. Sure more, but we'll point out five. There is no license to sin or to persist in sin or the sinful nature. supplied by God's grace. Grace is not a license to sin. Grace is God's enablement to prevent us from sin. The second thing, it's just inconceivable that we walk or live in the sin nature. That's just inconceivable to Paul. No way. She didn't walk that way. That's contrary to who we are. The third thing. There's been a change in identity. We are not who we once were. We've been identified with Christ and His death and His burial and His resurrection. We're new people. The fourth thing is that this happened in an instant in time. It's not something you experience. It's not something you feel. It's not something that happens multiple times throughout your Christian life. It happens only one time, when you first believe, and at that time we were retroactively killed, buried, and risen to live a new life. All done. So it's positional. Not experiential. And the fifth thing we can gather from here is God's power is toward us. to live this new resurrection long. In other words, you can't do it in your own power. Just because you have a new nature and new identity and positional truth, blah, blah, blah, all that doesn't go anywhere unless you have the power of God toward you. But the power of the sin nature is necessary. That had to be broken. And we're no longer obligated to live that way. But we're obligated to live a new resurrection long through the new nature. And we'll be learning more truths about this in the coming weeks. I hope this is helpful as far as learning how to live the Christian life. We're not done more. Let's close just now in a moment of prayer. Dear gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for revealing these truths to us because apart from which this was written, we couldn't understand or know what the Spirit had done for us at the moment of faith in Christ relative to the sin nature and how we ought to live a new life. We pray, Lord, that in our study of sanctification, you will build up our minds and wonderful truths to give us the basics of this dimension of salvation, tense two, and teach us how to live. Help us to employ these principles in our life so that we can have overcoming victorious lives as Christians. We thank you, Lord, that you've made such wonderful provision for us, giving us the Spirit of God. And if we'll but learn these principles and learn how to depend on Him and do it more habitually so as our life progresses in the Word of God, then of course we will have progressive victory over sin, nature. We ask the Lord to bless these teachings in our lives and help them to become sections of Scripture that we return to often, to be replenished, to be reinvigorated, to continue walking because if you are for us, who can be against us? Christ's name we pray. Amen.