Studies in Romans

Presentation 15

Summary of ContentsOPENING REMARKS: 1:1-17BAD NEWS: Universality of sin and its condemnation 1:18 - 3:20GOOD NEWS: A gospel that changes our relationship to God 3:21- 5:21HOW TO GROW AS A CHRISTIAN : 6:1- 8-39

Sanctification 6:1-23The Place of the Law 7:1-25Life in the Spirit 8:1-39

A SHORT DETOUR : Questions concerning Israel 9:1-11:36HOW A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO LIVE : 12:1-15:13 In our various relationships 12:1-13:14 Dealing with the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ 14:1-15:13PAUL’S GENTILE MINISTRY, POLICY AND PLANS : 15:14-33GREETINGS AND CLOSING DOXOLOGY : 16:1-27

Presentation 15

Studies in RomansHow to Grow as a Christian

Sanctification Part1Chap 6v1-23

Presentation 15

Rasputin, the lecherous Russian monk, taught ,'The more a person sins, the more grace he will receive, so sin with gusto.' Great biblical truths only need to be twisted a little to make them extremely dangerous. The doctrine of grace has been twisted more than most.

Paul's opponents would have seized upon his words inChap.5.20, 'where sin increased, grace increased all the more’ and argue, 'Paul is saying it’s OK to sin as much as we like for God's grace is greater than man's sin. Paul gives us licence to sin, and encourages carelessness of life’.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23

Introduction

Presentation 15

Paul responds with indignation, cf v2 'by no means'. To abuse God's grace contradicts the purpose of the gospel. How? The Christian has a new relationship with God and that should be reflected in his behaviour. To be a Christian is to be united to Christ and that means to have died to sin. Paul therefore asks in, 'If the Christian has died to sin, how can he live in it any longer?' v2Chapter 6 develops the significance of this union. When Jesus died, all Christians died with him, because they are united to him. It is a glorious fact of history.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14

Presentation 15

Baptism provides visual instruction. The life of the Christian is bound up with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul uses baptism in v3 to unpack the implications of the Christian’s union with Christ. Whether or not he has in mind the Spirit baptism of 1Cor 12.13, in which the Holy Spirit incorporates the believer into the body of Christ, or the symbolism of water baptism, the point remains the same. The life of the Christian is bound up with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 1. Baptism: A Visual Aid.

Presentation 15

Watchman Nee, the Chinese evangelist, helps us understand this truth by placing a piece of paper in his Bible. He asks, ‘If I send my Bible through the post, what will happen to the piece of paper? It too will travel by post, for they are united and share a common history. If my Bible falls into the river, what will happen to the paper? It also gets wet - they are united and share a common history.’ The Christian shares a common history with Jesus because he is united to him in his death and resurrection.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 2. A Shared History.

Presentation 15

The Negro spiritual song asks the question, 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord?'

The Christian’s answer is, 'Yes, I was there, for my life is hid in his, I am united to him.'

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 2. A Shared History.

Presentation 15

On the cross, Jesus triumphed over the power of sin. He broke its dominion, and hold. He dealt not only with the fruit of sin but with the root and reign of sin. The resurrection proclaims that! The resurrection showed that the power and reign of sin and death could not hold onto Christ. Cf. Acts 2.24... Christ broke sin’s death-grip.

Jesus now walks in newness of life, and belongs to a realm where sin does not reign.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 3. The Implications of the Union.

Presentation 15

The Christian, because he is united to Christ, also belongs to this new realm. Illustration: Imagine yourself in a field being chased by a wild bull until a hand from the other side of the fence reaches out and pulls you over to safety! While you are recovering your breath, the bull on the other side of the fence bellows. What do you do? If you momentarily forgot that you were in a different field, beyond the bull’s sphere of influence, you might take off like a rocket!

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 3. The Implications of the Union.

Presentation 15

It takes time for your emotions to catch up with your new position. You don't need to run. That bull doesn't have the power over you that it used to have. You are in a place of safety. The Christian, who has been delivered from the reign of sin, may not feel things have changed. But it is not a matter of feeling, it is a matter of asserting his new relationship to sin. He is no longer in the same field. His behaviour is no longer dominated by sin’s rule. He walks in newness of life.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 3. The Implications of the Union.

Presentation 15

Illustration : Three Chinamen called ‘fact’, ‘faith ‘and ‘feeling’ were walking along the great wall of China. As long as faith keeps his eyes on fact all goes well. But when he turns around to see how feeling is getting along he falls off the wall.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 4. Distinguishing between fact and feeling.

Presentation 15

As long as the Christian keeps his eyes on the facts i.e. what God says Jesus has done for him then all goes well. But when his faith no longer focuses on these facts and instead becomes overly concerned about his feelings then he is in danger of falling.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 4. Distinguishing between fact and feeling.

Presentation 15

How am I to grasp that I have been freed from sin’s power? First, by recognising that ‘my old self has been crucified’v6. Who is my old self? He is the man I used to be in Adam. Notice he has been crucified and died with Christ! We do not need to crucify our 'old selves’,Christ has already done that job!

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 5. Our old self was crucified.

Presentation 15

Secondly, as a result of the 'old self' being crucified, we are told that 'the body of sin‘ v6 has been done away with i.e. ‘rendered ineffective’. What does Paul mean by the 'body of sin'? He is not saying that the body is sinful and that this human flesh is evil [the view of some Greek philosophers]. When men think in this way it causes them to despise their bodies and even to mutilate them.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 5. Our old self was crucified.

Presentation 15

The term 'body of sin' is used by Paul to refer to sin’s stronghold. ‘In Adam’, sin had control of the body. Man was originally created to have control of his body, but, as the result of the Fall, he ended up being controlled by it. He obeys the lusts of the flesh and is aprisoner of his lusts. But now, as a result of our old Adamic self being crucified upon the cross, the body of sin, as an instrument of sin, can no longer be used by it as it once was.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 5. Our old self was crucified.

Presentation 15

Paul does not say that the ‘body of sin’ has been annihilated but that it has been rendered ineffective. In the way that a castle’s walls can be pulled down so that it is no longer the mighty stronghold that it used to be, or factory process is brought to a halt because the machinery is no longer operating as it used to.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 6. ‘The body of sin' has been rendered ineffective.

Presentation 15

The force of v7 is that death pays all debts and cancels all obligations. We are no longer related to sin as we once were. Once a man is dead, sin can do nothing to him. The Christian has died ‘in Christ’ and has been set free from the dark power that used to tyrannise and reign over him.

To be free from sin does not mean we are free from our struggle with sin. Paul is not suggesting, assome have, that we can get to a position of victory in our lives, where we need no longer wrestle against temptation.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 7. The nature of sin is not changed, but its authority has.

Presentation 15

Nor is Paul suggesting, as some perfectionists do, that the Christian will no longer sin. The freedom of which Paul speaks is a freedom from sin as a master in our lives. This is why in the Greek reads as, 'The Sin', thereby personifying its power.

Paul is speaking of sin’s reign. Sin is no longer on the throne giving orders. It is more like a guerrilla fighter causing aggravation.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 7. The nature of sin is not changed, but its authority has.

Presentation 15

In v8-10 we discover that union with Christ leads to new life in him. We are united to Christ in his death, but Christ's death and resurrection are inseparable.

Therefore, we are also united to the Christ, who has been raised forever to newness of life. We not only have a new relationship to sin, but we share a new life with Christ. The resurrection life of Jesus is a resource at every Christian’s disposal.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 8. We share a new life in Christ.

Presentation 15

The significance of this transformation can be illustrated : Imagine you have a sour apple tree in your garden. Despite all your best efforts to improve the quality of the fruit, it continues to produce sour apples. Why? It is by nature a sour apple tree.

But if you graft one of its branches into a sweet apple tree what would happen? You would harvest sweet apples. Why? Because the branch now draws up into sap that is sweet by nature.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 8. We share a new life in Christ.

Presentation 15

This helps us to understand what happened on the cross. There, Jesus dealt our sour sinful natures a deathblow. When he died, the sour sinful people that we once were died with him. Now we access a new nature, his resurrection life.

A somewhat different analogy is used by the Lord himself in Jn15v1ff., where he likens himself to a vine and his people are engrafted fruit-bearing branches, who will continue to bear fruit as a result of their faith union with him.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 8. We share a new life in Christ.

Presentation 15

To reject these facts because they don’t match our Christian experience is to approach the subject from the wrong end. Only as we begin with these facts and believe what God says is true of us can authentic Christian experience follow because faith feeds upon facts! Sinclair Ferguson writes: ‘It is a constant principle that faith can only receive what grace provides and can only believe what scripture reveals. But faith should receive everything grace provides and scripture reveals’.

How to Grow as a ChristianSanctification: 6v1-23Union with Christ 6:1-14 8. We share a new life in Christ.

Presentation 15