Raised with Christ (Romans 6:1-14)

Good morning church. This morning our reading is from

Romans chapter 6, verses 1 to 14.

Romans 6:1–14

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that

grace may increase? By no means we are those who

have died to sin. How can we live in it in it's

any longer? Or don't you know that all of us

who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death? We were therefore buried with

him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may

live a new life. For if we have been united with

Him in a death like his, we'll certainly also be united with

him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self

was crucified with Him, so that the body ruled by sin might be

done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin,

because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live

with him. For we know that since Christ

was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.

Death no longer has mastery over him.

The death he died, he died to sin once for all, But the life

he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count

yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you

obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of

yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer

yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to

life, and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument

of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your

master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

So we are beginning a short three-week series this morning,

which follows on from the events of the first Easter this year.

Easter is not finishing. We're carrying on with it

tonight, Easter worship service in the next few weeks.

And in this series, you sort of want to ask the question, what

difference does the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrated last

Sunday? What difference does that make

to our lives here and now? See, the resurrection of Jesus

from the dead is one of the central truths of the Christian

gospel. And it sort of goes without

saying, the resurrection of Jesus made a huge difference to

Jesus. I hope that does go without

saying, but it's always worth remembering.

As one church historian put it, without the resurrection we

would never have heard of Jesus. We just remember lots of people

were crucified by the Romans in the 1st century.

Probably thousands of criminals died that way.

Without the resurrection, Jesus would have just been another

statistic, another failed Messiah.

But instead, because of the resurrection, we're still

talking about Jesus today. People are still worshipping

Jesus today. People are still putting their

faith in Jesus today. See, three days after he died in

a cross, Jesus rose from the dead, never to die again.

And and the passage we've had read out is Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

The apostle Paul refers to that in verse 9.

He says, For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead,

he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over

him. So on that first Easter weekend,

Jesus died on a Roman cross. Three days later he rose again,

never to die again. This morning, followers of Jesus

worship a living Saviour. Jesus is alive today, and he is

alive forever. In that sense, the resurrection

of Jesus is the proof that Jesus is who he says he is, the Son of

God, God's king come to put things right in God's world.

The resurrection of Jesus is the proof that God the Father

accepted Jesus sacrifice on the cross in our place.

And all that is gloriously true. But the good news, the

resurrection of Jesus isn't just good news about Jesus, it's

about the new life that Jesus has won for anyone and everyone

who puts their faith in him. And that is the focus of the

passage we're looking at this morning in Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

So at the cross of the resurrection, Jesus defeated sin

and death once and for all. And so we want to ask the

question, well, if sin and death are defeated, what will our

relationship be like to sin and death?

We're going to look at that in the next few weeks.

If we follow Jesus in this world, what does that victory

Jesus won? What has that got to do with us?

What kind of life can we now live in a world where Jesus is

resurrected and risen from the dead?

That's the question Paul is asking in this passage.

And the answer he arrives at is 1 full of hope and life for

everyone who trusts in Jesus. Because according to Paul here,

the moment we put our faith in Jesus, we become one with the

risen Jesus. We're united with Jesus in his

death and resurrection. Listen to how Paul puts it in

verse 5 of this passage. He says, for if we've been

united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be

united with him in a resurrection like his or verse

8. Now, if we died with Christ, we

believe we will also live with him.

Now what is Paul trying to tell his readers here?

I think in this passage Paul is sharing a truth that is precious

and life changing for everyone who follows Jesus.

Because actually, I say follow Jesus.

We learn here that a Christian isn't just a follower of Jesus.

A Christian is someone who is in Christ Jesus.

We learn here that we are one with Christ.

Through faith in Jesus, we're united with Christ.

We are in Christ, and Christ is in us.

If we trust in him, we are as close to Jesus as it's possible

to be. And as a result, we are now,

Paul says, set free from our slavery to sin, and we can now

live a new life in this world for Jesus and with Jesus.

These are the huge truths that Paul is trying to unpack for us

in this passage. He's telling us the death and

resurrection of Jesus didn't just happen to Jesus.

Of course it did happen to Jesus, but it didn't just happen

to him. The death and resurrection of

Jesus happened to us too. If our faith is in Jesus, why?

Well, because when we put our faith in Jesus, we are united

with him, with his death and resurrection.

We are dead to sin and we are alive to God.

We have been set free from the power of sin, Paul says, and

that is going to change everything about our life lived

in faith in Jesus. We are now free to fight against

sin, and we're free to win in that fight.

Independence on the crucified and risen Jesus.

And Paul's writing this because he knows the Christians in Rome

and the Christians of every generation reading this passage

afterwards need to hear this good news.

Because all too often in our lives as Christians, we get to

the point where we think sin is just irresistible.

Sin is inevitable in our lives, and we are powerless to change.

There was a book several years ago called You Can Change by Tim

Chester. And I remember seeing at a book

stall I was with a friend and a Christian friend, and he looked

at the time and went, I'm not so sure you can change.

That sounds great, but he didn't feel sure.

And I want to suggest that the way Paul describes sin,

personifying sin in this passage, it's like sin says to

us, just face it, you're a greedy person and you always

will be. You're a lazy person and you

always will be. You're an angry person and you

always will be. You're a lustful person and you

always will be. That's just who you are.

Stop trying to fight it, just accept it.

That is what sin whispers at to each and every one of us every

day of our lives. And sin can even bring truth in

the Bible. And well, who in the Bible is

that? Everyone's a Sinner.

There you go. So no one can expect you to

change. People have to just accept who

you are. You have to accept who you are.

This is just who you are. But the song we open with today

picks up the new identity with Christ that Paul desperately

wants himself and us to grasp hold of.

We are now one with Christ. If we put our faith in Jesus, we

are raised with Christ to a new life where we can say no to sin

and its desires. We can fight against sin, and

with God's help, we can change. See, every believer is now one

with Christ because Jesus died and rose again.

Therefore, we died to sin and rose again to new life.

And as a result, we can change with His help.

We can grow in our love for God and our love for one another

with his help. And we can help one another grow

as we remind one another of our new identity in Christ.

So that's what Paul's trying to get across in this bit of

Romans. Let's look at this passage

together. We're kind of jumping into the

middle of Romans here. There's quite a lot that's gone

before. She's very briefly kind of a a

story so far in Romans, Romans one to five, you can sort of

summarise as what God has accomplished for us in the

gospel. Across these opening chapters,

Paul wants us to see God has declared us righteous.

When we put our faith in Jesus, he's forgiven us our sins.

When we put our faith in Jesus, he's demonstrated his love for

us once and for all at the cross all through the life, death and

resurrection of Jesus in our place.

Paul's clear in these chapters, the Christian life's not about

what we do. It's about what God has done for

us through Jesus. That is why the gospel is such

good news. God sees us.

He knows we cannot save ourselves, so he sends his Son

in our place to rescue us. But then, as chapter 6 of Romans

begins, Paul anticipates a question his readers may be

asking. That's verse one of Romans 6.

What shall we say then, says Paul?

Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

And it seems that was a common complaint voiced against Paul's

gospel. And in fact, some people say

it's actually a question that every single person is going to

ask at some point or another. When you begin to grasp how

lavish the grace of God is to us in Jesus.

Hang on a minute. Either it comes early on or

later. But does this mean I can live

however I want? Does this mean that actually the

more I sin, the more God Forgives me?

Does this mean actually it just doesn't matter how I live?

And I've heard that question many times in life.

When I was about 10 years old, I explained this as the great

thing about being a Christian. You do whatever you want and you

say thank you Jesus, please forgive me, and you do whatever

you want the next day. I was a theologian even then,

just a very bad one. And actually this question is a

is a common objection raised by people from other faiths and

religions to the Christian gospel.

I got to a Buddhist friend pretty well when I lived in

Oxford about 1520 years ago. And he would say to me, I'm

attracted to Jesus, I I like his teaching.

But this grace thing, there's just no incentive to live a good

life. That's why Christians are all

hypocrites. So I need the rules and

spiritual disciplines of Buddhism to keep me right.

And again, some Muslims I've spoken to would voice the same

objection. Isn't God's grace in the gospel

just an excuse for us to keep sinning?

It's a really important question Paul is raising here.

And in verse 2, Paul responds to that question by emphatically

rejecting it. By no means.

That's kind of big, bold wording there.

And why won't a believer in Jesus simply go on sinning so

that grace may increase? It's because of the new identity

God has given us through faith in Jesus.

Verse two. Let me pick up the middle point

of verse 2. We are those who have died to

sin. How can we live in it any

longer? Or don't you know that all of us

who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death? We were therefore buried with

him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may

live a new life. See, according to Paul here,

every believer in Jesus has died to sin.

When Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago, so too did

everyone who puts their faith in him.

And when Jesus rose from the dead three days later, so too

will everyone who puts their trust in him.

We are one with Jesus, united with Jesus in his death and

resurrection, and so we are set free from sin.

Why would we go on sinning, Says Paul, when Jesus came and lived

and died and rose again to set us free from that slavery we

were all trapped in? See, at the heart of what Paul's

teaching here is a truth that later Christian theologians have

come to call our union with Christ.

And time and again, the New Testament, believers in Jesus,

disciples of Jesus, are described as being in Christ.

Actually, it's interesting that the word Christian appears.

I think it's three times. Yeah, in the New Testament, but

the phrase in Christ and related phrases like in him appear over

165 times. And that's just in the letters

of Paul, the letters of John and others that also appears in

Christ is the dominant way of describing believers in the New

Testament. And what does it mean for

believers to be in Christ? Well, it means a lot.

And it's, it's a huge idea that takes different pictures and

metaphors to understand it in the Bible.

So some examples of the pictures Scripture uses.

Jesus is a vine, and we are the branches connected to that vine.

That's the only way we can bear fruits.

Or we are stones being built together in a house.

But Jesus, he's the cornerstone that holds everything together.

We're a body made-up of many parts with Jesus as the head of

the body. We are the bride, loved

passionately by Christ, and Christ is the bridegroom.

All these pictures add to this picture of union and intimacy

every believer enjoys with Jesus.

They tell us we are now in Christ and Christ is now in US.

What happens to Jesus happens to everyone who believes in Jesus.

What belongs to Jesus is now ours.

It's like in a marriage ceremony.

What? What?

Look, what I have I share with you.

Everything I have, I share with you.

We have Christ's righteousness, and he takes all our sin and our

mess. We're connected to Jesus, and

our life now flows from our union with him.

And from this passage in Romans 6, the key truth Paul wants to

emphasize about our union with Christ is that because we are in

Christ, Jesus shares his victory over sin and death with us.

That is the good news at the heart of this passage.

And this is the language, it's like a representation where one

person's achievement is shared with and celebrated by the

people around them. And it's our language.

We're kind of used to when it comes to big sporting events

always when we're back in 2012, a long time ago.

So it's Super Saturday seeing Mofar and others winning gold

medals. And, and I was, I was sitting on

that sofa. I did not move a muscle but I

was able to say we won the gold. It's like when Noah and I

watched the Six Nations in rugby and and Ireland say do well or

get hammered by France. We are going, we won or we lost.

Neither of us got ourselves dirty.

Neither of us did anything except shout at a scream and

annoy the women in our family. Now actually everyone knows the

athletes. They're not just competing for

themselves. In a very real way they are

representing all of us. They're representing their

supporters. We don't actually run the race.

We don't win it personally, but we celebrate the win as if we

did because they're a representative.

Or take the story of David and Goliath in the Old Testament.

The other Israelites, they were all too frightened of Goliath

the giant to fight him. But when David defeated the

giant in battle, he shared that victory with all the Israelites.

We can say that all of Israel was in David even though they

hadn't fought the battle themselves.

And Paul teaches it's the same for those who trust in Jesus

death and resurrection. In our place we are in Christ.

When he was crucified, Jesus took the punishment we deserved

on himself. Even though he had done nothing

wrong, He acted as our representative.

And when Jesus rose from the dead three days later, we were

raised with him. We have new life in Christ

because Jesus chooses to share his victory over sin and death

with us. What's true of Jesus is now true

of us when we trust in him. So back to Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Paul wants to see that the death and resurrection of Jesus didn't

just happen to Jesus. It happened to us too.

And as a result, we are now dead to sin.

It's an amazing statement Paul makes.

And the picture Paul uses here is that of baptism verse three.

Let me pick up there. Don't you know that all of us

who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his

death? We were therefore buried with

him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was

raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may

live a new life. See, baptism is one of those

amazing pictures of our union with Christ.

Baptism tells the story of the gospel.

It tells us what happened to Jesus, that he died, was buried,

and rose again. But baptism also tells a story

of what happens to every believer in Jesus when we put

our faith in him. We die with Christ, we are

buried, and we rise again to new life.

Paul says if you're baptized Christian, the moment you're

baptized, that's a picture of you dying with Jesus.

The old you, the one who lived under the reign of sin, that

person died under the water, and the new you, the one in Christ

was risen up out of the water to live a new life.

Verse five, in baptism, we remember our union with Christ.

We died to sin with Jesus and we're raised to new life with

Jesus. So Paul writes these Christians

in Roman. He says remember God.

Look back at your baptism. Remember what your baptism tells

you about your new identity. When you're tempted to give up

on following Jesus, when you're attempted to give in to the the

lies of sin, remember who you are.

Look back to your baptism. Remember what Jesus has done for

you and who you now are in him. Baptism is a picture of us being

dead to sin. And in verses 6 to 10, Paul

moves from the picture of baptism to the pictures of

slavery and freedom. Says now that we're in Christ,

we are set free from the power of sin.

Verse 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with Jesus.

So the body ruled by sin might be done away with, so that we

should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died

has been set free from sin. Paul wants to see that at the

cross and the resurrection, something remarkable happened.

We were rescued from sin and set free from its power because

Jesus died and rose again for us.

And it's kind of a different way of thinking about sin than we

often think. Often we think about sin as

basically the actions we do and something that comes out of us.

And in many passage of Scripture, that's a right

understanding of sin. But here in another place of the

Bible, sin is like personified like it's almost some people say

sin with a capital S and sin is likened to a ruler who reigns

over us or who wants to reign over us.

Sin is basically a tyrant, a slave master, a bully in the

playground telling us you need to listen to what I say.

And Paul says before Jesus came we were all each one of us

slaves to sin and we could not free ourselves from sins grip

over us. We needed Jesus to come and set

us free. Verse 10 the death he died, he

died to sin once and for all. At the cross Jesus defeated sin

and death once and for all and he shares that victory with

everyone who puts their trust in him.

Verse 6 Our old self was crucified with him.

So the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we

should no longer be slaves to sin in Christ.

We've been set free from sin as our master, and we have a new

master now, the risen Lord Jesus.

And he is a master who is generous and chooses to share

everything he has with us. It's amazing.

But actually, notice Paul is really talking objectively here.

He's he's dealing with facts here.

He's not presuming that everyone reading this will feel this to

be true or is emotionally aware of it.

Paul's describing objective historical fact here.

That's true of every Christian sitting in this room, whether or

not we feel it to be true. The moment you put your faith in

Jesus, you died with Christ. You're dead to sin, and you were

raised with Christ. You're now set free from the

power of sin. Those are facts Paul says in the

gospel that nothing can change. And so Paul wants to go on in

the last little bit, verses 11 to 14, to show us the difference

those facts make to how we live in Christ here And now.

Finally, he says in Christ we are now free to fight against

sin and we're free to win. In verses 3 to 10, Paul's

emphasis is in what Jesus has done for everyone who trusts in

him. And now in verses 11 to 14, Paul

shows us the part we get to play in response to that.

See, Paul's writing all this because he's saying actually,

the the truth is we're free from the power of sin if we follow

Jesus, but we're still not yet free from the presence of sin.

Sin is still real. Sin is still active in our

lives. Again, that's probably not

something I need to prove to you if you dial back the last 24

hours. So Paul's saying sin is a

defeated enemy for everyone who's in Christ, but it still

has teeth, it's still raging against us.

It's like the way the the devil is describing revelation.

He knows his time is short, he knows he's beaten, but he wants

to bring people down with him. So sin still wants to reign over

us, says Paul. Sin still shouts it's evil

desires at us. There still exists A struggle

with sin and selfishness, selfishness in the lives of

every Christian. And how do we fight against that

when sin shouts out at us? Paul says here, remember who you

already are in Christ and live in the light of who you are, not

who you once were, but who you are in Christ.

That's verse 11 if you want to look at that for a second.

After reminding us of all that Jesus accomplished for us

through his death and resurrection, Paul issues a

command in verse 11. He says count yourselves dead to

sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Or that could be translated, consider yourselves dead to sin,

but a lie to God in Christ Jesus.

According to Paul, it's sort of the battle begins in the mind.

It begins in how we think about ourselves.

The reality is we're free from the power of sin, but but that

fact and our feelings do not always go together.

So Paul urges us here, look to Jesus, remember who you are in

him and then don't listen to sin.

Listen to Jesus, consider yourselves, remember who you

are, because we all forget, because sin still sounds loud in

our ears. There was a great Welsh preacher

in the 20th century called Martyn Lloyd Jones and he used

to explain this passage and our struggle with sin with the

following illustration. He says on the 18th of December

1865 slavery was finally abolished in the United States

of America. So that moment, legally and in

reality, slavery in America was over.

But he said, imagine you were raised as a slave.

You'd only ever known life as a slave.

Suddenly, December 18th, it is over.

You're not a slave anymore. You are free.

But the next day you're walking down the street and you hear the

voice of your old master. Boy, come here, pick up the sack

for me. You just you're frozen.

Do you feel like his slave again?

The answer is yes. She's been a slave for so many

years. You hear that voice.

I've got to listen. I've got to obey.

But does that feeling make you his slave?

Again, the answer is no. Legally.

In reality, you are free. You're no longer a slave.

You do not have to listen to that man anymore, Paul says.

That's the same for everyone who is in Christ because of Jesus

death and resurrection in the gospel, our freedom has been

won. It has been declared we are not

slaves to sin anymore. That is a reality.

It has happened, but we will still hear the voice of our old

master and we'll still feel the pull of it.

We'll still be tempted to obey, to listen to him do whatever he

says. And that's the battle of verse

11. Consider yourselves dead to sin

and alive to God in Christ Jesus, even when we don't always

feel that way. Then you're no longer my master.

I don't have to listen to you anymore.

It is not inevitable that I must do what you say.

And if the battle begins in the mind, verse 11, it carries on

how we live. Verses 12 to 13 look at all the

different commands Paul gives in 12 to 13 in light of what Jesus

has done. He says do not let sin reign in

your mortal body. Do not offer any part of

yourself to sin as an instrument of of wickedness.

That's if you like the negative side, that's that's the act of

repentance. Turn away from sin, but then the

more positive commands, offer yourselves to God Instead, offer

every part of yourself to him. That is faith turning towards

the living God. He knows that we don't live in a

vacuum. Don't say, well, I'm I'm not a

slave to sin, but but what do I do now?

I know actually. Instead you turn to God, you

offer yourself to him. We have a genuine choice.

Offer yourselves to sin or offer yourselves to God.

Sin is no longer inevitable in your life.

We are dead to sin, says Paul through faith in Jesus.

And we are alive to God through faith in Jesus.

It's like there's a clash going on over every single one of us,

that sin is a power that wants to reign over us, and God's

grace is a power that wants to reign over us.

And I guess the fear is you go, well, who's going to win?

If they're both powers, they both want me to follow them.

But who's going to win? Sin or God's grace?

And that's where the good news of the resurrection comes in,

because the resurrection of Jesus shows that God's grace is

greater than sin and death. Jesus proved that at the

resurrection, and now His grace is able to set us free from the

power of sin. Again, according to this

passage, sin is a bully and a slave master, but we do not have

to listen to him anymore. Sin may whisper at us, you're

just a greedy person, a lazy person, a lustful person, you

always will be. And you say, no, that's not who

I am anymore. I am dead to sin and alive to

God in Christ Jesus. I am not a slave to sin.

Sin is no longer my master. Verse 14 I'm not under the law,

I'm under grace. I am in Christ.

Christ is in me. All of me is connected to all of

Christ. That is why I can fight and by

God's grace I can win. But again, the reason Paul's

writing here is he's he news. We don't win every time.

There's so many objective truths up to verse 10.

You might think, well job done, the battle's over, but actually

we still have a part to play. Verses 11 to 14.

And in a war, there are skirmishes and battles, and we

might not win everyone, but the response when we lose is to keep

fighting. And the response when we win is

to keep fighting because we know ultimately the victory has been

won not by us, but by Jesus at the cross and the resurrection.

So when sin says just give up, you're never going to change, we

say, no, I am alive with Christ, I am in him, He is in me.

And we can change as a result. We can grow in our love for God

and our love for each other, and we can fight in light of all

that Jesus has already won for us, the Christian life.

We're not fighting on our own. It's not like all we've got is

discipline and rules. You're fighting with with Christ

and with his Spirit on your side, and he's already won the

victory. And he calls you to fight here

and now in light of what he has done for you.

What difference does the resurrection make to us today?

Well, we are one with Christ. We are alive in Christ.

We are in Christ as close to Jesus as it's possible to be,

and it's as we rely on his strength, not our own.

We can live the new life Jesus has won for us as we rely on his

grace when we win a battle. And when we lose a battle, we

rely on his grace going. Ultimately, the war is won, so

I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to pick myself up.

I'm going to help other believers around me pick

themselves up, and we are going to keep fighting in light of

that victory that Jesus shares with us.

And to fight that battle, Paul urges us, remember who you

already are in Christ. Offer yourselves to God, not to

sin, and live the new life Jesus now shares with you in this

world, a life you live for Jesus and a life you live with Jesus,

a life you live amazingly in Jesus, him providing you with

all the strength and the grace and the help that you need.

Here again, how Paul finishes this passage, verse 14.

For sin shall no longer be your master because you're not under

the law, but under grace. And the resurrection shows us

God's grace is stronger than all the forces of sin and death.

And Jesus shares his victory with everyone who puts their

faith in him. We are raised with Christ.

Let's live in the light of that. Let's pray together.

Let's let's pray. Father God, we want to thank you

that you know our hearts better than we do, Lord, that when you

open our eyes to great truths of the gospel, Lord, it's not just

to add to our understanding. It's because you know we need to

know these truths day by day as we live for you in this world.

We want to acknowledge that that sin and death, the devil, they

are defeated enemies, but they are still active and we still

need to fight well. Lord, thank you that we don't

fight in uncertainty, not quite knowing what the outcome will

be. We fight our battles here and

now in light of that greater, greatest battle that has already

been won for us, for everyone here who is struggling with

whatever aspect of sin in their lives.

We pray, Lord, that you would remind us of who we already are

in Christ. For everyone here tempted to

give up or give in, you would strengthen us with all that

Christ has already won for us. For everyone here feeling lonely

or weary, would you remind us we do not live in this world on our

own, that we are in Christ. Christ is in us, He is the Vine,

we are the branches. Keep us coming to Him, keep us

trusting in Him, and help us to rejoice in the new identity, one

for us by Him at the cross and the resurrection.

We ask it in the name of Jesus, Amen.