Why Not Sin it Up - pt 1

Just grab our bibles. Just grab our bibles and turn to Romans chapter six.

Romans six, we're gonna be in verses one through fourteen. If you

don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand. We're passing those

out right now. Also, if you didn't get a bulletin on your way

through the doors there, raise your hand and keep it up, and we'll

get you a bible or a bulletin real quick. And turn with me to

Romans chapter six, Versus one through fourteen. Romans six one through fourteen.

I'll ask your sister to come and read our sermon passage for us as you

turn there back in Romans. That's all the whoops I'm gonna get. Yeah,

Romans six one through fourteen. Sister, right, what shall we say?

Then? Are we to continue and sin that graced me abound by no

means? How can we who die to sin still live in it? Do

you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus were

baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism and too

death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the

glory of the Father, we too might walk in units of life. For

if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we shall

certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our

old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be

brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if

we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die

again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died,

he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives he

lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and a

life to God. In Christ. Jesus, Let not sin, therefore rain

in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your

members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those

who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as

instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you

are not under law but under grace. This is God's worth. Amen.

Amen. The Gospel of Jesus Christ seems to have a serious problem. And

what brings this problem up is a verse just prior to this chapter, in

chapter five, verse twenty. It reads, now the law came in to

increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

Grace abounded all the more. In other words, you can't out sin God's

grace. Praise God. You can't out sin God's grace. That is gospel

truth and seems to raise a problem, which is, well, why not

keep on sin it? Why not sin it up if you can't outsin God's

grace? I mean, this is in fact the question that Paul takes up

in chapter six. He actually takes it up twice. He answers it one

in the first part of chapter six and then secondly in a different way in

the second part of chapter six, which we'll get to next week. What

shall we say, then, are we to continue and sin that grace?

Me about that's first one, that's the thesis question. And I say that

it's a serious problem, or appears at least to be a serious problem,

because it has a logic, right, that question makes sense and it's serious

because it always comes up. There's no one that I've spent time going over

what the gospel is that at some point doesn't go but hey, and not

just intellectually either. There are people who wrestle with this question practically in their

lives. I was one. I was one first as a pretend Christian.

This question was very live for me when I was a pretend Christian. By

a pretend Christian, I mean I called myself a Christian. I believed true

things about Jesus, but I didn't really entrust my life to him in faith.

What I wanted was not Jesus in my life. What I wanted was

sin. And if I couldn't out sin God's grace, then I would just

claim that as an excuse to go on sinning. It was a pretty serious

problem that this gospel seemed to present as far as I was concerned. It

was a loophole that you could drive a train through. But then as a

young Christian, as a green Christian, after coming genuinely to faith, trusting

Christ my sin and my life, and wanting to follow him, wanting to

fight sin, I found this truth to be a little bit frustrating. If

I can't out sin God's grace. It seems to actually give strength to my

temptations, as that idea kept going through my mind and I kept misunderstanding it

the way I had when all I wanted to do was sin. But then

I studied Romans six as a young Christian. Romans six was my first experience

of making use of profound theological truth to live out the reality of the Gospel.

So I first experience I begin to see and taste what Paul calls the

obedience of faith. The obedience of faith. If you remember from way back

when we started Romans, how key that phrase was at the beginning of this

letter, and it closes the letter as well, the obedience of faith.

And that is my aim for us this morning. That's what I'm shooting for,

that all of us, if you're a young Christian, that you would

come to grasp this, If you're a more mature Christian, that this would

come to an increasing clarity and freshness into your life. If you're not a

Christian at all, I'm thrilled you're here. I hope that you overhear what

the Bible has to say to those who belong to Christ, that you would

see that what God offers, what God offers in Jesus is a profound different

spiritual reality to exist in. And so we're gonna look at why not send

it up? And I told Kara, my wife. I told my wife

always asked me in the morning, so how's it going? And I said

something along the lines of this is going to be a deeply rewarding message for

those who stay awake, because look, I'm just going to level with you.

This is gonna take some precision. And when you have to be precise,

you have to slow down. And when you slow down, sometimes you

doze off. All right, So not exactly buckle up, more like focus

in profoundly rewarding. For those of you who do that, let me give

you the roadmap. Let me give you the roadmap. Why not continue in

sin? Paul's answer here in the first part of chapter six is basically this,

because by faith, you have been united to Christ even in his death

and life. I know that sounds very theological, but that's the basics.

Because you've been united to Christ, you share in Christ's death and you share

in Christ's resurrection life. That is why you don't continue in sin. And

the roadmap kind of looks like this. The roadmap looks like this. You've

been given a death, you've been given a life. Now you have genuinely

been given a choice. You've been given a death, you've been given a

life. Now you've been given a choice. And earlier this week I thought

I was going to take death and life separately, and I was just going

to work through both of those, one first and then the other. I'm

not going to do that. I've changed my mind. I'm going to take

it all, death and life together. That's why your bolton looks the way

it does. But here's the progression. I'm going to work through. This

progression under points one slash too. Here is the logic that Paul lays out

through this death in life that we've received is a spiritual reality based on your

union with Christ, which produces spiritual freedom right by Christ's work and practical freedom

by faith. Practical freedom by faith, why not sin? How not sin?

We get to that practical freedom at the end of our passage here.

So that's how we're going to work through it. And then that last point.

Now you've received a choice, So now you have the roadmap. If

the map confuses you, don't worry. Just hang on. Let's look at

the first point. You've received a death and you've received a life. Why

not sin it up? Because you've received a death and you've received a life.

To say you've received a death doesn't selling much of a gift, does

it. You'll see soon that is a profound gift to have received a death

and you have received a life. These two are presented in parallel here as

spiritual realities. Look with me at verses one and two. What shall we

say, then, are we to continue in sin? That grace may abound

by no means? How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul saying that the answer, one of the answers, a part of

the answer to the question of why not continue in sin? Is this spiritual

reality. You've died to sin. You've died to sin. In other words,

there's a spiritual reality in your past right. You have died past tense,

and that impacts your current living right. You died to sin. You've

been given a death that impacts how you live now. And there's another spiritual

reality, you've been given a life, and that impacts now as well.

Look at verses four five, Verses four and five we were buried forever.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism and to death, in order that

just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,

we too might walk in newness of life. For if we've been united with

him and death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a

resurrection like his. Okay, So there's a spiritual reality in your future.

You will be raised and that breaks into current living. Now too, you

walk in newness of that life. Right, So that is the spiritual reality

that drives this whole thing, these two elements of faith. The death I've

been given, it breaks into now and defines my relationship with sin. The

life I've been given given that breaks into now and defines my life as well.

Newness. Okay, you don't have to understand all of that. We're

gonna we're gonna work. We're gonna work from here. But what you do

need to understand is that truth. I've been given a death, I've been

given a life. It's a spiritual reality. It's a spiritual reality that I'm

called to live from by faith. Now, now there are a bunch of

questions I see them on your face. There's a bunch of questions that follow

this, like railroad cars, like how did this happen? What does this

mean? What am I supposed to do with this? And we're gonna we're

gonna tackle those as we go through this. But this is the engine that

drives that whole chow choo. Okay, this spiritual reality, and it's key

to understanding why we don't continue in sin. Even though you can't out sin,

God's grace and it's not enough to just know it. You have to

live it. But you can't live it if you don't know it. So

here's the first question that follows, how did this happen? What is the

factual, real, historical occurrence that is the foundation of this spiritual reality.

It's your union with Christ. It is Christ's work that you have been united

in. But read with me in verses three, four and five. Do

you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus,

immersed into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death. We were buried therefore

with him by baptism and to death. In order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we two might walk

in newness of life. For if we have been, what does it say,

united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be again

united with him in a resurrection like his. So that's the foundation that because

by God's grace through faith, you have been united to Christ. When Christ

died, his death was applied to you. There is a kind of death

that has already happened for you because it already happened to Christ. And we

show this. We show this in baptism. This is what we put on

display right, death, burial, resurrection. So I'll ask you a question.

When we display this truth in baptism, are we symbolized Christ's death,

burial and resurrection. Are we symbolizing your death, buryl in resurrection. Yes,

some of you are getting wise. That's what we're demonstrating. And Jesus

says to the just, He says, to the believer, if you're united

with me, put that on display to the world, to the church,

to your family, to everybody who will watch. Show the world that you

are united with Me in death, burial and resurrection. Now, don't get

tripped up here by the word in verse four, as Paul says, we

were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. Some people take that very

woodenly to suggest that, oh, oh, it's baptism. It's the water

that creates the union. It's the water that unites us to Christ. And

Paul's not using the language that way at all. He's just spent five chapters

saying, no, we're united to Christ by faith, we're justified by faith.

So he's not here getting into six and saying, oh, but also

plus water plus that work. That's not what he's saying. He's using that

terminology symbolically, like like a wedding, right. The ring doesn't make you

married, the vows make you married. Right, but we still use the

terms like with this ring ivy wed because because we're using that symbolically. Right.

So baptism puts on display the truth that has happened by faith, of

your unity with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. That union

is the basis for all of this freedom, that union with Christ. You

are in him. So one of the most profound theological truths in all of

Scripture. You're in Christ. And so what happened with Christ happened with you.

You mail the envelope you mailed the letter right now, if you're not

a Christian and you're here this morning, I think this is actually a really

key text to help you realize that what God offers in Jesus is not just

a ethical way to live. But what God offers in Jesus Christ is not

just you learning some things about how to live a more moral life. It's

actually what God offers in Jesus Christ is a foundationally different spiritual reality to exist

in. So if you came here this morning saying, man, I came

to church just to get a little encouragement, maybe get some tips and tricks

for you know, being a better person, you should see that is not

what That's not what Jesus offers. But if you came here this morning saying,

a foundationally different spiritual reality for me to live in is exactly what I

need. Nothing more than that will change who I am and how I live.

We should talk because that's exactly what Jesus offers. Now, why not

sin it up? Why not continue and sin? Paul goes on with his

explanation, because you've received the death, because you've received the life, right,

there's a spiritual reality. It's based on your union with Christ and this

produces spiritual freedom. By Christ's work, this produces spiritual freedom. Now,

remember how I said we're gonna have to go slow because we're gonna have to

get precise, and somebody were, like, I thought we were already slow.

This is where we're really gonna slow down. We're gonna slow down to

ask and answer the question, in what way are we dead to sin?

Don't you have that question, those of you who are still with me,

Yeah, you got that question. Because and we gotta get this right.

Because if this is key, as pause as it is, if this is

key for spiritual freedom, if this is key for understanding and living in such

a way that we don't continue on in sin and sin it up, if

we want that answer for ourselves, we need to understand this. And the

answer to this, in what way are we dead to sin? Is that

there is some already and not yet at play here. There's some already not

yet and that's important, and I'll talk about how and why that's important.

Here's my summary. This is my summary statement for how we are dead to

sin. You are if you're in Christ, if you're united to Christ,

you are already dead to the despairing penalty. Of sin, that penalty is

paid. There is no place for despair in your heart and life over the

idea that you are going to come under the judgment of God because of the

penalty of sin. You're dead to that. You are also already dead to

It's a dominating power of sin. You're not enslaved to it anymore. But

you are not yet dead to the tempting power of sin. And you're not

yet dead to the tangible presence of sin. Already dead to sins, despairing

penalty and dominating power, not yet dead to sins, tempting power in tangible

presence. Let's look at verse six. We know that our old self was

crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,

so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. It says that

our old self was crucified with Christ, our old self, our old way

of living. In Atom, Volume one is done. There is a radical

discontinuity between who I was before without Christ in Atom and who I am now

in Christ, a radical discontinuity. There was volume one in my life,

and there is volume two in my life, and volume one is closed.

That is an old self. That doesn't mean my flesh is dead. That

doesn't mean I sin nature is dead, but that old self done. I

don't want to go back to that now. I know that for some of

us practically in our lives, volume one is like this long, and volume

two is this long. For some of us it's the reverse. Some of

us it's like very symmetrical. It doesn't matter. What matters is when did

you come to faith? You know, old self? It's an old way

so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing right, the body

as conditioned and controlled by sin, as sin defined what I did and how

I thought, and how I acted and what I cared about. Being brought

to nothing dead, there's a death. So let's break down those already not

yet things. What does it mean to say that you're not yet dead,

not yet dead to the tangible presence of sin. It means you still experience

sin. Can I get an amen? That's important to know that you still

experience sin and you still sin, because if you think that in order to

be a Christian that means that you're perfect, then reality is going to be

very disappointing for you. As James says, we all stumble in many ways,

and worse than despairing over the fact that they're like, oh man,

I still slip into sin, I still give in to its temptations. Worse

would be to say, well, I'm a Christian, therefore the Bible says

I'm dead to sin, so I must not sin anymore. So everything that

looks like sin in my life, I'm gonna recategorize is just an oopsie and

refuse to call it sin. That would be a problem. So you need

to realize that you're not already dead to the tangible presence of sin, nor

are you dead to the tempting power of sin. Sin can still tempt you.

In fact, that's the whole reason why Paul is writing this. So

you recognize the dominating power of sin is broken. You're dead to that,

but the tempting power of sin is still active. But you don't have to

sin anymore. You're not conscripted into sin's army anymore. And by realizing that

you can live out that truth, we overcome the tempting power of sin that's

still present very much by recognizing we're dead to sins dominating power. So let's

talk about those two things. If you're not yet dead to sins tangible presence

and since tempting power. What about sins despairing penalty? Are you free from

that? Are you dead to that? Yeah, that's what verse seven is

about. For one who has died has been set free or justified from sin,

set free, that is to say justified. That word is translated justified

and everywhere else in Romans, translators are calling it set free here because they

have that particular connotation in mind. But yet you're justified. In other words,

you're free from sins penalty because you're dead. Here's what I mean.

There's a helpful illustration from John Stott. If you received a sentence of ten

years in prison, right, how could you be free of that? How

could you be justified from that? How could you walk free? You do

your ten years, After you do your ten years, you're a free man.

Right, the sentence is fulfilled. The same thing would be true if

you received a death sentence. How would you be free? How would that

sentence be fulfilled and you would be able to go on with your life?

Well, if you died, then you fulfilled it sentence, right, And

it is exactly the condition that we are in under sin. There is a

death sentence on us spiritually and physically. We are condemned to die because we

are guilty of sin unless we die, and the Bible says that Christ has

died and united with him by God's grace, we have died. The sentence

is fulfilled. You're free. You're free, And it's really important because there

are people who are struggling with sin, and the despair that sets in is

it's hopeless for me. Anyway, I'm condemned, I might as well continue

on in sin. I'm trapped, I'm under judgment. Not if you're in

Christ. You're not in Christ. You're free from sins, despairing penalty.

Don't continue to live as if you're not. The jails hell is wide open.

Don't hang out in there like it's your home. You're also you're also

free. You're dead to sin's dominating power. Yes, we're we're still subject

to its temptations, but we're not subjects to its dominating power. Let's look

at verse six again, as it says our old self was crucified with him

in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that

we would no longer be enslaved to sin enslaved to sin. That's different than

tempted by sin. Being dominated by sin and being tempted by sin are two

different things. And the Bible said, the Bible says, like, recognize

this, realize this. There's a spiritual truth. The devil doesn't want you

to know. You are dead to the domain power of sin. What does

that look like? Let me see if I can put a little picture to

it. Imagine that you, by birth were a part of a country.

Right, You were born a citizen, a subject of a certain country whose

leaders were wicked, whose laws were wicked. The whole principle of operating in

that country was wicked. And not only were you born a subject of that

country, you were a part of its army. You were a soldier in

the army of this country. And you were totally bought in. Right.

You weren't reluctant. You were like, hey, I'm all for the way

we do things. Yeah. Maybe you were bothered every once in a while

and by some of the results and consequences of your actions under this regime,

but you were wearing that uniform. You followed in this wickedness. Now,

hypothetically, if someone came along and persuaded you of the wickedness of those leaders

and the wickedness of the principles and the way that this whole country and army

operated. And they persuaded you this was wrong. Could you lay down your

arms and go fight for the other army? Would you be able to do

that? No, you belonged to that army. I know we don't like

it to say it that way in Military City, USA, but you belonged

to the army. When you're in the army, you belonged to them.

To flip. What's that called. It's treason. What's the historical punishment for

treason? Death? So you belonged to that country. You belonged to that

army. Unless you're all already dead, then you're free. When you come

to faith in Christ, he doesn't just persuade you of the sinfulness of sin

and then leave you as a conscripted person in Sin's army. He unites you

to himself and gives you a death. And now you will no longer belong

to that army. You don't have to come under sins dominating power anymore.

Whereas once everything that you did, even the stuff that seemed good, was

done apart from faith, which the Bible says, everything done apart from faith

is sin. Now you have another way to live. Now you have another

way to live, which is to God. That's what the next verses describe.

Let's just read eight through ten. Now, if we have died with

Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that

Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no

longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to

sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God.

And you can too. So the life that he lives, he lives

to God. So we, being united to Christ, we received not only,

as we've said, a death that defines our relationship with sin. We're

dead to it. We've received a life that defines our relationship to God.

We live to him. We are genuinely free to live to God by faith,

the obedience of faith, which is the point of the next verse,

verse eleven. But before we get there, see your eyes, it's good.

I like that instinct. It's good, good instinct. Down to the

Bible. Let me give you a recap, and then we're down to the

Bible. Here's the recaps. We have received a spiritual reality by our union

with Christ, which produces spiritual freedom. Right, we've just talked about that

spiritual freedom. Right, you're free from the penalty of sin, You're free

from the dominating power of sin. Right, the jail cell is open,

and you're not in the army anymore. And because that's all very abstract and

theological right and practical freedom by faith, look at verse eleven. So you

also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

So you also must what consider that's kind of a bland term. Consider,

here's what it means. Reckon, count take into account and live as true.

Reckon. We do it all the time, all the time. We're

taking things into account and living as though they're true. We're reckoning things.

We're reckoning things. And Paul saying, here, here's what you gotta do.

You got to reckon. This is the first time he said anything in

our passage about what we've got to do. So far, it's all all

been Here's what's true, here's a spiritual reality, here's what's happened. Here

this big theological truth balm that he gives us. And now now he gets

down to verse eleven. He tells us, finally, what we got to

do? What do we got to do? Paul to live free? He

says, reckon. Let me highlight reckon. Here's what we do when we

reckon. We do it all the time. Like if I took my teenagers

to the grocery store. Right in the shopping with me, They've got the

cart, we get to the self checkout, and I start scanning things,

putting them in bags. They're on their phones, they're not paying any attention,

and I take care of the whole transaction. And then I say hey,

and they look up, say I just paid for that. He can

get it to the truck, and they go sure, and off they go.

They have reckoned those groceries as ours. Right, they believe what I've

said. They believe that those groceries no longer belong to eight Be. Those

groceries now belong to the Daconings. Yeah, they believe what I've said is

true, and off they go. Now, if what I haven't said isn't

true, they'll find out soon enough when they get to the door, which

would be awesome. But no, it's true. I've paid for them.

They've reckoned them as ours. And off they go to the truck, and

they're gonna tear into the chips. Before they're even into the truck. They

reckon those groceries as deconing groceries, and they will eat them. Yes,

that's what it means to reckon. That's what it means to consider when it

says, here, consider yourselves dead, descend and alive to God. All

of this spiritual truth that Poll's laid out for us, all of this profound

theological plumbing that He's given to us. Now, he says, now,

go live the gospel. Act by faith in this practical life what you know

to be true. By faith in spiritual reality, you're dead to sin.

You're alive to God in Christ Jesus, which is what the last paragraph is

all about. What does the obedience of faith then look like? This faith

put into action, this reckoning. Now you have a choice. Now you've

received a choice. Which army are you going to fight for? Says the

verse twelve. Let not sin, therefore reign and your mortal body to make

you obey its passions. That would be your old way of living. That

would be to act as if you're still under the penalty, and you're still

under the dominating power. You're still a part of that army. To let

Sin rain, then, is to act out a profound spiritual lie. You're

saying with your life that those things aren't true. You're returning to fight for

that old, wicked army. Instead, look at the choice in verse thirteen.

Do not present your members as sin. You do not present your members

to Sin as instruments or weapons for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as

those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God

as instruments or weapons for righteousness. Different translations translate that word either instruments or

weapons. I like weapons because it really emphasizes the battle. This is the

battle, and these are the sides. And the obedience of faith, in

many ways is just acknowledging the truth that Christ's death counts as yours. You

live it out. You're not a conscript in Sin's army anymore. You live

it out. Sin has no claim of destiny or dominion over you anymore.

And you live it out. And instead you turn to God and you say,

put me to use. You turn away from sin. You say,

I'm I'm not going to be used by you anymore. I'm not in your

army anymore. I'm not fighting on your side anymore. And you turn to

God, you say, put me to use, Put me to use as

a neighbor, Put me to use as a parent, Put me to use

as a brother or sister in this small group where I am helping to this

where I'm helping to put sin to death alongside others. Put me to use.

I'm a weapon in your hand, no longer in Sin's hand. And

like verse fourteen says, for sin will have no dominion over you, since

you're not under law, but grace, sin will have no dominion. And

we're gonna talk about that lost stuff next week. Paul uses this as a

hinge to get to his second answer of why we don't continue in sin,

So stay tuned for that. But listen, this is what I needed to

understand that as a young Christian. This is what I needed to understand the

obedience of faith. I knew I wasn't saved by works. I knew I

wasn't saved by avoiding sin. I knew that a life of righteousness wasn't just

white knuckled willpower or some cutt and paste set of rules for living. But

I didn't have this theological plumbing to understand why not continue in sin? To

understand how to not continue in sin. I didn't understand faith apart from initial

faith until Roman six, and then I saw the obedience of faith, which

isn't something different from the gospel. It's the Gospel lived out