WWUTT 1248 For the Wages of Sin is Death? (Romans 6:20-23)

Romans 6 .23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's both the bad news and the good news. You are dead in sin, but you are alive in Christ when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website, www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky.

Slaves of Sin and Slaves of God

Back to Romans 6. One more section we have to finish up this chapter here today. I'm going to start off by reading Romans 6, verses 20 through 23. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit that you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now yesterday as we were looking at Romans 6, I had mentioned how, well it was back in verse 19 where Paul said, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

So as we're talking here about being enslaved to sin or enslaved to righteousness, why is that the terminology that we want to use when even Jesus talked about being set free in Christ? If the son has set you free, you are free indeed.

Well, Paul uses this terminology to help us understand it. It's not like we're literally slaves. You're not wearing literal chains and literally enslaved to sin. But whatever masters you, it's that to which you are enslaved.

If you are mastered by sin, if the desires of your body and the mind are constantly going contrary to God and his righteousness, if it looks more like the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, then the fruit of the spirit, then you're still enslaved to your sin.

And you're still going after those things to which you were born into the natural state that you have, your natural inclinations because of your sin nature, which you had received from Adam. You still have that nature and you're still going after those things.

But when we are born again in Christ, we're given a new nature. So we're set free from the pattern of sin, but then we are enslaved to a new pattern and that is the pattern of righteousness. Yes, we're free.

We're free from sin, but we're still a slave to something. Now this is this is an enslavement that we rejoice to be in. Imagine if you were being given a job that leads to like the highest promotion that you could possibly achieve and you were guaranteed that job for life.

You would never lose that job. How much joy would be in your heart? How much security would you be in? You're still working for somebody. You still have an employer, but boy, you are rejoicing to own that job, especially in, you know, the uncertainty of the climate of our world in which we're in right now.

Who knows how long these jobs are going to last before we end up in another shutdown or something like that. But you're being given a job. You've got it for the rest of your life. And what you receive of that is riches beyond your wildest imagination.

You may not see those riches right now, but when you finish up this job and you retire, you are set for eternity. That's what we get in Christ. So we rejoice to have this work that he calls us to do. Yeah, we still have a boss that we serve, but it's awesome.

We love it. Unlike the previous boss that we had, the sin that we were enslaved to constantly being belittled, put down, feeling guilty about ourselves, feeling unsure, uncertain. There were there was nothing but hostility.

There was, you know, maybe that boss would gaslight us every once in a while, just make us feel guilty about everything, make us feel like worthless trash, nothing but bickering and arguing among our coworkers, in some cases, maybe even the threat of death itself.

And you never knew how long that job was going to last if you were going to even have one tomorrow. You'll end up homeless. You'll end up begging on the street. You're still enslaved to something. But there's just no guarantee of income or anything like that.

We're no longer under that employment anymore. We've been set free from that. We have new employment in Christ. So the use of the term slave here should not be off-putting. In fact, it is rejoicing for us to be in that place in which we are servants of Christ.

God has chosen the church to accomplish the decree that he set forth before the foundation of the world. And you are now included in that work. And as you work, there are certain things that our master expects of us.

As far as behavior is concerned, you have to behave a certain way. If you step out of line and you misbehave, you could lose your job, right? And you know, talking about the secular job that you might have, whatever it is that you're doing to earn money and provide for yourself and for your family.

If you misbehave, then you could lose that job. So likewise, in this work that we do for Christ, there's ways that we're expected to behave. And yet this call to this behavior is not something we do on our own.

It's not something that under our own power, we have to act this way and do this. But by the Holy Spirit that lives within us, he's the one who gives us the joy for this role, for this job that we have in the kingdom of God in which we are working.

So we're talking specifically here in Romans 6 about sanctification, about holiness, walking in a righteous way, doing those things which Jesus did, not allowing ourselves to be stained by the the pattern of this world, but instead living as adopted sons and daughters of God in the way that we we behave.

Our very conduct demonstrates that we're not part of this world, but we are part of another kingdom. We do not have Satan as our master and so behave in those fleshly, wicked ways of this crooked generation.

Rather, God is our master and we desire to do the things that please the one whom we serve. When you were slaves of sin, we come back to verse 20 here, Romans 6 20. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

So again, Paul's saying, I'm speaking of these things because of your human limitations. That's why I put them in these terms. You really weren't free when you were enslaved to sin. You were a slave. You were enslaved to something even that was going to lead to your death because God's judgment is coming against all of that.

And while you were under that, you were under the judgment of God. But you were set free in regards to righteousness. You did not do righteousness when you were a slave to sin. You just did sin because you were a slave to that thing.

So everything that you did was sin. Paul is going to say coming up later on in Romans 14, whatever is not done in faith is sin. So you might think, well, you know, if I do something nice for my next door neighbor, that's sin.

If it's not done to the glory of God, yeah, it is. As far as God is concerned, it is. Now, when you look at this from a human perspective, you wouldn't call mowing your neighbor's grass sin. You would say, wow, that person did a nice deed for somebody else, certainly.

But if done not to the glory of God, it would still be sin in the long run because you would not be able to use that work to stand before God on the on the day of judgment and say, look, God, I I help my neighbor out.

I did something nice for a sick friend. I took care of my parents. I gave money to this charitable cause. You're not going to be able to stand before God with these works and lay out some sort of case for yourself as to how righteous you were, because in all of these things that you did when they weren't done in submission to God, to his glory, they were done to your glory.

And that's blasphemy to say I can be good without God. Our goodness comes from God. It's a borrowed goodness. It's the righteousness of Christ that's been imputed to us through faith. So once again, whatever is not done in faith is sin.

If you're enslaved to sin, you're set free from righteousness. You don't have any righteousness that you can claim of your own. That is not your master. You have no part in it. Your lot is entirely in sin.

So when you come into judgment, if you are apart from Christ, then that judgment is going to be in regards to what you were enslaved to, your sin. Even though you may have done nice things, you might have done some law-keeping things.

You never murdered anybody. I never cheated anyone out of money. I was always honest. I never stole anything from anybody. Maybe you can have some things like that on your ethical resume in which you can say, see, look at what a nice person I was.

But being nice doesn't get you into heaven. It's only Christ that saves you from judgment. Faith in Christ. And we receive his righteousness and we live in that righteousness. It's not just a matter of, again, putting faith in Christ and then therefore we can go about sinning however we want to.

Because remember the section we looked at yesterday was Paul asking, are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? No. Because therefore you would demonstrate that you are under sin rather than under grace.

Because we are under the grace of God, we must live as we are his children. Godly. We desire to be like God, we must live in a godly way. We must show that we have the righteousness of Christ for all those who claim him, who walk in his way.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regards to righteousness. Once again, using terms on account of our human limitations. But what fruit were you getting at that time from those things of which you are now ashamed for the end of those things is death.

What kind of fruit were you getting? This comes right back to Matthew chapter 7 where Jesus talks about a tree and its fruit. Matthew 7 verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. We have this tree out in front of our house that's a diseased tree.

It's always produced bad apples. We saw it when we bought the house, we're like oh neat we got an apple tree out front and Becky has done her best from one season to the next to take care of that tree to keep it free from pests so that maybe it will produce some decent apples.

A couple of years we got some apples you could at least eat. Like they weren't rotting off of the branch but they still were not good apples. It's because it's a diseased tree. There's nothing we can do to it.

The tree is messed up. There's limbs we've had to cut off of it because we knew those limbs were diseased but it's not saving the tree. It seems like the tree is completely done. It's a diseased tree so it bears no good fruit.

Every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. It's diseased through and through. Nothing that comes from its branches is going to be good. And so a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Jesus says in Matthew 7, 15 through 20. You will know them by their fruits. This comes back again to Galatians chapter 5.

You're either walking in the works of the flesh or the fruit of the spirit. And it's not like the works of the flesh aren't themselves a kind of fruit. Because as Jesus says here in Matthew 7, it is diseased fruit.

It comes from a diseased tree so therefore it's bad fruit. That's the kind of fruit that we were producing before we were in Christ. A diseased tree with diseased branches producing rotten fruit. So Paul asks this question in verse 21.

You were free from righteousness when you were in sin but what kind of fruit were you producing? What kind of fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? You weren't ashamed of those things when you were in sin.

Now that you're under righteousness, you are ashamed of the sinful ways in which you once walked. The wretched, wicked things that you used to do. Why are you ashamed of those things? Because you have the Holy Spirit within you now.

And so you're producing good fruit and recognizing, wow, the fruit that I was producing before was pretty rotten. It was bad. And I was a diseased tree that was worthy of being cut down and thrown into the fire.

So those wicked things that you did before, you don't want to walk in them anymore. And by the Holy Spirit of God, you are ashamed of those wicked things in which you once walked. So don't walk in them anymore.

Have no part in them. You as a tree that is brand new, new root system, right? You have been cured and made a new tree by Jesus Christ. We are rooted in him. Or you can even use the metaphor that's going to come up a little bit later on in Romans chapter 11.

We've been grafted into Christ. So you were previously a rotten tree, but you have been grafted now into Christ Jesus and the good root from the good soil has turned you into something that is producing good fruit.

I don't know if I'm stretching with that metaphor. I'm not a gardener. But anyway, that's that's what we have now. We're not the diseased tree producing bad fruit anymore. We're rooted in Christ and we're producing good fruit.

Jesus saying to his disciples, I am the vine. You are the branches. I am the true vine. Jesus says in John 15 one, my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit.

He prunes that it may bear more fruits. Talk about the discipline of God growing in sanctification, growing in holiness. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. This is verse five. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.

There, I think coming to the word of Christ in John 15 redeemed my terrible attempt at a gardening metaphor a moment ago. So anyway, point being in Christ, we're producing good fruit. The stuff that we were doing before we came to Christ, we should be ashamed of that now, not walking in it anymore.

I had a friend of mine who was an evangelist and I remember listening to a talk that he gave one time and one of the things that he said was before I became a Christian, I was not ashamed of my sin. Most of the time I was not even aware of my sin unless I was doing something that wasn't culturally acceptable.

You know, people around us would have scoffed at my behavior. And so I just kind of kept it secret or I wouldn't behave in such ways that might affect my popularity. But I didn't know what I was doing was sin.

Now that I'm a Christian, I'm aware of every sinful thing that I do. And it's because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that we have. So before the spirit, we didn't know anything was sin or it was just, you know, we just didn't want to feel bad about whatever it was that we did.

But now with the spirit of Christ dwelling within us, we are aware of those occasions in which we sin and may we be convicted of that, submit to Christ in that and be able to be washed clean from that and produce the good fruit of Christ rather than the rotten fruit of our dead, diseased selves that we once were.

Sanctification, Holiness, and Growing in Christlikeness

Verse 22. Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit that you get leads to sanctification. Again, that's everything we've been talking about here in chapter six.

We're talking about sanctification from the Latin word sanctus, same root word that we get the word sanctify from or sanctity or sacred. All of that comes from the same word to make holy, to set apart, to consecrate.

And as we are growing in Christ, we're the branches connected to the vine producing fruit. We're growing. You know, when we produce fruit, the father prunes so we can produce more fruit. And as we are growing, we grow in holiness.

There should be in your Christian life, signs, indications of the holiness that you are growing in. Can you say of yourself that you're holier than you were as a Christian, however many years ago? Can you look back at who you were at your baptism and see how different a Christian you are now than who you were then?

I hope so. You've grown in the knowledge of God according to his word. You're growing in love toward God. You're growing in love toward the people of God. You are growing in the righteousness in which you behave in your mind.

There are sinful things that you are more disgusted by now than you were 20 years ago or however long that you've been a Christian. You're continuing to grow in holiness and in righteousness. Continue to pursue those things.

As you go after Christ, he will continue to shape you more into the image of himself. A statement Paul will make later on in Romans 8 29. The fruit that you get leads to sanctification. It leads to you becoming more holy, becoming more like Christ.

It's end eternal life. Ultimately, that's where we're ending up. You're going to be sanctified for the rest of your life until you die and you enter into glory and you're with God forever. I once heard John Gerstner say that if there's one benefit that you have right now that the people in heaven don't have, is that at this moment you're being sanctified, whereas in heaven they've reached as far in their sanctification as they're going to reach.

They are now enjoying the reward that they've stored up for themselves from the righteous deeds that they did while they were here on earth. You still have a life in front of you in which you can commit yourself to Christ and and righteousness, sanctification so that you may store up for yourself treasure in heaven that is above.

That's one benefit you have over a person that is in heaven. I don't know if you've ever thought about that before. So continue to walk in righteousness that you may store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Jesus says that very thing in Matthew chapter six. I'm preaching on that and not too long. That's a sermon I've got coming up here pretty soon. Verse twenty three. Now verse twenty three sums up everything that we've read in the previous twenty two verses in Romans chapter six.

For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There you've got the bad news. You're a sinner. What you deserve for your sin is death and the good news resolved with the gospel.

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. One of the best gospel verses there is. In fact I'll often pair this one with Romans three twenty three. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen for that. So we are growing in righteousness the righteousness of Christ leading to eternal life that we've received in him.

Continue to walk in righteousness. Put off those sinful ways. Rejoice in the freedom that you have in Christ. That you may walk as Christ becoming more Christ like as you seek him until the day of glory.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study when we understand the text.