Romans chapter 6, reading verses 7 through 11. Now he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Reckon yourselves dead. We continue to open up Paul's answer to the absurd question that was presented in verse 1. And you remember what that question was? That question was, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And it is certainly an absurd question, the very idea that a Christian would want to continue in sin. It's just against everything the Scriptures teach, against everything that the Gospel shows us, against everything of our experience as Christians, that Christians just do not want to continue in sin. It's not the motive of a Christian. And the more we get into this, and the more we go along in chapter 6, We see more and more how absurd the question is. We see more and more how ridiculous it is to even pose the question. And Paul's answer to that question, he answers it with a question. And that question is a resounding, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? God forbid, he says. He answers that with a question, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? God forbid that Christians should continue sin, seeing as how they are dead to sin. They cannot live any longer in sin. Now we stated at the beginning in our very first message from Romans 6 that we believe Paul to be speaking here of our judicial death with Christ. And I think as we come to this section, especially verse 11, I think it will become more clear to us that this is what Paul is aiming at. Because we're told in verse 11 to, quote, reckon ourselves dead to sin. We're told that this is what we're to regard concerning ourselves. The word reckon here in our text now, in verse 11, it is the same Greek word that is used several times in Romans chapter 4. I forget now just how many times it's in there, at least 10 times, and I can't remember exactly how many, but the Greek word that's translated reckon and impute and count, that is the same Greek word that we have here in verse 11. And you remember how that in chapter 4, Paul was showing us the great doctrine of imputation, how that God counts us, He counts the believer as righteous because of the Lord Jesus Christ. He credits the righteousness of Christ to His people, and so that He imputes to them the righteousness of His Son, and He imputes their sins to Christ. And so it's that same idea that is given to us here in verse 11. We're told to impute it to ourselves. We are told to reckon ourselves to be dead in sin. He's telling us to impute that to ourselves. This is the way a believer is to regard himself, he is to think of himself, consider himself, and impute to himself that he is dead to sin. This is what you're always to be thinking of yourself. You're to regard yourself in this category and in this realm. You've been delivered from that realm of sin in which there was death and bondage and all that, you're dead to all that had been brought into a different realm. Because of our union with Christ and because of his death for our sins, we as believers are not under the realm of sin anymore. And you remember how at the end of chapter 5 we had that idea of sin reigning and of grace reigning. And before we were converted, before we were saved, before we were born again, before we believed in the Lord Jesus, sin was reigning under death. But now grace more abounds. through righteousness unto eternal life. You have that idea of two different reigns, two different realms, two different kingdoms here. We were over here in this kingdom, and because of Christ, we've been brought out of that and brought over here in Christ's realm. And so we think of ourselves as being dead to that where we used to be. Because judicially, we aren't. through the death of Christ. And by judicial, be sure that everybody understands what we mean by that. By judicial, what we mean is, is how the Lord Jesus Christ, in His saving work, how that He works for His people along the lines of justice, along the lines of the courtroom. And it's been declared in God's court that we are righteous because of Christ, and it's been declared that our sins were dealt with by Him. There's been a statement made in the court of God, and the records in God's court say that we as believers are not guilty anymore. We stand righteous before Him. This is what we mean by judicial death. The Lord Jesus Christ dying. We died with Him. He was representing us and so Now, God counts us as being righteous, and Paul is still dealing here with that judicial aspect of the saving work of Christ. He's building on this as a foundation. In chapter 8, he's going to go more into the specifics of sanctification and of the internal work of the Holy Spirit. But right now, he's still, as it were, showing us the foundation of all this, the groundwork for it. And this is our judicial standing in Christ. Judicially, we are dead to sins. And so, Paul would have us to impute that to ourselves. We are to count ourselves as being dead to sin. We're to reckon ourselves dead to sin. In other words, we're to think of ourselves as what we are. We're to think of ourselves in terms of where we stand and who we are. Now, I've made this statement in previous messages, and we hope to go a little stronger and further with it, expand upon it tonight. But our judicial death with Christ is a very powerful motivation to a holy life. Believing in that, believing in Christ and believing that we are indeed dead with Him judicially, believing that is a powerful motivation to a holy life. It is one of the most powerful motivations for the Christian. And as I say, we hope to build upon that some more tonight. But this is what Paul is bringing to our minds tonight by telling us to reckon ourselves to be dead. He's giving us the motivation that we have as Christians for holy life and the motivation that we will not continue in sin. It appears that this is a way that Paul is setting forth his antidote for antinomianism. We could title Romans chapter 6 as Paul's antidote for antinomianism. And you know what antinomianism is. Antinomianism means against the law. Antinomianism is the idea that being saved by grace, that it doesn't matter how you live. And there are some people that believe that. There are some people that believe that since salvation is all of grace, it really doesn't matter how you live. Now, some folks would say that it might matter about whether or not you have the joy of your salvation, some would say. Or some might say that it would mean that you would have time salvation if you wanted to cease from sin and live a holy life. Or there might be added blessings upon you, this sort of thing. That's not what Paul is saying here in Romans 6. Paul is saying that it's just a matter of course that Christians will live a holy life in the way he uses the verb should a couple of times in Romans 6. For instance, as he says in Romans 4, we also should walk in newness of life. the new life that we have in Christ. He's not saying here something that's optional. He's saying it's a matter of course that a believer will walk in newness of life. God's ordained, as He says in Ephesians 2.10, that we should walk in good works. And then He says here in verse 6 that henceforth we should not serve sin. It's a matter of course. It's just a regular course of events, a standard operating procedure, as we used to say in the service, that Christians will not serve sin, and that they will walk in unison life. He's not telling us something here that's an option for us. He's telling us something here that is attendant to the Christian life, something that consequently and necessarily follows our believing in Christ. This is an antidote for antinomianism, and Paul certainly was not an antinomian. And true free grace believers will not be antinomians. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? God forbid, shall we that are dead to sin continue any longer therein? Paul is just showing us that there's no way that a true Christian can be an antinomian. And when people excuse their licentious lives, By pleading for grace, they're showing that they really don't know what grace is all about. When people say that, try to excuse their sinful behavior. Like a man in a church that I pastored one time, that the word came to me that he had been getting drunk, and so I went to see him and confronted him with his sin. And his own family members had told me that. It wasn't a gossip. It wasn't a rumor. It wasn't an idle tale somebody was telling on him. But I went to confront him with his sin. And he admitted he had been getting drunk regularly. And when I confronted him with that and called upon him to repent of it, his answer was, well, our church believes in salvation by grace. Well, I said, sir, Our church does believe in salvation by grace, and the Bible teaches salvation by grace, but it's the kind of grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness, and it's the kind of grace that delivers us from the power of sin. And so Paul, here in Romans 6, is just is just completely showing us the unbiblical position of anybody who would raise the idea that you can continue in sin and still be saved. A person that wants to continue in sin is showing that he's not saved. And a person that continues in sin, never repenting of it, never turning from it, never struggling against it, never fighting against it, he's showing that the grace of God is not really in him. One of the great motivations for us not to continue in sin is for us to always be aware of who we are and where we stand. This is what Paul is saying here when he calls us to reckon ourselves to be dead in sin. And so, let us first of all remind ourselves of who we are. And we go all the way back to chapter 1 and verse 7, where Paul greets the Christians at Rome And those of us who are Christians today, all who will read his epistle and are Christians as these at Rome were, he addressed them as beloved of God and called to be saints. That's who we are. Believers, God's people. This is who we are. We are beloved of God. loved of Him in eternity, and because of that great love wherewith He loved us, He's called us to be saints. He's called us out from darkness. He's called us out of this world and its darkness and into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called us out of the realm of sin. And He's called us into life in Christ by that holy calling. We are made partakers of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul would have us, as we reckon ourselves to be dead, he's just reminding us of who we are. Reminding us that we're God's saints. These are the characters that he is addressing in the book of Romans and in the text. And this is who we are who believe in Christ. And then he reminds us of where we stand. He tells us that our standing is in Christ. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's reminding us that our standing is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is something we need to always keep in mind as you reckon yourselves to be dead. Remember of your standing, that you're standing in Christ. And this is the reason that some believers who have struggles with assurance. I've known a few people in my life. In fact, I've been this way myself some over the years. And I imagine you have a little bit. But there are some believers who seem like never can get past it. And as soon as they have a sinful thought or as soon as they fall into sin, the very first thing they do is begin questioning whether or not they're Christians or not. Well, Paul says here, reckon yourselves to be dead. By always knowing where you're standing, then we don't have to do like the papists who never know where they stand. We never have to be concerned that we've lost our standing until we do something, recover ourselves by our good works, our penance, our confession, or anything like that. Paul is reminding us here of where we stand. And he shows us this, for example, in verse 8, when he says that we're joined to Christ. If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. He's just showing us here of our standing, being joined to Christ. We died with Him, and rose with Him, and He represents us now in Heaven. This is who we are, and this is where we stand. And this is some of what's involved in reckoning ourselves to be dead under sin, because we're joined to Christ, you see, we're united to Him. As we impute to ourselves, or count to ourselves that we are dead to sin, we simply cannot continue in sin. When we're aware of our standing, we're aware that we belong to Christ, we're aware that we're dead to sin, we just cannot continue in sin, knowing that, believing that, being convinced of it. And I think this shows us how that the whole Christian life is indeed a matter of grace through faith in Christ. We often say that to the unconverted and to seekers. We often say to those who are seeking the way of salvation, And whenever we're preaching the gospel and showing men the way of salvation, we emphasize this. It's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But that's something that's still true for us as believers. See, reckon yourselves. It's a matter of faith. Impute to yourself that you're dead to sin. What is Paul saying by that? He's saying that you still live by faith. It was faith that got you through the door of conversion. It was by faith that you came to Christ for salvation in the day that you were being converted, and when you were born again, and you were being brought saving to the Lord Jesus. You saw then it was all by faith, didn't you? You just believed in Christ. You ask a Christian, what did you do to get saved? Well, I didn't do anything. It was all of grace. It was grace through faith. And I saw it was just a free gift. And I just saw it was unmerited favor. And I saw that it was all of Christ. I just believed that. It wasn't about doing. It wasn't about working. It wasn't about improving myself and getting better. I just believed in Christ. See, we're still believing in Christ. And we're still living by faith. We weren't saved by grace so that we can start keeping ourselves saved by works. We weren't saved by faith. We weren't justified by grace alone through faith in Christ alone so that we can go the rest of the way by ourselves. No, the Christian life is always a matter of faith. It's always a matter of grace. It's always a matter of our standing in Christ. You see, even your sanctification is in Christ. We have Christ for everything. Christ is, well, as he says there in 1 Corinthians 1 in verse 30, that of Him He's made unto us righteousness and sanctification and redemption and, well, and wisdom. That's the first one. I left that one out. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Christ is all of it. This is what Paul is pointing us to here. The reason that we don't continue in sin is because we're living by faith. We're living by grace. We're living on Christ and living through him. And Paul says, reckon that to yourself, impute it to you, and always remember that it's a matter of faith. Whenever you have stumbled and fallen into some sin, say you've lost your temper. You know, we forget sometimes what a grievous sin that is. But when we're painfully reminded of it, so you lose your temper, and immediately you're stricken in your heart, and you repent, how could I fly off the handle like that at my family members, or friends, and you begin to think, well, am I really a Christian? Well, that's not living by faith when you do that. No, you repent of the sin. Confess it to God. You ask for His forgiveness and you experience forgiveness all through Christ. But then you don't have to struggle whether or not you lost your salvation. You don't have to struggle whether or not you're a Christian because, you see, you're reckoning yourselves to be dead to sin. You're reckoning yourself. You're considering what your whole standing is and how you stand in Christ. The whole Christian life is a matter of grace through faith in Christ, and that's true for sanctification as well as justification. But let us see how that reckoning ourselves to be dead has a power for our sanctification. Again, I believe here in Romans 6, Paul is primarily still building on that foundation of justification. He's not just completely going off and leaving it. You remember how last Wednesday evening I asked you to race ahead to Romans chapter 8, there in verse 1, where justification and sanctification are vitally connected. There's therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus. Justification. To them who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You see, they're vitally joined together. They can't be disconnected. justification and sanctification. So while Paul is still laying, while he's laying down here our judicial death in Christ as the great motivator of why we will not continue in sin and why we will live a holy life, he's still laying his introduction for sanctification. That he's, this section here in Romans 6, 7, and 8, he's laying the groundwork for that. And so let us see here how that reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin does have a power for our sanctification. In verse 7 we are told that the believer is in a completely different realm than he was as an unbeliever. Look at verse 7. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now this is what Paul is telling us to impute to ourselves. He's telling us to count ourselves that way. He tells us here, he that is dead, who is that? It's a Christian. It's the believer. Those for whom Christ died. God's elect. All the different ways you could say it, but we'll say it here as believers. The believer is dead to sin. And being dead to sin, that being dead, the believer is dead, and being judicially dead, he is freed from sin. Now, I want to say just a little bit here on verse 7, and I want you to note with me, if you have a center column reference, or if you have the marginal note, the translators give us a marginal note there, that in verse 7, he that is dead is freed from sin. The word freed there is translated from the same root word that is translated as justify. When you get to reading the expositors on this, you get to reading what the different theologians and preachers have said, you'll see that there's actually a little bit of warm debate on how this ought to be translated here. And some have, I think, gone out on a limb and said that it ought to be translated, he that is dead is justified from sin. I'm always very reluctant to go against the translators of our authorized translation. I recognize that there's places where studying the Greek and the different ways that a word can be translated opens up richer meanings for us and helps us see the fullness of the thought that's being expressed. I'm told by the Greek authorities that the Greek language is a richer language than our language. In the Greek language, one word can express a greater depth of thought than we can express by one word. But what I want to say about this, Rather than get into some complicated argument about this, or rather than paint ourselves in a corner by questioning the translation here, let's just think about some things here as regarding this. The first thing I did, I went and checked how the Geneva translators translated this, because I consider that to be the second best translation. If I ever quit using an authorized version, I'm not going to get a newer translation, I'm going to get an older one. And in the Geneva translation, you will see that the Geneva translators translate the same way. as the AV. They use this word, they translate it as freed. So again, I'm always honest with you. I don't claim to be a Greek on the authority. I don't claim to be an authority on the Greek. I don't claim to be a scholar in the Greek language. But I do read what the scholars have to say about it and read what the authorities in the Greek language say. And having checked these things, it appears to me that our translators had good reason for using this English word, free, in translating here. Now, this is the only place in the New Testament where this Greek word, and you remember from the times we first looked at it back in Chapter 3, it's dikasune, is the root word that's there. And in most places they do use the word justify and the various forms of justify. But let us think about this. That justification does free the Christian, does it not? It makes us free. And this is the idea that Paul is again not leaving the foundation, he's not leaving the groundwork of justification, even as he's going on to the basis of our sanctification. And so the idea here that the Holy Spirit inspired him in using the same Greek word that carries with it the idea of justification, it's in justification that we are made free. We have a judicial freedom in justification. We have liberty in Christ. We have freedom from sin through justification. And so what Paul is telling us here is that we really are free people. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ said back over in John chapter 8, I believe it's verse 32, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall what? Shall make you free. There's freedom in being a Christian. There's freedom in being a Christian that you have nowhere else. The person who is yet unconverted, who is yet unregenerate, who is yet unbelieving, he's a slave. He's nothing more than a slave to sin. He's under the bondage of it. He's in the power of darkness, as it says in Colossians 1.13. And what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in his saving work has been a killing work. It's been a destroying work. It's had the power of killing that which had the power over us so that we're now dead to it. And we're free from sin, you see. And so this is a great basis, a great foundation, a great motivation for our sanctification. Again, of knowing what we are, who we are, and where we stand, and knowing that we are indeed free people. And I'll use the illustration again. The idea I think that Paul is bringing to us here is to remind us that it's kind of like whenever I got out of the service. After I got out of the service, it took me a good while that if I happen to be somewhere and you see somebody, you see an army officer, and you recognize he's a captain. You know, your first urge is to give the salute. But see, after you get out of the service, you don't have to give the salute anymore. You're not under the authority of the army anymore in that sense. There's something along this is what Paul is telling us as Christians that when Satan would tempt us and when we're having a struggle with the old nature just remember that that doesn't have any authority over you anymore. It doesn't have any power over you whatsoever. You're dead to it and so you're a free person. Impute that to yourself. Impute that to yourself that you are free because of justification in Christ, because of judicial death, you're a free person. Then in verses 9 through 10, he shows us that sin hath no more dominion over Christ. Let's read it. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. He shows us here that sin has no more dominion over Christ. Now there was a time when sin had dominion over Christ. And you know when that was? That's when he was hanging on the cross. When our Lord Jesus Christ undertook as our surety. He had been our surety. And you know what a surety is? A surety is somebody that stands good for somebody else's obligation. Say your child wants to make a loan to buy their first car, or to buy their first house, or their first little piece of land. And they've got the money for the down payment, but they never have borrowed the money before, and they really don't have what you call a credit rating. And so the banker says, everything looks good, but I'd like for you to debt it as cosign for you. And so you go in and cosign. And by becoming a cosigner, you become surety. And that means that if your son or your daughter, your child becomes delinquent in the loan, they become at default and don't pay the loan, then you're obligated to pay it. You're the surety. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people in the covenant of grace. He became our surety. He stood good for all of our obligations. And so when our loan fell into default, When we fell in Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ came as our surety to pay the debt. And so He, as it were, came under dominion of that obligation. He came under the dominion of sin. He willingly undertook to be our sin-bearer. And as our surety and as our sin-bearer, Christ stood good for all our obligation. Though He had no sin of His own, He took our own sins upon Himself and answered for them on the cross. At that time, He was under the dominion of sin. God treated Him as a sinner because He had our sins upon Him. He had no sins of His own, but He had the sins of all of His people. He had the sins of His elect people that had been given to Him in the covenant of grace. And so he answered for the sins of his people. And oh, what grace that was that Christ should undertake to be under the dominion of sin. Is that not a glorious display of the charming, amazing grace of our Heavenly Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He undertook and came under the dominion of sin? But in His death, He put away all our sins. In dying for our sins, the penalty was paid. He answered for those sins and they have been completely atoned for. So Christ is not under their dominion anymore. You see that? Those sins are atoned for. God is satisfied. And so Christ is not under that dominion anymore. And neither are we. This is what Paul is driving at here by our union with Christ. We're not under dominion of sin anymore than Christ is under dominion of sin. We are joined savingly to the Lord Jesus. He is our surety. He is our representative. Those sins are atoned for. And so Christ is not under their dominion and neither are we. God is completely just. He does not put His people nor His Son in double jeopardy. And when the verdict has been rendered not guilty, the Lord Jesus Christ will never have to come back under that load again. They've been answered for once for all. And as sin can no more have dominion over Christ, it cannot have dominion over the believer either. Christ is raised from the dead and shall die no more. He shall raise us from the dead and we shall die no more. Paul mentions that, points us to the resurrection there in verse 8 as one of the glorious things of our union with Christ. Christ is raised from the dead and shall die no more. When He appears the second time, it will be without sin unto salvation. He appeared the first time as a sin-bearer and came under the dominion of sin, but now is out from under that dominion and so are we. Christ represented us, stood as our surety, and death has no more dominion over us any more than it has on Christ. And this you are to impute to yourselves. You are to always account to yourself. You're always to reckon yourselves as not being under the dominion of sin. It has nothing to do with you anymore. It has no power over you. It has no dominion over you. Completely saved from that dominion. Count yourselves as dead to sin, for Christ died and put away your sin. Brethren, the death of Christ is a powerful incentive for a holy life. This is what Paul is pointing us to here in reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin. He reminds us that Christ died once and now is not under the dominion of sin. Let's go a little further with this. I've mentioned this several times the past few weeks in talking about how the judicial death and the death of Christ is a great influence upon us to live a holy life. It is a great moving force in the believer. It is a great motivation for us to live a holy life. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, Paul tells us there, "...the love of Christ constraineth us." Knowing that Christ loved us so much that He came under the dominion of sin for us, and died for us, and put away our sins, that has a constraining effect on the believer, doesn't it? It does on me. Paul said it did on him. I know it does on you. The love of Christ constrains us. The believer comes under some temptation. He is tempted in some way to commit some sin. And he's tempted. And here's one of the things that constrains him. Here's one of the things that helps him in the battle. Here's one of the things that keeps him from succumbing to the temptation. You know, the Lord said He'd give us a way of escape in every temptation, and here's one of the ways we escape. The love of Christ constrains us. How could I do that? My Lord Jesus Christ loved me so much that He died for me and put away my sin. How could I go and do that? It constrains me. It holds me back from yielding to temptation. In 1 Corinthians 6.20, we see another place in which Paul brings this to us, how that the death of Christ and how that our being represented in the judicial death of Christ, how that it has a motivation for our sanctification. 1 Corinthians 6.20, For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. What's Paul reminding us here? He's reminding us that we don't belong, that we're not our own. We don't belong to ourselves. Fact is, nobody owns themselves. God owns everything. He owns the believer and the unbeliever. But He has a special property right in the believer. Because the Lord Jesus Christ has bought us with his own blood. We are bought with the price of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Lord Jesus Christ has special property rights in you. You're a Christian. You believe in Christ. You belong to Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ has special property rights in you. You belong to Him. And reckon that to yourself. Impute that to yourself. That I don't belong to myself. the Lord Jesus Christ owns me he bought me with his blood the Christian only has one right and that's to live a holy life because he was bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews 9.14 we read how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Again, this idea of reckoning yourself, imputing to yourself, of regarding where you are and who you are and what your standing is, the blood of Christ purges our conscience. It has a cleansing power on us that we might be purged from dead works to serve the living God. It's a great motivation. It is the greatest of motivations to us. not to continue in sin. The great motivation to live a holy life is found in death in Christ and our judicial death with Him. Thus you see how the atoning work of Christ keeps a believer from continuing in sin. Therefore, reckon yourselves dead to sin, for Christ died for you, and you died with Him. Therefore, we are raised with Him to walk in newness of life. And now may the Lord add His blessing to the word this evening, and may we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin.