United with Christ - Romans 6:1-14
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We are continuing in Romans, Pastor Chris, & I hope that you are enjoying this series. Even though each week we can only speak so far, we have 30 minutes each morning to talk about the passage, and there is so much. We hope that you are continuing your own study, that you're joining us for the Sunday mornings, where we can dive deeper and deeper in. There is just so much, but we pray and hope that it has been rich for all of you.
Just a little bit about myself. You may know this, I keep mentioning it. I do love movies, I love shows, I love movies. There's a theme of movies that has been common in the last decade, I would say, it's these origin stories. I love a good origin story. I think most often we see that in the superhero genre. You know, you're familiar maybe growing up with like Batman or Superman or Spiderman, whoever they are, and then the movie will come out called the origin story. And you get to tell, you get to learn in their story how they became who they are. This start, you know, where it all began. This transition of when did they go from ordinary person to superhero? You know, what happened in that moment? I think it's interesting to know, it's really fun. I'm also a sports fan, so I get intrigued with sports documentaries, like the 30 for 30s that come out. And you get to learn, you know, how did Jerry Rice become Jerry Rice? Or how did Michael Jordan become Michael Jordan? And again, there's just something intriguing about a good origin story, because I think that there's a part that we want to relate to. You know, if it could happen to them, could any part of that also happen to us? Not that I could have gone pro in any sport, but just, it's fun imagining, like, yeah, man, if I had worked hard, just like Michael Jordan did 24/7, yeah, maybe me too. There's just something relatable there. Like, could that happen to me? It's entertaining to think about an origin story. And again, it's that part of, they were just like a normal person at one point. And then we know them as the superstar or the superhero, And there's a period of time where they're learning and they're discovering that they're different. And there's something changing about them.
And that's kind of what we're covering here in our section this morning of Romans. That's where Paul is talking about in chapter 6. In chapter 5, Pastor Chris last week talked about how, again, sin infected humanity. And Pastor Chris was sharing Paul's words that the problem was dealt with. Sin was addressed through Jesus, Jesus' death, sacrifice, and resurrection, and now humanity can experience freedom. There's new life found in Jesus, one that is no longer bound by sin. And where last week was all about understanding the role of sin and humanity and its effects, and what we are to do to be freed from sin, today we're going to shift a little bit to cover the Christian's origin story, the new life that we have in Christ. We want to talk about the transition from ordinary sinner to blessed believer. For people who follow Jesus, hopefully this morning is a reminder of their new life, the new status, the transforming work that God is doing within you. And for those who may not yet believe in Jesus, this will hopefully shed some light on what it means to be united with Christ, to be a follower of Him. So if you could turn in your Bibles to Romans 6, I believe even though we're in new seats, there are still Bibles underneath some seats, if you want to pull that out, it'll be on the screen. But we're in Romans chapter 6, and you can follow along as I read aloud 1 through 14. Paul says, "What shall I 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 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 will 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 may obey its evil desires. "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin "as an instrument of wickedness, "but rather offer yourselves 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.
Would you guys pray with me really quick? God, we are again thankful for our time of gathering this morning, and we are thankful for your word, your truth. And God, I pray that you would open that up to us, that our hearts and minds may be ready to receive your encouraging word and your instruction. I pray that we'd be drawn closer to you, formed more like you, and that we would walk away from this morning encouraged and empowered to live a life that is living in your freedom by your grace. We pray this in your name, amen. Paul has just finished his thought of sin abounding in life at the end of chapter five, and we can't fully get rid of sin. But he says, "But where sin increased, "grace increased all the more." So there's a lot of sin, but there's always more grace. And Paul, as he's done all throughout these chapters, does that thing. when he's writing this letter, he's going to anticipate the thoughts of the readers. They're gonna be like, hey, sometimes they anticipate this and that's good, I want them to go in that direction. And other times, he's anticipating their thoughts and they're like, they're gonna think that and I do not want them to think that. That's one of these times. So Paul's reading, anticipating their thoughts and he's saying, he's thinking that they're gonna say, okay, Paul, so no matter how many times I sin, no matter how much sin there is, God's grace is more. Oh, that's great, that's really nice. So glad that God's grace is more. And then he's anticipating that some of them who are drawn towards sin, that the wheels are going to start turning. And they're going to say, "Oh, so that means though, that however much I sin, God's grace is more. That's kind of convenient. That's kind of nice. That's great. I don't have to worry about anything. No matter what, I sin. God's grace is more." And Paul wants to combat that thought, because that really becomes a heart issue over sin and grace. And that's the first focus, place I want to focus this morning, is the sin and grace in verses one through three. So one says, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" And Paul says in verse 2, "By no means." Now, we read that in English, and it's "by no means." Okay, that's great. But J.D. Greer, a pastor, and we watch his videos on Sunday morning, he brings up the point that this is the strongest way to say "no" in the Greek. This is as if Paul had added some expletives. Like, heck no! This is not what you were supposed to be doing. Heck no, just not very strong. But you get the point. Just because we know that God's grace is there to always cover our sin does not mean that we keep sinning. We just don't assume that God's grace is going to cover and forgive us. This would be an abuse of God's grace. It's not a free, get out of jail free card that we can just flash over and over again. It'd be like, "Oh hey God, it's me, your boy. Hey, I'm sorry, here. Yeah, I'd mess, I said some things, I did some things. You know me though, and we're good, right? Yeah, you're covering me again, here's my card. Sweet, I'll see you next time. No, that wouldn't be good, that wouldn't be right. That would be an abuse of God's grace. And we don't wanna be abusers of anything in this world. To abuse something is to misuse something, to treat with cruelty or violence, or to, it's the improper use of something.
God made us, humanity, to be representatives, to be as partners and coworkers in this world. And when we treat anything with cruelty or violence or misuse something that God intended for one purpose and we use it for another purpose, we are acting in direct opposition to God. We do not want to abuse God's grace. We don't wanna selfishly take advantage of God's grace because that would reflect a heart that is not united with God at all, but still serving self. own desires. So Paul says in verse 2, "No, how can we live in it any longer?" That's sin. He's just saying, "How can we live in sin anymore now that we have this other option?" We must understand the goodness of God and the evil of sin. He wants the readers to have this, how far away these two are, how good God is, and how evil sin is. If we don't have a proper view of God and a proper view of sin, we're never going to want to be in God's presence and we're never going to feel the need to stop sinning. I want us to pause and really think about that. If we don't have a proper view of God and a proper view of sin, we're never going to want to be in God's presence and we're never going to want to, we're never going to feel the need to stop sinning. We don't understand how evil sin is. We don't feel the priority or the need to get rid of it in our lives. if we don't understand how good God is, how necessary his presence is in our lives, we're never gonna make any effort to go towards him. Often people think of the transformative work of God, the process of being sanctified, being made more and more like Jesus. They think of it like dieting. And I'll explain in a second, there may be some truth to it, there's also ways to think of that that's not helpful at all. If you've ever been on a diet, I have, so I'm speaking from experience, not right now. It can be easy to justify certain cheats in foods and really bend the definition of your diet to benefit you in a certain moment, right? Yeah? I was on a diet and there was no sugars. I wasn't supposed to have any sugar. But I remember having this conversation often, especially the longer the diet went on, where I was like, the whole point of it is just to have less sugar than I was before. So some sugar right now is still overall better than where I was. And we can do something similar with sin, right? We can't view sin like dieting. So in this conversation, if you're having some processed sugar, isn't gonna kill me, I'm still being healthier, just not as healthy, I'm getting there. That works out fine in the dieting conversation.
If we apply that to our sin context, it might sound like, well, just some sin won't be bad, right? Jesus isn't expecting me to be perfect, but I'm getting better. I'm getting more and more holy. He's working in me. And there's some truth to that, but now we're on a slippery slope, right? And the next thought that can come later on could be it's just some sin. I'll be okay because of God's grace. And now we're not in a good place at all because we're starting to justify the sin in our lives. The diet mindset of sin in our lives is doing us a disservice. It doesn't take into account how we were enslaved to sin. Slavery is a loaded word and comes with a lot of its own history. But the point being that you had no control over your heart and your life because sin did. Paul reminds the believers in Rome that they are ones who have died to sin. Death being the only thing that would free a slave from their captivity, from their bondage. The only way out of slavery was death. And Paul is pointing back to Jesus' work on the cross, that His death and His defeat over sin signals the same for us. Paul is using baptism as the way to convey what is happening. The Bible Project, if you've seen any of their videos or listened to their podcast, has a great video on baptism. And I want to share this quote. It says, "Just as Jesus died, so going into the water becomes this personal connection that you now have with his death. And in coming out of the water, you, so to speak, come back to life with Jesus. So baptism is this sacred ritual that joins us to Jesus' death and resurrection. I just love that connection that it's making, that we are, it's a symbol, yes, but what it symbolizes is so real for us. So if you've been baptized or if you're planning on being baptized, or if you just wondered about baptism, Hopefully this will clarify some things for you. We are joined with Jesus in his death and resurrection, and baptism is the way in which we symbolize that new reality. And from here, moving forward in our passage this morning, Paul puts the reader together with Jesus in these significant moments in the believer's life, where Jesus and believers share in transformational moments full of rich spiritual implications.
So in verses four through nine, Paul lays out for the believers how we are connected to Jesus. Not just that we acknowledge and worship Him and He is our God, but how the actions of Jesus are also our own. So in the following, we are with Jesus. And the first is that we are with Jesus on the cross. This is another way of saying for the believer that the power of sin is broken over them. Paul says this in multiple letters. We have it here in Romans, also in Ephesians and Colossians. Ephesians 22 says, "You were taught with regard "to your former way of life to put off your old self," which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. In Colossians, he says again, "Do not lie to each other "since you have taken off your old self with its practices. "The old man," as Paul says, or the old self, "was a slave to sin." And now that is no longer the case. Christ has delivered us by his actions on the cross. So our old sinful enslaved self was crucified on that cross. We are also with Christ and that we died with him. You get that from verses 8 and 4 in our passage and buried with him. He also says this in 2 Timothy, he says, speaking to a significant moment in the process of becoming a believer, he says, "If we died with him, we will also live with him." So the death of Christ is a part of the basis for a whole experience of salvation. There's such an emphasis on Jesus's death and how it's connected to us, because that's the moment that Jesus turns away from sin. Not his own sin, but his relationship to sin, right? He bore all the sins of the world. And in his death, he has a final turning away from that. And for us, we also, in dying to sin, are turning away from sin. We would call that repentance, right? We repent every day of the sins we commit, but in a moment of salvation, there was a bigger repentance of saying, God, I'm no longer gonna live this life that is following sin. I'm gonna turn from that and I'm gonna head towards you. So we too die to sin. It is no longer having a hold over us. And our connection in our death with Christ is not the end because we are also with Jesus in his resurrection. It's found in verse five, Paul says that we are made alive in Him. Our spiritual lives are resurrected. He writes about this, again, in some of the other letters. Colossians 2:13 says, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross." In Ephesians, Paul writes, "God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions." Paul is saying we are united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. And that brings us into being with Jesus in new life. We were raised with Him and made to sit with Him in the heavens. I'm going to keep reading Scripture to you because it's just so good and so essential.
Ephesians 2 says, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus." Paul also says later, we'll get to it in chapter 8 of Romans, "We are co-heirs with him." We share in his glory. He writes, "If we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his suffering, we will also share in his glory." This is one of the most beautiful pictures in the gospel, one of the most exciting and glory-filled situations for the believer to think about. Remember, we've been saying this throughout our series that it's like Paul is teaching a course. And the first four chapters were Christianity 101, and now we're in Christianity 201. And so before, he would say that we have a life in Christ, but now he's expanding on that. And he's letting us into the reality those new layers of our new life. They are intricate ways in which, when we believe our lives, everything about us, our hearts, our souls, our minds, undergo a transformation. And we are then woven together in a special way with Jesus. To where what Jesus did on the cross, He did for us. To what Jesus experienced in His death and resurrection, we too experience that in our spiritual life. What Jesus experienced in his resurrection, we know that we will ascend to be with God in heaven. And to the ministry that Jesus accomplished after his resurrection, we know that we too have a new life and a new purpose once we have found him. I mentioned at the beginning that this is kind of the believer's origin story. And so if our spiritual journey was playing out as a movie, there'd be a scene where someone were to ask you, "How did you get to who you are today as a believer, as a Christian?" And you'd have to tell that story. There'd be flashback scenes of like, "Well, when I was this age, it'd be all hazy around the edges. It'd be really cool." We all have unique stories and experiences that bring us to God, but the work that God does is all the same. And so this part of every one of our movies would play out the same way. And we could share with this in this movie scene with whoever's asking well it started when Jesus reached me and I responded and my sin was on that cross with Jesus my old self died with Jesus on that cross and I was buried in the same tomb with him and I have new life just as Jesus has new life and I know that in my future I will ascend to be with God just as Jesus ascended. I get to be co-heirs with Christ. I get to be with God, my Father, reigning over just as God intended. That's the part that is true of every one of our stories. If you are a believer here today, that's the scene that you get to, that is part of your history. And every believer needs to understand the reality of their story, that they are dead to sin and alive to Christ. That's where Paul goes in the last four verses. Paul tells us once again that we should be dead to sin and alive in Christ. Now while Christ's death to sin speaks to the end of Christ being in the realm of sin and the death to his whole relationship with sin, for believers that's not necessarily our reality.
We still have a contest every day. We are still tempted by sin every day. We can still choose to sin. But before we didn't have a choice, right? We were enslaved. We only knew sin. Now we have a choice to follow God. And every day, multiple times a day, we're faced with this decision. Are we going to let sin rule our lives again or are we going to be alive in Christ? You may be asking like, Like what does alive in Christ even mean? It is a life that is singly devoted to God. It means seeing things the way that God sees them. It means living like Jesus. Well, how do we be like Jesus? Paul says in verse 12, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body." I really like this imagery of something reigning in our lives. It speaks to this part of humanity that we don't often think about anymore. And that is that we were made to worship and to serve. Paul knows that we as humans are meant to serve something or someone. And as sinners, we might have served a multitude of things, right? Might have served money, ourselves, success, power, whatever it is. And really, Satan's okay with any of those as long as it's not God. He's like, "You just worship anything but God, that's fine, I encourage it." But for the believers, this is a part of our humanity that is in process of being fully redeemed as we are now able to worship and serve God. We were made to be in relationship with God and sin ruined that, right? We were meant to be in close, loving relationship with God. And that imagery of that relationship brings us back to the garden, right? He created Adam and Eve in the garden, and that was the ideal. God partnered with Adam and Eve ruling over this earth. Sin breaks that relationship and that reality, and now humanity is enslaved to sin. And Paul is saying, for the believer, that reality has changed. Now the believer can choose to serve God. That relationship with God has been partially restored. It will be fully restored in heaven, where it'll once again be like the garden relationship. But there is a throne in our hearts. Just imagine, like a little kingly throne, whatever kind of throne you like. It's a big chair with like the big arms. You can sit and rule. There's one of those inside of you. And whatever's sitting on there dictates everything that you do. So if it is money on there, if it is success, if it is power, if it's yourself, it's a little you sitting on the throne of your heart, it will serve whoever's sitting on that throne. All of your actions, your thoughts will evolve around that thing in your heart. And if it's anything other than God, it will lead us astray, it will lead us into sin, and it'll lead us into ruin. But God, now for the believer, gets to sit on the throne of our hearts. And then we are alive in Christ. So it's at that moment when God is reigning in your life that you are alive in Christ.
Paul is exhorting believers to serve God because he is the best thing in their life. And someone who doesn't think that God is the best thing in their life, they probably don't have a proper view of who God is. There's a misunderstanding of who God is. Because if we do have a proper view of God, an understanding of who God is and what He does for us, we would choose to stop sinning. We would choose to follow Him. And we want other people to say, "Hey, I want you to be a part of this life. This life is amazing. God is the best thing in this life. You need to know about this." Verse 13, Paul says, "To offer everything of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness." This is about laying everything you have down before God for His glory. And again, this speaks to the partnership that God desires. This should be a part of our daily prayers, that God would use us for His kingdom, that we might be instruments of righteousness. So in whatever situation you're in, whether at work, at home, with friends, family, in whatever situation, ask yourself, how can you be a vessel for God's righteousness and blessing and grace and love into that situation? How can you be the source of Jesus for the people around you? And then Paul says in 14, we can even think, we can start to think like this and ask these questions all because sin is no longer our master. Paul is doing his layering thing here where he's building from earlier chapters and he's reminding, he just wants to keep putting it in front of the Romans, in front of us today, that we are no longer under the law, but under God's grace. So these 14 verses at the beginning of chapter six of Romans are meant to be filled with hope and to bring us joy and help us see how our spiritual origin story is really tied to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And I want us to right now lean into the work that God is doing, the transformational work that is happening in our hearts and souls. So I just want you to reflect right now and think, if it helps to close your eyes, feel free to close your eyes. But I wanna ask you a few questions. Is your heart enslaved to sin? Who is on the throne of your heart right now? What master are you serving? Is it God or is it anything other than God? Just take a few seconds and answer honestly. Be vulnerable with yourself. Are you living each day alive in Christ, devoted wholly to his purposes? And then ask yourself, what needs to change today in order for me to experience being united fully with Jesus? What needs to change? What is the Spirit prompting in your mind and in your heart that needs to have work done on it? I want to end by reading Jesus' prayer for all believers. This is a prayer that Jesus prayed. He prayed for His disciples, the 12, and then He prayed for every believer. And I want Jesus here connecting the dots for us that a spiritual connection we have and unity that we have as believers with Him and with God. So this is found in John 17. It's not gonna be up there. So I just want you, this is a prayer.
Close your eyes. This is Jesus praying for you. And He says, "My prayer is not for the disciples alone. "I, Jesus, pray also for those who believe in Me "through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, "just as You are in Me and I am in You, "May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent me. I have given them glory that You gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and You in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent me and have loved me, even as You have loved me. Father, I want those You have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me, because you have loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them." So God, that is our prayer this morning, that we would be one with you. We are so thankful for the ways in which we are united with Christ Jesus. We want to be instruments of You, for You, in Your kingdom. Use us to show others who You are, that they may come to love You and know You. And God, I pray that as we reflect on those questions, that there would have been something that came to the surface, that we would lay before You and say, "God, I need You to work this part of my life. I need your Spirit to refine me, to grow me. I want to keep putting that old self, those sins that I was once enslaved to, I want to keep putting them on the cross, that I don't serve them anymore, but I serve you, Jesus. For that you would do that work in all of us today, the next day, and the next. God, we want to give you our everything that we have. And we trust and know that you will use us for your kingdom, God. And we want to take such joy in that. However hard it may be, we're just thankful to be a part of you, God, and your church and your family. So it's with joy that we pray all these things in your son's name. Amen. Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.