Romans Chapter 6 Verse 1: 'Shall we Continue in Sin?'

Taken from a message preached on Romans Chapter 6 Verse 1 by Dr J Stewart Gillespie

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In Romans Chapter 5 we saw A Grace that: 1.G – Glory, the ultimate purpose of all Gods dealings in Grace. The Glory of God's Grace, is the reason (5:6,12) that is the reason for Gods permissive will in allowing Adams sin and Eden's fall (Eph1:5-6; 1:10-12) 2.R – Rejoices (5:3-5) in all of life's problems, in tribulations 3.A – Ability of Grace, able to save despite all of our inability. Grace removes (5:6) all obstacles to salvation – no one is lost because they lacked the ability, intelligence, know how or strength to be saved 4.C – Crowned, Grace is crowned King, Grace reigns (5:21) 5.E – Extends to wherever sign has been, Grace reaches (5:18,20) everywhere that sin has reached Not only that but a Grace sufficient for: 1.Life's Problems (5:1-5) 2.Salvations Plan (5:6-11) 3.Man's Plight (5:12-21) No matter what my problems there is grace sufficient for it? Correct! No matter how deep the hole Gods grace can reach me? Correct! No matter how big the mess Gods Grace can sort it out? Correct! Well that's just fine because I love causing problems, making a mess, picking fights, being the awkward customer, I thrive on conflict and contention and I quite enjoy my sin! So I can continue dabbling in my sin with the reassurance that the Lord can sort it all out! “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Rom6:1) Surely no one can seriously think like that? Gods Grace is not license to sin, because Gods Grace is not the opposite of righteousness. God does not cease to be righteous because He is Gracious His Grace is not His means of ignoring or neglecting His Righteousness but rather His Grace is His means of maintaining His Righteous integrity whilst being able to save the sinner: Rom 3:22, 26. Am I trading on Gods Grace? Would my behaviour change if: i.If I thought that my lie / deception would be dealt with the same way as Ananias Saphira's was? Acts 5 – 2 believers lie to the Holy Spirit, maybe a little ½ lie – they sold the land and gave 'most' of it for the work of the Lord and said that they had given 'all' of it. Just a slight exaggeration? Did it really matter? Ananias executed on the spot by the Spirit of God and his wife executed 3 hours later! God has not changed! ii.If I thought that my greed would be dealt with in the same way as Achan's was – Joshua chp 7. Jericho has just fallen, and explicit instructions have been given by God that the city and all in it are cursed, nothing to be taken for any private use. The gold, silver, brass and iron can be used for the sanctuary but everything else is to be left. Achan – just one man amongst millions who obey, takes 3 items: “...a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight...” (Jos 7:21). Whats the big deal? A few items which were going to be wasted anyway? The righteousness of God was the BIG deal. “...a goodly Babylonish garment” - “a trendy outfit from the high street.” Because of this disobedience of one man the entire army of Israel is defeated at Ai and Achan and his sons and daughters and animals are stoned and burned! iii.If I thought that my grumbling would be dealt with the same way as Miriam's was (Num 12). Miriam and others had an issue with Moses leadership and wanted to push him out and move in (Num12:2). They take a round about approach to manoeuvring Moses out and attack him from the side – his wife (12:1) – not really the issue! Be careful how we approach a ministry that challenges us! Miriam's grumbling against a faithful servant of the Lord was summarily dealt with! iv.If I thought that discord with my brethren would be made as public as that of Euodias and Syntyche's was (Phil 4) – Paul wrote of it in a letter, sent it to the church, copied it around the world and published it for 2000 years! Way to go! Took about relationship counselling apostle style! Name and shame – not invented by the newspapers in the 20th century! If it would change my behaviour to anticipate my sin being dealt with in these ways then I am trading on Divine Grace! I am banking on Gods Grace to allow me to continue in sin! 4 reasons why we don't continue in sin: 1.because I'm dead to Sin (6:1-7) 2.because I'm alive to God (6:8-11) 3.because I must serve God (6:12-20) 4.because sin remains sin (6:21-22) 1)because I'm dead to Sin (6:2-8) vs2-3 – we are dead to sin What does it mean to be “dead to sin”? Notice “dead” is an aorist tense – point tense and usually past, a completed action What does that mean? i.We have lost the desire to sin? Some point out that a dead body is an unresponsive thing, having the lost the ability to respond to light, touch, hearing and pain. Illust: check a person is dead: shine a light in pupils – no response, painful stimuli – no response. Having died to sin does that render us unresponsive, to sin, lacking any desire to sin? This inconsistent with 6:11-14 – for if being dead to sin renders us unresponsive and with no desire to sin and lacking the capacity to sin then Paul would hardly have to exhort us not to allow sin to reign in our bodies (6:12), not to obey sin (6:12) nor to give our bodies over to the service of sin (6:13)! This interpretation is also inconsistent with Col 3 and Galatians 5. We need to be wary of interpreting the scriptures with medical text books rather than using the scriptures to interpret themselves! ii.A broken relationship with sin (Montgomery Boice). Boice points out the same phrase is used of Christ in (6:10) where Christ discharged His responsibilities to sin, dealt with it and finished with sin at Calvary, His relationship with sin is now finished! This is true but what does this mean to me practically? To understand 6:2 I think we need to look back at 5:21. Before my conversion 'sin was King' (5:21) I lived under the domain, the authority, the rule, the tyranny of King Sin (5:21) Now I am saved I live in another Kingdom (5:21) the Kingdom of Grace under Jesus Christ our Lord (5:21). I have at some point left the one Kingdom and come into the other. This is what Colossians 1:3 says: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:” (Col 1:13) Every Kingdom has its boundary, its border to which the rule of the sovereign extends and thus no further: Coming into Scotland from England, M74 sign “Scotland Failte ” The boundary marker for the Kingdom of sin isn't a sign on the road or a line on the map, it is a boundary marker appropriate to sin. Sin cannot cross the boundary marker of death! That link between sin and death cannot be broken: The Kingdom of Sin has a boundary: “as sin hath reigned unto death.” (5:21) After death sin has no more claim upon me! Does this mean there is no sinning in hell? Sin is a falling short of Gods standard it is the rejection of or rebellion against the self revelation of God, but in hell, apart from the experience of Gods eternal judgement there is no revelation of God to reject, revile or rebel against: God is Light – and sin is described as a rebellion against and a rejection of that light (John 3:19), but eternal judgement is “outer darkness” it is the “blackness of darkness forever” God is Love – and sin is a rejection of or a cutting off of the love of God into our life and experience (1John4:7,8) but eternal judgement is a “fearful looking forward to...” (Heb10:27) – a place dominated by fear because there is no love there (1 John4:18). God is Life – man's greatest outrage against God was to kill the Prince of Life (Acts 3:15) - but eternal judgement is the “second death” (Rev20:14) God is the source of Hope – but eternal judgement has no hope, it is eternal! (Heb6:2) God is Peace – but eternal judgement knows no peace - “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev 14:11) There is no revelation of God in hell to sin against! At some point I came to the boundary of that kingdom of sin and crossed over into the Kingdom of Grace. Being “dead to sin” represents a change of address from the Kingdom of Sin to the Kingdom of Grace That link between sin and death: 1.It is an inevitable link – sin is a rebellion against God and a rejection of God, “in Him is life” therefore sin separated from the source of life and brings death 2.It is an inviolable link – that is a link that cannot be broken – because God has also decreed this link: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:17) “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze 18:4) “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23) There is an exit from sin but that exit is labelled 'death' The only way out of the Kingdom of Sin is by way of Death. On the other side of that door marked death the door is labelled either deliverance or damnation! This is an interesting idea that death marks the boundary for the Kingdom of Sin but do you have any clear cut evidence of it? Rom 6:7 “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” That word “freed” is very interesting because it is the word “δικαιόω” - justified! How can death justify us from sin? Does it not take the work of Christ to justify us from sin and make us right with God and bring us into a living relationship with God? (5:11-21) Of course it does and I suspect that is why the word has been translated “freed” in this verse to avoid confusion! This is “justify” in a different sense. This justify does not have the positive thought of being declared righteous by a God satisfied with the work of Christ and being brought into a living relationship with God but this is the “justified” of a criminal, found guilty of a crime who takes his punishment and serves the sentence meted out. He has done the crime and now he does the time. Should he complete his punishment then the demands of righteousness are satisfied. Sin demands death, once death has been reached sins demands have ended! God doesn't defraud sin, He doesn't say 'I know that sin demands death but I'm going to bend the rules here.' Rather He pays the price for that rioghteous demand in the death of His Son! We are therefore declared to have satisfied or fulfilled the Divine decree concerning sin: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:17) “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze 18:4) “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23) So are you saying then that once we die then the demands of sin are satisfied and because we have suffered death for our sin we are then free from guilt? Are saying that every sinner therefore who dies is justified and goes to heaven? Who said anything about heaven? The punishment for and the consequence of sin is death and without a Saviour death is simply not an event is an eternal state. Hence eternal damnation in the lake of fire is referred to as the “second death” (Rev2:11; 20:6; 20:14; 21:8) for the just demands of sin against an eternal being is eternal death and separation. But were there not in scripture those who have left the domain of sin without dieing? 1.Enoch (Gen 5:24; Heb11:5) 2.Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) 3.The saints of 1 Thess 4 and 1 Co 15:51 How is this possible? The work of Christ involves not only Christ bearing my sin but also dieing my death: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Heb 2:9) Albert Leckie: “Here it is dead to sin as governing my life” Martyn Lloyd Jones: “Christ died to the realm and to the rule and to the reign of sin...we are dead to sin in the sense that we are no longer under its rule, being out of the territory and the jurisdiction of sin” Free from the Domain of sin (5:21) from the Demands of sin and from the Domination of sin (6:9-12)! This identification this union with Christ not only in His Life but also in His death allows me to move out of the Kingdom of Sin and to move on from the Kingdom of Sin, it sets me free from the Domain, the Demands and the Domination of sin. Union with the death of Christ frees me from the POWER and PLACE of sin and one day from the PRESENCE of sin. https://graceinchrist.org/romans