WEEK 5 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1 – 7:6

1 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6 ○ 6:1-11 – Those who are justified by faith cannot continue to live in sin. They are dead to sin. ○ 6:1-2 – Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? No! ○ Outside of Christ we are given over to sinful desires – we cannot resist them. ○ Now sin can no longer dominate us. We have the ability to resist and rebel against it. ○ Though you may obey it and though you will obey it, the fact remains that you no longer have to obey it. ○ You are dead to the guilt of sin, but not to the influence or power of sin in your life. 2 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:3-7 – The fact of the believer’s death to sin is established by a reference to the significance of and by showing why Christ was crucified. ○ 6:4 – If we believe in Christ, a change of life will happen. We will not live in sin anymore. ○ 6:5 – If we know that we are united with Christ, then we will now we are living a new life, no longer under sin’s dominance – and we won’t ask the question, “Are we to sin that grace may abound.”

3 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:7 – As a Christian, my truest self really seeks God and loves His law and holiness. While sin remains in me with a lot of strength, it no longer controls my personality and life. It is still able to lead me to disobey God, but now sinful behavior goes against my deepest self-understanding. ○ Because of His death on the cross, Christ’s people are justified in this life and will be glorified in the life to come. ○ 6:8-11 – Just as Christ died once to sin and now lives to God, so the believer must consider himself dead to sin and alive to God “in Christ.” 4 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6 ○ 6:12-7:6 – Because those who are justified by faith are not under law but under grace, they are called upon to yield themselves to God as His obedient slaves. ○ 6:12-14 – Living in sin means tolerating it or making no progress against it. ○ We are free to fight sin and free to win, but we must still fight. Sin cannot rule us, but it is waging war within us. ○ Three things to remember: ● I am bought with Christ’s blood ● I have been delivered out of the dominion of sin ● I was saved by Christ specifically so I would not sin (Titus 2:14) 5 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6 ○ 6:15-23 – The kind of life led by those who are justified is illustrated by comparing their service to God with the service of an obedient slave to a master. ○ We offer ourselves to whatever we seek as our highest good in life, whether power or acceptance or some cause, then we become slaves of whatever that may be. Whether we call ourselves religious or not, we all have a god. ○ Slavery to sin begins at our birth. Slavery to God begins at our new birth, resulting in new motives and changes in our lives. ○ We need to come to daily situations and recognize the possibility of treating God as my Highest Good and Master. 6 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:17-22 – Paul portrays a series of contrasts: ○ Believers, before conversion were servants of sin (17); ○ After conversion, they are servants of righteousness (18); ○ Formerly they were under an influence which secured their obedience to evil (19); ○ Now they are under an influence which secures their obedience to good (19); ○ The consequence of the former service was death (21); ○ The consequence of the present service is life (22). ○ Every man belongs to the master whom he willingly serves, whether sin or righteousness. 7 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 7:1-6 – The believer’s freedom from the law is illustrated by comparing it to a married woman’s freedom from a dead husband. ○ The ultimate answer to Paul’s question in 6:15 : It is knowing who you are in Christ that causes you to say, deep in your heart: Will I live in this moment as though I’m a slave to sin, married to the law? By no means!

8 The Illustration – 7:1-3

First Husband Dies

She is free (discharged Married Woman From The law concerning this husband). She may marry another man.

Second Husband 9 The Application – 7:4-6

Once Under the Law

Through Christ’s death, The Believer The Believer has died to the law.

Now Joined to Christ 10 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6 ○ The Law of God” ○ The law of God is that rule of action which He has prescribed for mankind. ○ Various revelations of God’s law” ● The law of conscience – the law written on man’s heart – Ephesians 4:17-19, Jeremiah 17:9 ● The law of – the law under the Old Covenant ○ The Ten Commandments – Decalogue ○ The Ceremonial Laws – regulated the religious life ○ The Civil Laws – regulated the national life

● The law of Christ – the law under the New Covenant 11 THE BELIEVER’S DEATH TO SIN, THE LAW OF GOD ROMANS 6:1-7:6 ○ Man’s relation to God’s law: ● As to salvation, the unsaved sinner is under God’s law regardless of how it is revealed to him, whether written on his heart or revealed in the Scriptures. The saved sinner has been freed from the law as to salvation, not under law but under grace. ● As to duty for God’s people: ○ From Adam to Moses – primarily the law of conscience ○ From Moses to Christ – the law of Moses with its many detailed regulations ○ From Christ to the end of the age – the rule of duty for believers today is contained in the New Covenant12 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:1,2 – Truth cannot lead to unholiness. If a doctrine encourages sin, it must be false. Commentary on the , Charles Hodge, Page 202. ○ 6:1 – “Shall we go on sinning…?” Study of Paul’s teaching shows that according to his inspired presentation justification by faith immediately implies living a life of gratitude, and therefore of holiness, to the glory of God Triune. In fact Paul places no less emphasis on consecrated living than on grace. Commentary, Romans, William Hendriksen, Page 209 13 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:3 – The grand design of is the destruction of sin. When sincerely embraced, therefore, it is with a view to this end. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Charles Hodge, Page 202. ○ 6:8ff – It is a consolation to the believer to know, that if he has evidence of being now a Christian, he may be sure that he shall live with Christ. As long and as surely as the head lives, so long and so surely must all the members live. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Charles Hodge, Page 202. 14 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:21-22 - Both from the nature of things, and the appointment of God, the wages of sin is death. It renders intercourse with God, who is the fountain of life, impossible. It consists in the exercise of feelings, in their own nature, inconsistent with happiness; it constantly increases in malignity, and in power to destroy the peace of the soul. Apart from these essential tendencies, its relation to conscience and the justice of God, renders the connection between sin and misery indissoluble. Salvation in sin is as much a contradiction, as happiness in misery. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Charles Hodge, Page 212. 15 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:20-22 – When a man is the slave of sin, he commonly thinks himself free; and when most degraded, is often the most proud. When truly free, he feels himself most strongly bound to God; and when most elevated, is most humble. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Charles Hodge, Page 213.

16 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 6:22,23 - Eternal life is the GIFT of God. It does not, like eternal death, flow, as a natural consequence, from anything in us. With the holy angels, who have never lost the favor of God, this may be the case. But the tendency of all that belongs to us, is to death; this must be counteracted; those excellencies, in which life consists, and from which it flows, must be produced, sustained, and strengthened by the constant, condescending, and long-suffering grace of the Holy Spirit. The life thus graciously produced, and graciously sustained, is at last graciously crowned with eternal glory. - Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Charles Hodge, Page 212. 17 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 7:4 – As the only way in which we can obtain deliverance from the law is by the death of Christ, the exercise of faith in Him is essential to holiness. When we lose our confidence in Christ, we fall under the power of the law, and relapse into sin. Everything depends, therefore, upon our maintaining our union with Christ. “Without Me ye can do nothing.” Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Charles Hodge, Page 220.

18 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 5:15-21 – Grace is ever far more effective than sin. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Did grace merely offset sin and death, so that mankind returned to the state of innocence, that of Adam before the fall? On the contrary, grace changed death into a gain, substituted righteousness for sin, and everlasting life for death. All this “through Christ our Lord”.

19 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 7:4-6 – “So, my brothers, you too were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God . . . We have been released from the law, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, not on oldness of the letter.” It is clear from this that the genuine Christian life is not that of bondage but that of freedom. It is not motivated by external regulations but by love for the One to whom believers belong, even Christ. It is not guided by selfish interests but by the Spirit. And it is not barren but fruitful. -- New Testament Commentary, Romans, William Hendriksen, Page 239 20 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ROMANS 6:1-7:6

○ 7:1-6 Just as a woman, by means of a death (that of her husband) is released from her marriage bond and allowed to marry another man, so also by a death (the believer’s death with Christ) God’s children are released from indebtedness to the law, the latter’s “bill” having been fully paid by Christ’s voluntary and vicarious sacrifice. Believers have, accordingly, obtained liberty. This liberty is a freedom from and a freedom for. It is a freedom from the obligation to keep the law in order to be saved, and is therefore also a freedom from the curse which the law pronounces upon the disobedient. But it is at the same time a freedom for or with a view to, a freedom in order to render service to God “in newness of the Spirit, not in oldness of the letter”. - New Testament Commentary, Romans, William Hendriksen, Page 239,240 21