You are studying this most important book, and perhaps I should say the most important book of the New Testament. However, of course, without the Gospel record of Christ, we would not be able to understand this. All of God's Word is necessary. It fits together. We are in the fourth part of our survey. of the book of Romans. Romans 6, I'll just read again verses 1 and 2 since we read this earlier. Romans 6, verse 1 and 2. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in it? We have taken a look at our problem, and it is a big problem. Man is a sinner without exception. He is a sinner, and sin has invaded and pervaded every nook and cranny of his life. Now, that might not be that big of a problem were it not for the second fact that we know, and that is God is holy. He is infinitely holy, he is infinitely indignant at the least sin, and therefore we started our study back in Romans 1 verse 18 with the fact that God's wrath is manifested from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. We have a huge, seemingly insolvable problem And yet, we have seen in our study as well, starting in the middle of chapter three, that God has taken our problem upon himself. In infinite love and mercy and condescension, he has made our problem his problem. He has decided to intervene, to do something about this hopeless situation in which we are found, and he does it. through sending his own son into this world to live for us the life that we could not live, to die for us the death we could not afford to die, to take our place, to produce what we needed, a righteousness, the very commodity of which we are so deficient. He produces a righteousness that is given to us through faith, solely by faith. With no contribution from ourselves, we simply receive what God has done for us. Now, I'm a very frustrated preacher to try to pass over all of that as quickly as we have done is very frustrating because there's so much that I've left unsaid. I know you don't think that. You have wondered how in the world could I have said so much, but trust me, from a preacher's point of view, how could I have said so little about this huge thing called the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, we find that the gospel has another aspect to it. We have been talking so far about what we call justification, that is, an objective act of God whereby he declares the sinner not guilty for the sake of the righteousness of his son imputed to them by faith. But salvation also involves the other side of the coin. It's called sanctification. the actual eradication of sin from our natures, from our lives. In other words, positionally, God has declared us not guilty. He has declared that there is no sin to be laid to our charge, to our account, and now He takes upon Himself the work of actually removing the pollution and the defilement of sin. And I know most treatments of this subject begin the study of sanctification here in Romans, chapter 6. However, in my thinking, we actually start that subject back in Romans, chapter 5, verse 12, the last half of Romans, chapter 5. Because, in my mind, this passage is the swing passage. It's the bridge. It's the bridge that connects justification with sanctification. On the one hand, we don't want to confuse the two, or confound the two, or mix or mingle the two. We do great damage to the gospel. In fact, that's what Roman Catholicism has done. It has confused and confounded justification and sanctification. But on the other hand, the danger that you and I, from a Protestant perspective, are probably more in danger of doing is completely divorcing justification and sanctification, treating them as if they have no relationship to one another. And what Paul does in the second half of Romans, chapter 5, is to contrast two Adams. two public persons. Now, I hope you understand what I mean by public person. It is a person whose actions go beyond himself. He is a representative of others. Our president, for instance, is a public person. What he does has more ramifications than just for himself personally, because he represents us. And so what we see is in the last half of Romans chapter 5 is that there are two heads of the race, if you will. Two heads of a people. One is Adam, the other is Christ. And the consequences of the works of both those two heads are very vividly displayed before us in the last half of Romans 5. Because we learn that it was by the one man, Adam, by that one man's one act, sin invaded this world and an entire world was not only guilty, but an entire world became polluted with sin. We are not only positionally sinners because of Adam. It would be sort of like if back in the Cold War, if the United States, if our president had decided to push the button and to send all the missiles to the Soviet Union. You can be sure, you can bet your bottom dollar, that when the Russians retaliated, they wouldn't be launching all those missiles at Washington, D.C. You say, well, wait a minute, why are you sending a missile at me? He's the one that pushed the button. Why don't you send them all to Washington? Because you see, his act stands for us. And it's not just he that goes to war, we go to war. In the same sense, and in the eyes of the Russians, it's not just the President that's their enemy, it's America that's their enemy, right? One man can do that because he stands for the others. And so it is in the rebellion of Adam, the whole race then becomes guilty before God. But it's not just the fact that his act is imputed to us, that the guilt of his action is seen as our action, but his act has polluted his nature and ours because of the organic unity of the race, that we are all descended from him. We're all born of fallen Adam. Not of Adam before the fall, but Adam after the fall, after the lights have gone out. the lights of God's glory, the light that rejoiced in God, that was extinguished in the fall. Now we are born of polluted humanity, do you see? And so it is not just that his sin is imputed to us, yes, that's true, and as evil as that is, his act actually makes us sinners. Notice how that is expressed over in Romans 5. Verse 19, look at the first part of this. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. And that's just not positionally true. That's true, in fact, in actuality, because of his sin, the whole race is made up of sinners descended from him. And notice the contrary side of this in verse 19 of Romans 5, "...by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Now, I'm sure that if you're hearing this for the first time, you say, well, wait a minute, let me get this straight, preacher. You mean that the entire race that lives today was made guilty under the condemnation of God and sinful Because of one man's act, an act of a man I never knew, I didn't vote for him, at least if the president's in the office. We elected him. I didn't elect Adam to stand for me. I didn't elect Adam to voice my opinion as far as God's rule is concerned. It's unfair that Adam's sin should be imputed to me and that the pollution of his sin be given to me." Well, let me make a couple of comments. Number one, you're assuming you'd have done any better. That had God held us each individually responsible as he put Adam in that place of having to make that decision of whether to honor or rebel against God, you're assuming that you would have done better than him. Maybe you've got a higher opinion of yourself than I do, but I don't suspect you or I would have done any better than Adam that we would have fallen right on our face just like he fell on his face. And secondly, this thing that you call unfairness, the fact that one head of his people, his actions are imputed to them, and they are seen as having done it, even though they didn't do it themselves individually and personally, Do you understand that this principle that you're calling unfair is the only hope we got? It's the only hope of the sinner that someone else can be the head whose actions are the right actions, the just actions, the holy actions, and that those actions can be imputed to me as my head. Do you understand? That's the only hope I've got as a sinner. Actual righteousness isn't going to get me there. Imputed righteousness is my only hope. So, when I read the last half of Romans 5, my heart leaps. Maybe there's hope for me. Because if what one man did in making me a sinner doomed me, then perhaps what another does in righteousness can save me. And so we see these two men, Adam and Christ, standing at the head of a people and each of their actions imputed to their people. And by the way, again, I point you to Romans 5.19. It wasn't just that those descended from Adam were made sinners positionally. Oh yes, that happened. But as you only have to look around and examine your own heart and life to realize that you and I were made sinners actually, It wasn't just the guilt of sin imputed to us, it was the pollution and the presence of sin, right? And we took that pollution and we improved on it. We really made it polluted. We added our second to Adam's motion, if you will. But notice the second half of verse 19, By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. And if Adam's act didn't just make us guilty and sinners positionally, but actually made us sinners, then may I suggest that the corresponding work of Christ not only makes us righteous positionally, but makes us righteous in fact and in deed, which is what sanctification is all about. It is not just the guilt of our sin, it is the fact of our sin, and it is those two things that the work of Christ now comes about to eradicate. We have two realms. A realm over here where the law works, brings about sin, which brings about death. Over here we have the gospel, which works by the Spirit, bringing about life. Two kingdoms, if you will. Two realms, as opposite as night and day, with two heads over each of those realms. Adam, the head of this one over here, Christ, the head of this one over here. And so this sets the stage for introducing what we now find in Romans chapter 6, the idea that now we are being taught what the effect of the work of Christ has upon our actual sin. Now, we've asked a question, okay? Adam did this for everybody that's under him. Anybody here have a connection with Adam? Anybody here doesn't have a connection with Adam? I guess that's the question we want to ask. Anybody here not related to Adam? I guess you'd have to be an E.T. or something. Every one of us have not only a representative relationship with Adam, in other words, he is our head, our federal head, as it is usually expressed in theology, but we also have an organic connection with Adam. We all sprang from Adam, like the oak is in the acorn, so we were all in Adam when he fell, in a biological sense, in a very real sense. There is a unity between us and Adam. Not only he is our representative, but as our life was in him. And so when he fell, we fell. And all those born of Adam are born fallen. And of course, Paul has already reminded us of that fact that our children, no sooner do they come out of the womb and learn how to talk, they're lying to us. They're selfish. They're stealing the baby's rattle if they're in the playpen with, you know. They want what the kid has. You don't have to teach them that. They are that by nature. Well, then, according to, let's look back at Romans 5.18. Therefore, as by the offense of one, that's Adam, judgment came upon all men, everybody. to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, and that's of course Christ, the free gift came upon all men to justification, to justification of life. Now, let me ask you, everybody got the benefit of Adam's act. I use benefit here tongue-in-cheek. Every one of us had an effect by that action, correct? Everyone, without exception. It sounds like, from verse 18, that Christ's righteousness does exactly the same thing in the opposite direction, not to condemnation, but to justification for all, for everybody. Correct? In other words, if you just took that one verse, you could easily make a case for what we call universalism. That what Adam did in bringing sin upon the world, Christ has done the same thing in that He has brought justification to each and every person on this planet. You say, well, wait a minute. I didn't do anything to get that justification. Well, you didn't do anything to get the sin of Adam imputed to you either, did you? You weren't even around. You weren't even conscious of it. So could it not be that the life that has been bought and paid for in Christ is given to each and every one of us? no matter who we are. Well, this is when we have to be careful about our use of all. I want to remind you that Paul, back in Romans chapter 3, already has given us a sort of understanding of what we mean when we talk about all in connection to Christ. Now, all in connection to Adam means everybody connected to Adam. And that happens to be every person on this planet. But all, when it's connected to Christ, doesn't mean every child of Adam. It means all those who have a connection with Christ. Go back to Romans 3. We constantly misquote this. Verse 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We quote that as a proof text to show that everybody on this planet is a sinner. Now, it's true that everybody on this planet is a sinner, but that's not what this verse is saying. Look at how all is defined in verse 22. even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe to each and every not child of Adam but each and every believer in other words this righteousness is being given to everybody that believes without exception there's no difference for all And that doesn't mean all, everybody that's born, but all these who are believing on Jesus. All these who believe have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Do you see the connection there? You have to understand all in verse 23 exactly the way you understood it in verse 22. The context demands it. This is all believers. All those who are receiving righteousness by faith are sinners. Will you confess that? All you believers out there, are you sinners? Have you come short of the glory of God? And notice the next verse, being justified freely by his grace. If this means all in verse 23 is talking about every child of Adam, then everybody's being justified. And according to this teaching, not everybody's being justified. Believers are being justified. Did you catch my drift here? That you have to understand that when all is used in connection to Christ, it means just like the all that's connected to Adam, all who are connected to Christ. There is an organic, physical connection between you and me and Adam. There is a very real, but it is spiritual connection between each believer and Christ. But it's real. It's actual. You understand what I'm saying? It's not visible. It's not something that is quantitative, not something that you can measure and see with your eyes, but it is real. That just as there is a connection between Adam and all those who are in him, so there is a connection between Christ and all those that are in him by faith. And we ask ourselves, well, did this happen automatically? Did Christ's righteousness get put to each of our account without us doing anything? Well, if you mean anything of merit, yes, but if you mean absolutely nothing, the answer is no. You and I have done something. We believed, didn't we? We had faith. That's how this righteousness came to me. That's how I received the merits of what Christ did for me. And in the same sense that you are not absolutely inactive as a stump in justification, you are not inactive in sanctification either. I hope you all got some sense out of that. That is very important. And I may have completely mumble-jumbled the thing to where it's not understandable. But you understand that what we're saying is that there is a connection between everybody who's born of Adam and Adam and everybody who is in Christ with Christ. One is a spiritual connection or connection with Christ. One is an organic, physical connection with Adam. But there is a connection between the head And the body, it's real. You can't see it. Remember, anything we can't see, we assume is not there. It's just hypothetical. It's just pretend. No, this is a real connection between Christ and His people. And the benefits of what Christ did for us, we don't get until we believe in Him. Until we are brought into this connection. Until we're plugged in to Christ. You understand? How did we get what we got from Adam? We were plugged into him, and it flowed to us. How will we get what Christ has done for us? When we're plugged into him, we'll get it. Now, notice what Paul brings up here in talking about this doctrine of sanctification. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Somebody is hearing Paul say, well, Paul, you're simply saying then that sinners can be justified by faith in Christ, their sins were forgiven, and they just keep on going, living in sin just like they always have. I mean, what you're telling us is that God delights in manifesting His grace, in His grace abounding. But in order for God's grace to abound, my sin must abound. So we'll make a good team. I love to sin. God loves to forgive sin. And so, you know, we're going to make a great match here. I'll just keep on living in sin. Notice Paul's reply in verse 2. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in it. Let me try to illustrate what they're saying. Their objection is, let's suppose we've got somebody in Tennessee running for governor that's going to be hard on crime. He's going to be tough on crime. Okay? And he says, here's how I'm going to be tough on crime. I am going to, my first day in office, I will issue a blanket governor pardon to every criminal in prison. I will pardon them, not only of their crimes that they have committed and been condemned for and are serving time for, I will issue a pardon to absolve them of any crimes they might commit in the future. I'm going to open the doors of the prison and turn them loose. I see Aaron Poe. That is Aaron back there, yeah? She's almost in the parking lot this morning, but Aaron works at one of the prisons over here in Tennessee. He teaches over there. Now, I'm sure that would work, Aaron, right? Let's just turn all these guys loose and issue them a blanket pardon. They don't have to do anything. Just set them loose. And I'm tough on crime. I'm going to eradicate crime. And he said, well, yeah, you're going to eradicate criminals by Redefining them, you're going to do away with the definition of a criminal. I'm sure that'd make us sleep better at night, wouldn't it? You say, wait a minute, don't you understand that's just not going to work? What do you mean freely forgiving people their transgressions? How in the world do you expect that to practically work? Well, did you catch this little statement there in verse 2? How shall we that are dead to sin? live any longer in it. Now, where'd that come from? Well, what do you mean, Paul? I just put my name on the decision card. I just walked down the aisle, said a little prayer. What do you mean, you that are dead, to sin? It's like he plucked this thought right out of the air. Now, we've had Christ's death presented to us earlier, His blood being a propitiation for sin, or when we were enemies, Christ died for us, we shall be saved by His life, those types of statements. But where did this come from, Paul? Where are you getting this? What do you mean, we have died to sin? Well, it's the ramification of the previous section, and that's why I like to actually start in the last half of Romans 5. Because of our connection with Christ, a real spiritual connection, we have died to sin. If you are plugged into Jesus as you are plugged into Adam, this statement is true. You are dead to sin. If you are in union with Christ, this is true of you. If you're not in union with Christ, I don't care what you say you believe, how hard you say you believe it, what church you belong to or anything else, it's not true of you. But if you are one with Christ, this statement is true of you. You have died to sin. I'm trying to figure out what to leave in and what to cull. And there's nothing I can cull, folks. All right? Just hang in there. There is a link between Christ and me that's more than representative. I think of the negative 1 Corinthians 6. You shouldn't join yourself to a prostitute. Why not? Don't you know that he that would do that becomes one flesh? And then the next verse, but ye are one spirit with Christ. In the same sense that the marriage relationship brings about the two becoming one, in becoming Christ, in believing on Him, I receive His Spirit. I am one with Him. One body. And that link is more than just representative. It is actual. You can say in the case of Adam, you say, I don't remember myself ever being an Adam. Do you ever remember Adam being in you? I have that experience all the time, Adam being in me. In the same sense, you say, but I don't remember. That's not the point. The point is that if you are in Christ, you have Him and He has you. It's not just on paper. It's a real relationship. And this throws light on how it is that faith saves our soul. Faith saves us not because it's such a wonderful thing that God will swap us salvation for it. Faith saves us because it's faith by which I enter into this union. It's by faith that I receive Christ, that I become, to use my analogy, plugged in to Jesus. It is through faith that this union occurs, and it is for that reason that faith saves my soul. Now notice here, if we asked ourselves, or asked Paul rather, in verse 3, how did we get into this relationship with Christ, he would answer in verse 3, know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Paul will throw out before us the idea that it is in baptism that we enter into this union. Now, there's a lot of ways of taking that, and certainly in church history, a lot of ways it has been taken. Our Campbellite companions down at the Church of Christ would say, well, baptism saves us because it's just part of the works we have to do to be saved. There's something magical about the water, and when we're baptized, we're regenerated. The Roman Catholics would say, well, you have to understand that the priest can do some hocus pocus. He can perform this sacramental, this magic, and in the rite of baptism, I can sprinkle the infant and I can remove original sin. In other words, it's because there's something about the baptism itself that is magical, that is efficacious. The Catholics, the Lutherans, pretty well hold to that notion. On the other hand, Zwingli and many of the other Reformers took the opinion, like most Baptists today, that baptism is simply representative, it's an outward sign of something that has happened within. I would hold to that view, that baptism itself is not going to do anything for you but get you wet, unless God has done this spiritual baptism within. Remember what John the Baptist said of Jesus? I'll baptize you with water. He's going to baptize you with the Spirit and with fire. He'll do the real one. I will do the side. I'll do the outward one. He will do the real one. And the really thing that saves us is not outward water baptism. It is being baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit of God. Paul speaks of that in 1 Corinthians. But let's not minimize water baptism here, because just as justification does not happen without me doing something, believing, so sanctification doesn't start without me doing something. And baptism is introduced here as the first step that we take in sanctification. It's the first sign that I am His. You see, we look at baptism in a lot of different ways, as a purification, as a washing, and so forth. But a lot of cultures have what they call a rite of passage, something that happens in that culture. For instance, in a lot of cultures, young men are considered boys. until they have a rite of passage, and what that is may differ from culture to culture, but whenever they go through that ceremony, they are no longer considered boys, they're men. They don't stay home and hang around their mother's skirts, they get out there and they hunt and go to war. A rite of passage means you're one thing on one side of it, you're another thing on the other side of it. We have bar mitzvahs in the Jewish thing, quinceañera rite in the Spanish tradition, rites of passage. May I suggest to you that that is precisely what baptism is. It is a rite of passage for the believer. He is declaring, I am one thing on the other side of it, I am another on this side. Israel was baptized unto Moses in the Red Sea. We read in 1 Corinthians 10. They didn't even get wet. How do you mean they were baptized unto Moses in the sea? Because there were a bunch of Egyptians on that side of the Red Sea. There were Israelites bound to Moses on that side. Passing through that sea was a one-way trip. They are something on one side, they are another thing on the other. It is a rite of passage. And for the Christian, baptism is that rite of passage. It's like Cortez burning his ships in Veracruz Harbor so that his conquistadors knew they either had to win or die because they're not going back. It's like Caesar crossing the Rubicon with his legions. I don't know if you know anything about Roman law, but everybody had to keep their legions north of the Rubicon. That separated southern Italy from northern Italy, from Gaul, and the moment Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his legions, it meant war. There's no going back. We either succeed or we die. It's a one-way trip. And so it is that baptism is precisely that. It's a rite of passage. That I belong to me and Satan over here. I belong to Christ over here on the other side of it. And I will never be the same again. And so it is that first act by which we outwardly portray what is inwardly occurred in our hearts and our lives. And in that work of baptism, I am working out what God has worked in. I am simply demonstrating in an outward way what has happened within my soul. And it just so happens, by the way, that the sign looks a whole lot like the reality, doesn't it? Now, a lot of signs don't. I don't understand why a triangle should be associated with yield. Do you? I don't know about it. How does an octagon become associated with stop? I don't know. But I do see how baptism became associated with this, because not only is it indicating that I have died to a prior life and I now live to a new life, it looks like it, doesn't it? It is burying the old man. We are buried with him, says Paul in verse 4 here in baptism. You can bury people a lot of ways. You can bury them at sea. You can bury them in land. One thing you've got to do when you bury somebody, you've got to cover them up. In other words, the sign looks a whole lot like the thing that it signifies. And so I am professing in the act of baptism that I am his and he is mine, and everything connected with him is now my life. His history is now my history. To some degree, we see that in marriage, don't we? You marry a criminal, you've married into a criminal family, a family of lawbreakers, right? You marry a rich fellow, you married whatever it was that made him rich, you've married into that. I've about worn this illustration out, Use it once again, because I can't think of a better one. When I do, I'll break a new one on you. But suppose that I am a limb that has been broken off of one tree and engrafted in another tree, a new tree. It's a great tree. And in fact, I've been elevated a little bit. I used to be down here on the bottom. Now I'm up here on the top. I've got a nice view. Get a lot of sunshine, collect the rain when it falls. I sort of like my new position in this new tree. You see, by engrafting, I'm using Paul's term that speaks of vital union. All right? And one day, however, I'm up here enjoying my view in my new tree. I look down and here's a guy with a chainsaw about to fire it up down below me and fixing to cut the tree I'm in down. And I say to that guy, what in the world are you doing? And he says, well, don't you see this ribbon around this tree? A few weeks ago, there's a survey crew that came through here, and they're fixing to have to clear all this out for a new power line coming through here. And the tree that you're in is marked for destruction, to be cut down. He said, well, wait a minute, I wasn't even here a few weeks ago. I've just recently been engrafted in this tree. Do you understand the principle? That when you are united with another, you inherit their history. Or to use it in a good example, suppose you're engrafted in this new tree, and you're just sort of hanging out, doing your thing, and one day somebody walks by and sees some initials carved in the trunk of your tree. Carved there over 200 years ago. A little slogan, George loves Martha. And they suddenly realized that the tree, the tree you've just been engrafted into, this was a tree that George Washington carved that little slogan into 200 years ago. And all of a sudden, they put a fence around your tree. They make it a national monument. People come from all over the country to take pictures of that tree, of you. You're famous. But you weren't even there. But when you became one with the tree, you inherit its history. Do you get what I'm saying to you? When you are made one with Christ, you inherit His history. You died with Him. Do you see in the next few verses how Paul expresses this? Our old man in verse 6 has been crucified with Him. Verse 7 and 8, He that is dead, if we be dead with Christ. Verse 9, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead. In other words, all of that which is His is now mine. And that is the answer to this question, what do you mean, Paul? Know you not that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death? You and I who are connected with Jesus, which is what baptism symbolizes, have inherited his death as our death, his resurrection as our resurrection. Now, starting in chapter 12, you're going to see duty, duty, duty, duty. OK. But for the first 11 chapters, Paul doesn't tell Uriah to do anything. Except right here. In 11 chapters, there's only three verses of duty and they're found right here. Now, my friend, don't you think we ought to snap to? All of a sudden, in the midst of this huge doctrinal section, Paul, like a machine gun, shoots three things that you and I are supposed to do. The first one here is in verse 11. Likewise, reckon. That's the first duty. To reckon. Reckon ye yourselves dead, indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, we Southerners are good at reckoning. I reckon it's going to rain tomorrow. And what we mean by reckon is that, well, I suspect, I suppose, I think it might. That's what we mean by reckon. That's not how the Bible uses the word reckon. Remember, we have been talking about God imputing righteousness, counting righteousness, reckoning us righteous. This is the same idea. It is to count on something, to bank your life on it. And it is not to reckon these things in order to make them so. It is to reckon them so because they are so. Paul is not telling you that if you'll just get in the right mental state of mind and if you will somehow visualize, you know, sort of like the athlete visualizing victory at the race or something like that. If you'll just visualize yourself hanging there on that cross with Jesus and coming out of the tomb with Him, that if you just reckon hard enough, then you will actually be dead with him and raised with him. That's not the point. What Paul is saying is, if you have been listening, you believers who were joined to Christ in faith, you understand now that his death is your death. His life is your life. His resurrection is your resurrection. So reckon it so. Count on it. Bank on it. You see, the revolution in how you act is going to start here between your ears, in how you think, in what you believe to be true. And what Paul is saying is, bank your soul on this fact that if you are in Christ today, you have died and you have risen with Him. You are dead to sin. Sin has no claim on you. It has no right to you. And you are alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You don't have to make that true. If you're in Christ, the moment that you were joined to him by faith, that became true of you. Do you get it? First duty. First commandment. He hasn't told you to do anything in the book of Romans till right here. And now he's telling you to do something. To reckon that this is so. The second duty in verse 12, if that's so, that one, then don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its loss. If you are dead to sin, then do not let sin reign over you. He's talking to Christians here because this wouldn't make a bit of sense to a lost person. To tell a lost person not to let sin reign over him is like telling a Cuban not to have, who is it now, Raul rule over him. Whether he likes it or not, he still has a Castro ruling over him. It would be like saying to a communist in Cuba, don't let Castro rule you. The point is, it is only a believer who can be told this, it's only a believer who can do it, who realizes that no longer does sin pull my strings. I may obey Satan, but I don't have to. Sin does not rule me. Look down in verse 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin has no right to you. Satan has no right to tell you what to do. If we were to snatch a Cuban off the streets of Havana and sit him down in Miami, every time Castro speaks, he might still hop. But he doesn't have to, does he? Think about that change. Whether he knows it or not, whether anything has happened in here or not, something tremendous has happened out here. He is no longer under the dominion of Cuba, he's under the dominion of the United States, and he does not have to obey Castro. He's to reckon on the change that has occurred, and as a result of that change, he is no longer to obey That ruler. You see the point? And then thirdly, in verse 13, third duty, don't yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness of the sin. Don't volunteer. You see, sin has no right to you anymore. The devil has no right to claim you to tell you what to do. So quit volunteering for heaven's sake. You're volunteering your tongue to do that cussing out that Satan tells you to do. You say, here am I. Send me. I'm ready. Use my lips. Use my tongue. Somebody needs slapping upside the face. Here's my hand. Here it is. I offer it to you freely. You understand that's what he's saying. If these other two things are true. Now, notice how each one depends on the former. If you're still under the reign of sin, you can't reckon that you're not. But if you're no longer under the reign of sin, then quit letting it reign over you. That's not true. You can't do that. But if that's true, then quit volunteering your body as an instrument for sin. Start volunteering your body as an instrument of righteousness. We are, in short, to reflect as Christians. the great change that has occurred through my union with Christ. I am to work that out, which God has worked in, in my life. The Christian here is said to have, look in verse 17, God be thanked that were as ye were the servants, means slaves, slaves of sin, ye have obeyed from the heart That form of doctrine which was delivered you. Their saving faith. It is to obey from the heart what we have been taught. We've been taught that sin is our enemy. Sin defiles us. Sin infects us. We are taught that God has given us a gracious remedy against sin. And my friend, if you have believed that from the heart, well, let me put it this way, you can't do that without repentance. You can't look at sin the same old way and believe from the heart the doctrine that has been delivered unto you, can you? You can't look at sin the way you used to look at it. You can't look at God the way you used to look at Him if you have received from the heart this doctrine delivered unto you. Do you understand what he's saying? True saving faith brings about a revolution. a revolution in how I think and therefore in how I act. He's changed his mind. He's had enough of sin. He's ashamed of it. He sees its fruit and he has turned and he has received Christ. And if that's not true of you, you're not a Christian. The best illustrations are Bible ones, the ones that God gives us. And just in case we still hadn't got this, we hadn't realized the need, the ramifications of this union with Christ, Paul's going to give us one more thing to think about. You remember the old book, A Tale of Two Cities? This is a tale of two husbands. A woman has this husband. She's married to him. And the problem is, he's a perfectionist. His name is Law. Mr. Law. Not Honey. Not Sweetheart. Mr. Law. That's what she calls him. Because you understand, this is not an arrangement of love. This is an arrangement of law. And she is married to him. And her life is miserable. Because no matter what she does, how hard she does it, how hard she tries, she will never please him. She cooks him his favorite meal, and it's always too something. Too hot, too cold, too salty, too sweet. She cleans the house and he comes home from work with his white gloves and he looks around till he can find the least smudge somewhere and then shoves it under her nose saying, what about this? You understand that he simply cannot accept her. He cannot approve of her if there is any fault in her whatsoever. And the problem is, she's trapped. Notice in verse 1 of chapter 7, verse 2, that the woman, after all, is bound to her husband as long as they live, right? She's trapped. She can't find a way out, a legal way out. But what if, what if, notice, she's bound to her husband how long? As long as they live. If he's dead, she's free to remarry. You do realize that death brings to an end the marriage covenant? Well, you say, well, what are you saying, preacher? She should murder him? You know, put something in his coffee? Well, no, that's not lawful either. But notice there's another possibility in verse 4. What if she dies? He doesn't die. She dies. Well, let's see. I guess that would break the marriage. Have you ever wondered about that, men? You know, what if... Well, I'm thinking, you know, what if my wife died? Perish the thought. But what if, you know? We have a funeral and everything, and then a few days later, I see her walking down the street. She's alive from the death. I go, honey, how are you? You look wonderful. You're alive. What's for supper? I mean, I just make the assumption that she's alive from the dead, so we go back to what we were, right? But that's just an assumption. She died. She promised to do this till death do us part. And it parted us. You understand? If she's truly alive from the dead, she's not married to me anymore. Death ends the relationship. And what Paul is suggesting is that through union with Christ, you too can die. And that's the only way out of this covenant that has you in its grip. You can die through union with the body of Jesus Christ. I am convinced in earlier days In the days of the Protestant Reformation, there was a certain truth that grabbed the people, that brought about revival. It was justification by faith. In the days of the Great Awakening, it was, ye must be born again. I am convinced that the crying need of our day is to understand this thing I'm calling vital union with Jesus Christ. It's the heart and soul of what salvation is. that Christ did not save me so I can live a life independently of Him. He has saved me so that He is divine and I'm the branch and I'm abiding in Him. He didn't save me the head over yonder and the finger and toe over yonder, but there's an organic spiritual union between the head and the toe. Do you understand? And it is this oneness with Christ that saves my soul. It's the ground of the imputation of his life to me. And it is my only hope of living above sin. It is the starting point of overcoming sin as a believer. Our tendency is to say, well, the only way to do that is to put them under more law. I'm suggesting, no, that the answer... I mean, how do you put sinners under moral law? You say, make the penalty worse. How do you make the penalty worse? Physical death and eternal death, that's about as bad as it gets. You say, well, make the demand stronger. How do you make them any stronger than love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself? You want to make them stronger than that? My friend, it ain't working! It's not working for sinners and it's not working for saints. It's not making them one whit holier. Stand over them with a club. That's what God did with Israel and it didn't work. There's only one hope for you and I to live a life above sin. And that is to recognize the ramifications of what God has done for us, that we are no longer separate. We are one with Christ. Now, I haven't gone into the mechanics. I'm saving that for next week, how all this works. But that's the principle. That's how it looks on paper. We're going to try to flesh it out next week. I hope I have not bored you. I realize these have been long messages, and I thank you for your patience I haven't heard any snoring, not that it hasn't happened. But, my friend, you say, well, can't you be any more practical? Can you get more practical than talking about how we can live the life that God has ordained for us to live? You say, well, let's get around to the nuts and bolts. My friend, anybody ought to tell you that the nuts and bolts are going to come after you understand the principle. So we've got to understand how this works and then apply it to our daily walk and our daily lives. And that's what we'll try to do next week, by the grace of God, to get down to where the rubber meets the road, how the nuts and bolts of this thing fleshes out in our experience and in our life. That's coming in chapter 7 and the rest of 7 and chapter 8. But oh, I want you to first of all get happy. I know it's hard to smile when your mind is being cramped, you know, when you're having brain contusions up here trying to take all this in. But oh, if there's any one thing that ought to light you up as a believer, fill your heart with joy in believing, it's that Christ didn't just stand off afar and save our soul. He came near. He has entered into a living union with a bunch of losers. to make us victors so that we might rely on Him. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ, His Son. Let us pray. Father, help us to assimilate all of the wonder of all of this. Father, if you had just stood back and thrown blessing and grace our way, that would have been marvelous. But Father, you have come nigh. You have embraced us. You have, through your Son, entered into this union, this spiritual union with a people, a sinful people. unclean people, weak and vile, prone to sin and folly and foolishness. But, O Father, you had mercy upon us, and we are now linked up with your Son. Oh, we can even say we're seated with Him in heavenly places, that we are confident of victory because our Lord, who is our Head, is already seated in the seat of victory. And that Father, therefore, he is able to succor us. He is able to give us assistance to supply the lack through the Spirit that indwells us. Oh, Father, may we comprehend the vastness of what you've done for sinful man. And Lord, more than that, may we then put it in action. May we flesh it out. in our lives. Help us to do just that through the power of Jesus our Savior. It's in His name we pray. Amen.