Book of Romans
3-14-2012 Vol. 6 Part 18
Psalms 63:1-11 A Psalm of David When He Was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek my life, to destroy it, Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword; They shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; Everyone who swears by Him shall glory; But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped. Father we praise you, we give you all the glory. We thank you for all that you do for us. We ask that your love and grace super abound within us and shine forth. We seek your face and ask for your love and guidance in all we do. In Jesus name we pray! Amen!
Romans 6:1-7 NKJV
In this lesson Paul brings about a discussion that takes us from justification as a sinner to a discussion of the holy life of a saint that we become when we submit our lives to Jesus. The first five chapters of Romans deals with the past, what we were, and what we have become through Jesus Christ, the key word being justification. Chapters 6-8 deals with the present, with the key word being sanctification.
Right from the beginning of Romans Paul has been presenting his case for justification. He has clearly demonstrated mans inability to justify himself. In the first three chapter he has powerfully proven all men are guilty without excuse. Whether pagan or religious, Jew or Gentile, wise or unwise, all are guilty before God.
In chapters 4 & 5 Paul demonstrates what man could not do for himself, God has done for him through Jesus Christ our Saviour. This work of God that was done at the Cross is called justification. It is separate from any work which man can do, because Jesus has done it all at the Cross.
Up to Romans 6 Paul doesn’t discuss the holy life of the saint, and likewise from chapter 6 forward he doesn’t discuss the salvation of the sinner. The important truth of chapter 6 is the relationship between justification and sanctification. Justification is man’s eternal position before God through Jesus Christ; the salvation of the sinner. Sanctification is the putting into practice the new person you become through a spiritual birth. To become holy!
| · Justification is an act – Sanctification is a work |
| · Justification is for us – Sanctification is in us |
| · Justification is a transaction – Sanctification is a transformation |
| · Justification is the means – Sanctification is the end |
| · Justification declares the sinner righteous – Sanctification makes the sinner righteous |
| · Justification removes the guilt and the penalty of sin – Sanctification removes the growth and power of sin |
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul knew what his audience was thinking so he addresses it right away. Their thoughts were if God loves to forgive, why not give him more to forgive? Or if forgiveness is guaranteed, do we have the freedom to sin as much as we want to? Many would think that if sin caused Gods grace to abound then they could go on living the same way they had been living. They were thinking they could have the best of both worlds, sin and eternal life. This is present even today. Many people call themselves Christians, but live a life style of sin, based off of their actions and what they say. People will twist scripture so that it will fit their life style. It is how they justify their actions. Anyone that thinks they can continue sinning does not understand the seriousness of sin. God's forgiveness does not make sin less serious; his Son's death for sin shows us the dreadful seriousness of sin. Jesus paid with his life so we could be forgiven. The availability of God's mercy must not become an excuse for careless living and moral laxness. Jude even made the statement that people believe that God’s forgiveness and grace would abound and a person could live a life of sin. Jude 1:4 NLT I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
What it boils down to is a person may think they are Born Again by reciting a pray, or going through some type of ritual, but the cold hard fact is they aren’t. You can’t live a life of sin and declare yourself saved. The true meaning of verse one is that if a person is sincere and asks the Lord into their life, then God’s grace is much more powerful than any sin and God loves you so much He will forgive you. That is how God’s grace abounds.
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? A person that has a Spiritual Birth dies to sin. It doesn’t mean that person will never sin again, because being human they will sin. What it means is that through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the sin nature no longer has dominion over the believer. The believer now has the ability to identify much more what sin is. In fact, just the thought of something that would lead to sin, now convicts the believer it is wrong and the believer is capable to turn from that sin. Recognizing the temptation and turning from it is only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit living within the believer. I’m not talking about big sins, I’m talking about little sins like lying, faking your sick to stay home from work, stealing by using the company copy machine, stealing grapes by eating them in the grocery store, etc. Sin has no dominion over the believer any more, the Holy Spirit has dominion over the sin. Can a believer disregard the conviction of the Holy Spirit when he is tempted? Yes he can because God has given us free will, but it will be very difficult for the believer to do this. Why, because when he became a believer a light bulb went off within his heart and he became fully aware of what God and Jesus did for him at the Cross. He all of a sudden realized how wretch and sinful he was and that it should have been him on that Cross instead of Jesus dying for him. Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. A true Christian is dead to sin, they do not live to sin, and sin has no dominion over them. They live in Jesus and Jesus Spirit lives in them. John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. (See verse list for other verses.)
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? This verse is telling us that when we are baptized we are baptized into Jesus Christ. Water plays a role in baptism, but has nothing to do with salvation, as I will explain how it fits in with the next couple verses. This act of baptism is a profession by the individual that they identify themselves as being in Christ and Christ in them through Jesus death and resurrection. It is their expression now of fully understanding what transpired on the Cross, the death, and resurrection of Jesus. They have become fully aware in their heart what salvation and God’s grace is all about and through this act of baptism, they want to identify themselves with Christ in His death and resurrection, and serve Him. Colossians 2:12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Paul is telling us that baptism by being submersed in water represents Jesus death and resurrection. When a person gives their life to Jesus and becomes a new creature in Jesus, the act of Baptism is the person’s way of identifying themselves with Jesus death and resurrection.
Here is how it all works. When a person is submersed completely under water, it represents Jesus death and burial. When the person comes up out of the water, it represents Jesus resurrection from death and new life. When a person becomes a believer their flesh, sin nature, living for self and worldly things is crucified and left buried under water, just as Jesus was crucified and was buried and he left our sins buried. When a person comes up out of the water it represents a new person and a new life, just like Jesus was raise with a new body and new life. The Christian life is a life of newness; a new heart, Ezekiel 36:26; a new spirit Ezekiel 18:31; a new song, Psalm 40:3; a new name, Revelation 2:17; a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17; a new creature, Galatians 6:15; a new self, Ephesians 4:24.
United together means Jesus death was our death, His burial was our burial, His resurrection was our resurrection. He not only died for me. He died as me. Being united together also gives us the truth about eternal life through His resurrection. When we become a Born Again Christian, then we are united with Jesus, and his resurrection is our resurrection, and assurance of Heaven. 1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
The tragedy is that many mistake the symbol of water baptism as the means of salvation instead of a demonstration if it. We’ve studied this in the past and I want to make it clear that water baptism will not save a person. In the Bible baptism was always after a person accepted the Gospel. Mark 16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. See verse list for other instances.
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Our old man is referring to our life style before being saved. (Ephesians 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,) The life we had when we catered to the sin nature and justified our actions with fellow human beings instead of Gods standards. When Jesus died on the Cross it was made possible for anyone to come to Him and accept Him as their saviour. Anyone believing in this sacrifice and what it represents that Jesus perform for us can be assured, the body of sin (sin nature) will be defeated and will be set free. PRAISE GOD! THANK YOU JESUS!
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Unless you are Born Again, you cannot enter into Heaven, the Kingdom of God."
Bill
Last Week’s Trivia: There are many messages from the follow verse, but one in particular comes to mind reflecting a message of a previous lesson. Can you figure it out? Genesis 39:5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field.
Answer: A few lessons back I was explaining how people justify their lifestyle by the good things that happen to them, thus declaring God blesses them. I also explained how God sends rain and sunshine and it falls on both good and bad people. Read the above verse carefully again and see how God blessed the household because of Joseph. It was because of Joseph that Potiphar and his house prospered.
This week’s Trivia: Hagar/Sarah = Old Covenant/New Covenant = Man’s Way/God’s Way = Hell/Heaven = Physical Birth/Spiritual Birth = Eternal Death/Eternal Life = Living by Sin Nature/Living by Spirituality = Born of Water/Born of Spirit = Flesh/Spirit = Mortal/Immortal = Carnal/Spiritual. Do you understand why all are equal?
| Verse List: |
| · Romans 5:21 |
| · Colossians 1:13 |
| · Acts 26:18 |
| · Philippians 3:20 |
| · Ephesians 2:19 |
| · John 8:34-36 |
| · 1 John 3:9 |
| · Romans 6:14 |
| · Galatians 2:20 |
| · 2 Corinthians 5:15 |
| · Ephesians 4:22 |
| · Colossians 3:9 |
| · Acts 2:41 |
| · Acts 8:12, 13 |
| · Acts 8:37,38 |
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