WWUTT 1243 Dead to Sin and Alive to God in Christ? (Romans 6:6-11)

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Romans 6 .10 says, For the death that Jesus died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

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So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ, when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. Romans 6 is where our study has been this week, and we'll start out here reading verses 5 -11.

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The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, 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.

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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.

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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.

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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.

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For the death he died, he died to sin once for all.

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But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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Now I repeat to you again, just in case you haven't joined us in this study until today, but when we're talking here about being dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ, we're not talking about our physical death and then being raised to life in heaven and living with God there.

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We're talking about dying to sin, no longer walking in sin, or as Paul puts it in Colossians 3, 5, putting to death what is earthly in us, and we are walking now in new life.

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Paul to the Ephesians, Paul to the Colossians, Paul to the Corinthians. This comes up several times where he says, you must put off the old self and put on the new self, which is being renewed after the knowledge or after the image of its creator.

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Romans 8, 29, which we'll get to a little bit later on where it says that we are being shaped into the image of Christ.

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So this is how we are to be no longer going after the desires of our flesh, our earthly desires, our sinful, wicked desires, things that were contrary to the spirit, but rather in the spirit of God, we are doing things that please

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God. And that means we obey and walk in the law of God.

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Just compare the stuff that we've been reading in Psalm 119 at the same time we've been going through Romans.

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Now, of course, I just finished Psalm 119, we're in Psalm 120 tomorrow, but this rejoicing in the law of God that we read for 176 verses of Psalm 119, we are loving the

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Lord for the law that he has given to us. It guides our steps, it directs our ways.

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How do we please God? It is according to keeping his word and his word is the law.

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It's the word of God. When you say that you love the word of God, when you say that God's word is sufficient for all things, you're not just talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you're even talking about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which is what?

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That's the books of the law right there. We love even that part of the Bible because what is instructed for us there is how we live in such a way pleasing unto the

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Lord, living in righteousness that reflects godliness and Christ likeness, because remember that Jesus kept the law perfectly.

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We talk about this, right? Jesus, when he came as God in human flesh, lived a perfect life.

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Well, how did he live a perfect life? He didn't live an ideal life. You don't want the life that Jesus lived, but he lived a perfect life because he kept the law perfectly and he perfectly submitted to the will of his father who is in heaven.

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He kept the law when we could not keep it so that he would become the perfect spotless lamb who would take away the sin of the world when he died on the cross for us.

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So whoever believes in Jesus, what Christ accomplished in his blood is imputed to us and we have the righteousness of Christ, our sins placed upon him, his righteousness given to us.

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And that's not just justification that we're talking about, it's also sanctification.

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So you came to faith in Jesus Christ and you are immediately justified, but you've not yet been fully sanctified.

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So Paul has been making this argument for justification all the way through the first five chapters.

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He's still talking about justification here, but a person who is truly justified is also going to demonstrate that in the way they live their lives.

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Having died to sin and been brought to life in Jesus. So we will live our lives the way that Jesus lived his first John two, five, whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected by this.

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We may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which

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Jesus walked. So Jesus lived a sinless life. We should certainly be striving for that.

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Now, there's always the excuse that gets made along with that. Well, we can't, we can't live perfectly.

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We're going to sin. We're going to make mistakes, right? You've probably made a statement just like that, right? And it's probably to make you feel better about yourself because you just sinned that day.

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And I don't want to feel like that. I'm not saved anymore. So I'm going to make this statement about how, well, you know, we're going to make mistakes.

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We're going to sin. Sometimes it doesn't mean that you've lost your salvation, but don't you dare make an excuse for your sin.

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There was one time when I was a preaching heavy on sanctification, I was talking about being called to holiness, living a life of sinlessness, that we are pursuing the righteousness of Christ.

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If you say that you've been forgiven, then you must walk in that forgiveness. You must show evidence of that forgiveness.

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You must put off sin. You must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect, exactly the way that Jesus puts it in Matthew chapter five.

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And when I got to the end of that sermon, there was somebody in my congregation, somebody I'd known for years came up to me afterward and he's not wanting to stop and talk.

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It's like he's saying it as he's passing me by. And he says, Hey, you were talking about living perfectly today.

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And I said, right. It's what the scripture says. And he says, but we're not going to, we're not really going to be able to do that.

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And he's trying to kind of like move away. It was almost like he wanted to get my approval in a, in a real quick comment, just, just a quick, yeah, you're right.

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You know, that's what he wanted to hear from me so that he's, he's walking away. It can feel like good because I sin today.

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So I want to feel, I want to be able to feel good about my sin. He's probably looking for an excuse that when he, that he can fall into sinfulness every once in a while.

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And when I say fall into it, I mean, he can willfully give into it because he, this is how our sinful selves sometimes want to rationalize the sin that we're still tempted by in our flesh.

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You've got that, that old man that's still deep down inside, but he's trying to get out. He's trying to rise up from his zombified state and, and, and manipulate you a little bit and say,

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Hey, you can send every once in a while. It's okay. Remember, God will just forgive you. So we try to find justifications for that instead of being truly convicted over that and coming before God and saying,

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God, this, these little bits of wickedness that are still in me. I don't want this. A little bit is totally depraved.

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Get rid of this sin in me, which is the way that we need to be constantly surrendering ourselves unto the

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Lord that he may forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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That's the request according to first John one nine. So anyway, all of that going through his head probably as he's trying to pass me by, but I stopped him.

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I wouldn't let him get away. I said, no, no, no. Come back, come back here. And I said to him, don't do that.

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Don't, don't try to just reason or rationalize the sin is okay because it's not okay.

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Don't try to qualify it, but rather be looking for those places that you, you still need

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Christ to work through you. This sanctification thing, we don't do this on our own. Christ is the one who does this work.

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He justifies us and he even sanctifies us. And I pointed him to Philippians three 12 where Paul says this, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

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So I said to him, your approach is to not try to excuse the sinful things you've done as being okay. The effort instead is to press on toward perfection.

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As it says in Hebrews 12 to looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

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He gave us our faith and he's growing us in that faith. And right before that verse saying, shutting off every sin and every weight that weighs us down,

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I press on toward the goal. Press on toward that perfection that we have in Christ that is given to us in Christ.

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So that's the effort I've been, I've been talking about that for 10 minutes here and we haven't even really got to our text, but 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.

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Don't ever enslave yourself to your sin. And when you try to excuse it like that, like you're not trying to put it to death, but you're trying to find excuses for the sin is see, we're still imperfect people.

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We're still sinners. So I'm going to send sometimes, no, you're running the risk of still being enslaved to it.

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I'm not saying that making that excuse means you are enslaved to it, but you're, you're certainly giving it that foothold that if you're not careful, you're going to find any and all reason to excuse all kinds of manners of sins.

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And we need to be about the business of destroying that sin, putting it to death.

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Now, once again, we don't do that ourselves. It is by the power of God that that is done in our lives.

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But if you have Christ and if you have the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then to read put to death, what is earthly in you is a command that you desire to keep.

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And so by the power of God that is in you, you are going to crucify the sinful fleshly earthly worldly ways and not let them have any dominance over your mind, over your thinking, directing your courses.

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These things don't control you, but by the power of God, you control them. So that even when a bad thought pops in your mind, as long as you're alive, you're still going to have bad thoughts popping into your mind.

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But when it happens, boom, you seize it, you choke it, you strangle it, you suffocate it.

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It's not there anymore. I remember Tim Challey's writing an article one time where he was talking about he was actually out to write an article about something else.

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But as he was researching the article, there was an inappropriate image that popped up on the screen.

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And he said there was once upon a time when such an image would pop up and it would infect my mind and I would be thinking about it for a long time.

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I might even dwell on it and maybe click on another two or three images before it would dawn on me what it is I'm doing.

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And then I would boom, I would nix it, get it off the screen, turn to God, meditate on his word, sing some songs, whatever

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I had to do to cleanse my mind, taking every thought captive and make it obey Christ. Challey said that's the way it used to be.

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But this time when that image popped up, I was immediately disgusted.

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I couldn't get the mouse over to that X fast enough to get it off the screen. And as he was reflecting upon that later, he praised

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God for the work of sanctification that had been accomplished in his life, that he's so quickly able to to vanquish those thoughts before they gain a foothold in his mind.

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And as we grow in the righteousness of Christ, that will become easier to do.

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Now, when it comes to handling sexual immorality, this is really a basic instruction for Christians.

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We've got to get this under control, and I can't tell you the number of times that I'll get emails from people that will tell me, well,

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I still click on it. I still look at it every once in a while. You've got to stop that. Now, there's going to be some old images in your mind that may not have been totally washed out yet.

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You still need to submit yourself to Christ and have your thinking conformed.

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That may still need to take place. But when it comes to moving that mouse over and using your finger to click on that next thing, or maybe it's not a mouse, maybe it's your finger on your touch phone or a finger on a mouse pad on your laptop or computer, whatever it is that you're using.

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When you're moving that finger over there and clicking on another image, that is not a some sort of subliminal, passive, uncontrolled response.

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You totally have control over everything that you're doing. So don't excuse that as, well, you know,

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I just I can't get over that yet. There's still some some past tendencies. No, you need to stop it.

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And you know, you need to stop it. Don't do that. Like, you can't an alcoholic can't say, well,

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I was driven to the bar to go get a drink and there was nothing that I could do about it was just an impulse.

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Yes, you could. You could stop going to the bar. You can stop turning on that TV show that you shouldn't be watching.

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You should stop having those conversations and telling those jokes that you shouldn't be telling. These aren't things that you can't get control of.

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You can do it right now. Now when it comes to the thinking about it, yeah, you've got a little work that needs to be done there.

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I give you that. But you should never make this excuses to like, well, the thinking's always there and it's never going to change.

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That's not in the Bible. What does the Bible say? Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. First Peter chapter one, be holy as I am holy.

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Just as God said to Israel, that's how we have to be. Even in our thinking, taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ.

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Don't, don't say these actions are impulsive and you have no control over them. The thoughts might be, you need some work on your thoughts, but the actions, you can stop those actions now and you should.

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So obeying those instructions that you stop going after the sin. Stop it.

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Yeah. It's a, it's Todd Freel does this every once in a while. We'll hear, he will bring up that old, uh,

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Bob Newhart skit from mad TV or something like that where new hearts just like, stop it.

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You know? I mean, there's more to it than that because otherwise stop it is just the legalism or it's just law.

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If it's not infused with the gospel, you have the ability to stop it. You want to stop it in obedience to God because you know that through the message of the gospel,

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Jesus Christ has purchased you at a great cost. He left heaven, lived perfectly for you, died on the cross for your sins, was buried in a tomb, rose again from the dead so that through him we may have eternal life.

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What a great cost that was, that was made to purchase you, that you might be his possession.

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And as it says in Titus two 14, uh, he is purified for himself, a people for his own possession who are zealous for good work.

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So that's part of it. You, you have that zeal, that desire to do the thing that is pleasing for God because you belong to Christ.

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That's exactly why you want to do the righteous thing because you are Jesus is so, uh,

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Roman six seven for one who has died has been set free from sin, right?

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When we die, we don't have this struggle with sin anymore. So you now need to take that which we know is going to be our reality when our body dies and we live forever with the

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Lord in glory. You need to realize that that should be your reality. Now you're dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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So if one has died and the body is no longer being infected by sin anymore, then if you have died in Christ, same story, it needs to be the same way for you.

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Sin no longer has dominion over you. Verse eight. Now, if we, uh, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

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So the life that you are living right now in Christ Jesus is in complete submission to him.

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Galatians two 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life

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I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

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So if you've died with Christ, live with him. Live according to his steps.

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Live, uh, abide in Christ. Okay. When Jesus said to his disciples, abide in me and I, and you, this is what it means to abide in Christ.

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You live with Christ. You live with Christ in your heart. You know that he is with you all the while.

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Very last verse in the book of Matthew low. I am with you always, even to the very end of the age,

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Jesus is with you in these moments. So live with him and live in those ways that he has told you to live according to his word.

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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.

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So again, we're talking about spiritual things that needs to be the way with you as well. Sin is death.

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Sin leads to death and sin is death. When your spirit's dead, you do sinful things, but now that your spirit is brought to life, you do things that pertain to life and godliness in Christ Jesus.

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That's second Peter one, three. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.

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So you have that ability to live in godliness because of the divine power that has been given to you by faith in Jesus Christ.

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So do not let death have dominion over you or the way that Paul will put it later on in verse 14.

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Sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace.

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We'll get to that verse next week. Verses 10 and 11 as we finish up here. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all.

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But the life he lives, he lives to God, Jesus. So it must be the same way with you.

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You are dead to sin and you are living unto God just as Jesus did.

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So verse 11, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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Don't walk in dead, dirty ways leading to death, leading to destruction because as Paul is going to say coming up later on in Romans 6 .23,

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the wages of sin is death. Don't walk in that way. The free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our

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Lord and you have that eternal life now. Yes, you haven't left this world and gone into the next.

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That hasn't occurred yet. But eternal life was given to you the moment you came to faith in Jesus Christ.

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So walk in that life now in the ways of God's kingdom, not in the ways of this kingdom of this fallen world.

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For it is coming unto judgment, but you are coming unto glory. Let us pray.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you show us in Christ and may we have that desire to do those things that are godly before you.

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If there is any wicked way still in us, any sort of sin that we're trying to excuse so we can either feel good about ourselves or feel like we have permission to fall into sin every once in a while,

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I can still enjoy these earthly things ever so often and nothing's ever going to come of it. Let that not be the attitude in the ways in our heart, but we submit our every way unto you and desire to walk in the righteousness of Christ Jesus our

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Savior. Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. As we read in Psalm 23, we pray this in Jesus' name.

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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

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New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.