The Gospel to the Saints — John Van Gelderen

Romans 6–8: Walking in the Spirit Through Faith

All right, Romans chapter 6. On Sunday night, at the end of the message that dealt with salvation, assurance, and revival, we briefly touched the subject of revival, and we noted there that man's responsibility was the walk of faith, and that involved walking in the light for the cleansing power of the blood, and then it involves walking in the spirit for the enabling power of the spirit.

Now Romans 6 through 8 is a tremendous portion in the Word of God. Romans 8 deals with walking in the spirit, but Romans 6 is the foundation of faith for that, and we're going to look at a passage tonight that can be life-changing.

I'll tell you, you've probably heard others talk about Romans 6, 7, and 8. I remember back when I was in college hearing a preacher say you ought to memorize Romans chapter 6, so I memorized it. Didn't change anything, because if you don't understand it, then you know you did a good job of memorizing, but that's not the same.

But I'll tell you, when the Spirit of God gives you a flash of divine revelation concerning the truth in this chapter, you will never be the same. In other words, if you study this passage and think it's nice, it's just intellectual at that point.

What we need tonight is not for me just to say right words and for you to hear them right. We need the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our understanding. And when we go to prayer in just a moment, I trust that all of us will ask that, because what we're going to look at tonight is not intellectually deep.

You might call it spiritually deep. In other words, without the illumination of the Spirit, we don't get it. But when He gives us that flash of divine revelation, oh, that is so simple. Let's ask Him to do that tonight.

You know, last night, we talked about that one name of Jehovah, Jehovah Nissi, dealing with victory. And I suspect there are people in this audience that down deep have certain sins that have dominion over you, they rule over you, and you long for victory.

And we saw the general principle last night of running to the tower, glorious. Now let's look at some of the details that fill in the foundation for that faith in this chapter tonight. Now the first five chapters of Romans deal with justification by faith.

It deals with forgiveness of sins in that moment of salvation, the blood of Jesus applied, and all of that is glorious. And it's emphasized repeatedly in those first five chapters that this salvation, this being declared righteous in the sign of a holy God, is free by faith.

And so clear is that emphasis in the first five chapters that the Apostle Paul, under inspiration, anticipates a wrong conclusion. Chapter 6, verse 1, notice what it says. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

In other words, in a certain sense, well if it's that easy, why don't we just get our free ticket to heaven and then go live like the devil? Now obviously that is a wrong conclusion. But what is amazing to me is that the Apostle Paul, in response to that wrong conclusion, does not go back and re-articulate the gospel and make it harder to get saved.

No, it is free by faith. What he does, however, is point forward to where that truth is to lead us. Look at verse 2. God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin? What in the world does that mean? That phrase, dead to sin, died to sin, I heard it for years.

What does it mean? We don't feel very dead to sin. Are you with me? What does that mean? He says, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin? In other words, the word death means separation. How shall we that are separated from sin?

What in the world is that talking about? Live any longer therein. There's something powerful in that statement. He's opening up the emphasis that is to come here. But notice here, he says, how shall we that are dead or who have died to sin live any longer therein?

He does not go back and re-articulate the gospel, make it harder to get saved. Rather, he points out that new life, which is free by faith, points forward to new living, which is also free by faith. That is, justification by faith opens the door to sanctification by faith.

Sin’s Dominion and the Gospel to the Saints

Now let's jump ahead to the end of our text tonight so we can see where we're headed. Look at verse 14. It says, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Friends, there is a way for those sins that rule over you, for those sins that have dominion over you.

There is a way for that to be completely turned around. What we're going to see between verse 2 and verse 14 is how that can be. But notice what it says in verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, it shall not rule over you.

For ye are not under the law, but under grace. The title of the message tonight is The Gospel to the Saints. Several years ago, I was preaching at a spiritual awakening conference. That simply means it's a meeting like this, but it services all day long.

I'm telling you, it's an evangelist time to revel. But nonetheless, I just preached on this truth from another passage, but same truth. And as the service was concluded, people were exiting out the door, and I noticed there was a certain lady that just kind of stayed in her seat, and I kind of observed her.

I knew who she was, and I could tell she was pondering. She was meditating. She really was in deep thought. So I walked down the aisle, and I paused by her row just to see if she wanted to say anything.

And I'll never forget, she looked up, and I saw that there were tears in her eyes, and she said, there's hope. Man, hallelujah. That's the gospel to the saints. That's what she was reveling in. That is what she was awakened to.

You see, the gospel to sinners proclaims freedom from the penalty of sin. The gospel to saints proclaims freedom from the power of sin. The gospel to sinners focuses on forgiveness. The gospel to saints focuses on deliverance.

The gospel to sinners is that Christ died for our sins, substitution. The gospel to saints is that we died with Christ, identification, union. The gospel to sinners demands a response of faith, that choice of dependence we talked about in other services.

The gospel to saints demands responses of faith, that walk of dependence. I want to ask you tonight, are you responding rightly to the gospel to the saints? Now, you may ask, well, what exactly is the gospel to the saints, and what is this right response?

And I want us to look into these verses for the answers to those two questions, that we might revel in the gospel to the saints and respond rightly. Here in this chapter, as it unfolds, the gospel, the good news to the saints, it also reveals the proper response.

Three Responses to Sanctification by Faith

And that response is really three collective responses to the gospel to the saints, to sanctification by faith. The first response is dealing with your mind. Now, we're going to see, as we saw on Sunday night, that the entire soul of man is involved.

You remember the triangle? I've used it here before, but that is what we're going to see right in this passage, that the mind, the affections, and the will are the three collective responses. So, let's begin with the mind.

If you want to, you can take your left arm and stick it just like this. That's not a karate chop. Would you do this, please? I know you feel a little funny, but would you just do this? This is not a karate chop.

This is the first side of the triangle. Thank you. You can put your hand down. Thank you for humoring me. But that is representative of your mind. The first collective response is to understand the facts of sanctification by faith.

Just as an unsafe person initially has to understand the facts of salvation, of justification, okay, we're dealing with understanding the facts of sanctification. This is verses 3 through 10. All right, this is the major part of the passage, and we're going to be moving quickly through it.

You're going to see here that the word no occurs three times. There's actually a few different Greek words behind it, but they are dealing with facts that you need to know. Fact number one, all believers are saints.

Union With Christ in His Death and Resurrection

Just as on the gospel of sinners, all unbelievers are sinners. Remember, sin is the problem. Okay, here we see that all believers are saints. In this part of the passage, the emphasis is that identification with the death of Jesus Christ necessitates identification with the life of Jesus Christ.

What happens here? There's going to be a truth statement. That's the word no. That's going to be followed by a purpose statement. There's a little word that means in order that or for the purpose that, and that's going to be followed by a reason statement.

That's the little word for or because. So we're going to just see that it's unfolded right here in the passage for us. Let's begin with the truth statement, verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized, immersed, placed into Jesus Christ, were baptized, immersed, placed into his death.

In other words, the moment you believe on Jesus as Savior, you are placed into Christ. The Holy Spirit places you into Christ. And what this is saying is that when you were placed into Christ at salvation, you were placed into his death.

When you were placed into Christ, you were placed into his history. And the emphasis of that history in this verse is that you were placed into his death. Why? Let's go to the purpose statement, verse 4.

Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death that, there's our little word that means for the purpose that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Simply put, we died with Christ so that we might live with Christ. What's the reason? Look at the reason statement, verse 5, 4. Because if we have been planted together, that is united together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also planted together, united together in the likeness of his resurrection.

In other words, union with Christ in his death. That identification, union with Christ in his death, demands union with Christ in his resurrection and therefore his life. Ian Thomas puts it this way, Christ gave himself for us that he might give himself to us.

And the point is simply this, the moment you believed on Jesus, the Holy Spirit placed you into Christ and Christ placed his Holy Spirit into you. Now when the Holy Spirit of Jesus moved in, at that moment, you became a saint.

The word saint, I know if you got a Catholic background you may have a confusion on this, but the word saint simply means a holy one. And there's only one holy one, his name is Jesus. And when he moved in, the moment you believed, you were placed into him, you were placed into his death, therefore you were placed into his life, you were placed into him, he was placed into you, you were identified, you came into a union with his very life, he moved in, and at that moment, you became a saint.

You know that 63 times in the New Testament, God's people are called saints, 63 times, it's an emphasis, we call ourselves sinners. God calls us saints. And friends, if you want to get on the victory side of the equation, you better side with God's terminology.

All believers are saints. So there's our first fact. Fact number two, all saints are free to live victoriously, saintly. Just as all sinners, the unsaved, are bound to sin and headed to hell, all saints are freed from sin.

And headed to heaven, and thus they are free to live victoriously. Here we see that this union, this identification with the death of Christ, liberates. It separates, it liberates us from sin as a master.