This morning I invite you to turn with me to Romans 6, Romans 6 as we read together the first 14 verses, Romans 6, 1 through 14, and as we consider this passage as well in the context of Lord's Day 16. So once you've found Romans 6, please turn to Lord's Day 16, page 23 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. We're coming to an end to the articles of the Apostles' Creed that we confess that deal with our Lord's humiliation. And first of all, we read Lord's Day 16 responsibly, page 23 in the back of the Psalter hymnal, questions 40 through 44. Question 40 asks, why did Christ have to go all the way to death? Because God's justice and truth demand it, only the death of God's Son could pay for our sin. Why was He buried? His burial testifies that He really died. Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die? Our death does not pay the debt of our sins. Rather, it puts an end to our sinning and is our entrance into eternal life. What further advantage do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross? Through Christ's death, our old selves are crucified, put to death, and buried with Him, so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer rule us, but that instead we may dedicate ourselves as an offering of gratitude to Him. Why does the creed add, He descended into hell? To assure me in times of personal crisis and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, especially on the cross, but also earlier, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell. We turn to Romans 6, beginning at verse 1, as we hear now the word of our God. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We 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. If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Because anyone who has died has been freed 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 obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness, For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. And may God add His blessing to the reading and the preaching of His Word this morning. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, what is evidence of victory? Well, it certainly isn't death, is it? Boys and girls, when David faced off with Goliath, It wasn't the one lying on the ground with that stone stuck in his forehead who was the victor. But it was the one who was standing above that one with a sling in his hand that had tossed that stone who was the victor. If you've ever seen an old western movie where two cowboys can't get along and they decide to duo it off. And they march their opposite directions and after so many paces they turn and draw. Once the smoke clears, it's not the one who is laying on the ground, wounded or dead, who is the victor, but it is the one who is standing, very much alive, who is the victor. Now we know that throughout history, there are many who have rejected Jesus Christ because of the truths that we confess about Him, specifically with regard to His humiliation, that He suffered and that He was crucified, as we considered last Sunday evening. But we go further, don't we? We confess that He also died. That He was buried. That He descended into hell. And you see, so many have rejected our Lord Jesus Christ because of these truths because certainly that is not the sign of a victor. We know that. We've seen battles. We read our history books. It's not the one with the most people who were killed who was the winner in a battle. But those who are standing. Now, when it comes to our confession of faith, the Apostles' Creed, and these articles specifically with regard to his humiliation that we confess, we need to be reminded, though, that these are not written. We do not confess them in what we call a chronological order, necessarily, in the way that they took place, but in a logical order. At the end of this list of humiliation, we say that he descended into hell, but we know that it's listed in the order of the degree of severity of His suffering, and that's why that comes last. Jesus' soul, we know, was not in hell for three days. But He suffered the agony of hell on the cross during those three hours of deep darkness. Many have rejected Jesus because of these truths about Him that we confess. Yet our confession does not end there, does it? and that's because God's Word does not end there. As Paul Harvey would say, now the rest of the story, we know the rest of the story. Christ's is victory through apparent defeat. Through what looks like defeat. But He was not defeated. As Lord's Day 17 will lead us into, He rose again to complete victory over death, over the grave, over hell. indeed all of his work stands or falls together apart from his resurrection and ascension and reigning at the right hand of god his suffering unto death means nothing and apart from his suffering unto death he would not have risen again and ascended and would not reign at this time but now as we come to those last couple of items specifically his death and burial we need to remember that these things not only closed off his time not only finished his time of suffering and humiliation, but these things anticipated His resurrection. These things pointed forward to that new era of His glory and honor as the victorious one. But as we constantly need to be reminded, He didn't do this for Himself, did He, boys and girls? He didn't need to suffer and die for Himself because of His own sin, because He had none. But He did it all for others. He did it all for those who would believe on Him. And the result is that you and I as believers, we stand in Him. We stand with Him as more than conquerors. And as those who are able to confess Christ's death for my life. A wondrous exchange. And what an effect Christ's death has for us. That's what Paul teaches here in a specific way in Romans chapter 6. He teaches that we need to understand in the context of a misunderstanding of God's grace. There were those who were new to the faith, those who didn't really understand exactly what Paul was talking about when he was talking about the grace of God. In chapter 5 verse 20 he says, But where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Wow, what does that mean? they would think, where sin increased. Grace increased all the more. How could that be? Maybe you're familiar with the hymn, Grace that is greater than all of our sins. And there's a line in that song that says, This is marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and guilt. You see, Paul now anticipates a question in light of that comment. he anticipates the question, well, you know, if sin, as it were, illumines the greatness of God's grace, then shall we go on sinning? That grace might increase? Would that be a good thing? If that brings glory to God? If that shows forth the wonder and the glory of His grace all the more? And Paul answers, in essence, impossible. It can't be. It won't be that way for the child of God because of what Christ's suffering and death not only accomplished for that child, on behalf of, for the benefit of that child, but also because of what Christ's suffering and death accomplished in that child. Christ's death for my life, first of all, fulfills the Word of God, that Word of God which promised death for sin. Question 40 again. Why did Christ have to go all the way to death? Because God's justice and truth demanded. Only the death of God's Son could pay for our sin. Because God's justice and truth demanded. What is God's truth? Boys and girls, you know, you remember what God said to Adam and Eve in the garden. In the day that you eat of that tree, of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. And the Lord says to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 18, the soul who sins is the one who will die. And Paul says in verse 23 of Romans 6, the wages of sin is death. This very simply, very straightforward, is the truth of God. And His justice includes the fact that he must keep his word. He will keep his word. There will be death. And he has kept it, we might say, in a three-fold way that we are familiar with. Now, the nature of death, beloved, as punishment for sin, is death as separation. As a breakdown in communion. And we can speak of that separation in that three-fold way. First of all, physical death. Now, boys and girls, you know what that is, I think. It's the separation of the soul from the body with all the physical struggles that may or may not come with it. It's when one's heart stops beating and they stop breathing and there's no life left in that person. We know that Adam and Eve didn't drop dead. They didn't stop breathing the moment they ate of the fruit of that tree. But their bodies began that process toward that physical death. And you remember the first one who was put to death, who died, that was Abel. Cain killed him. But there's also spiritual death. When Adam and Eve sinned, when they ate that fruit, their hearts became dead in sin. They didn't stop beating, but they became dead in sin. They were immediately in slavery to sin. They hated what was holy. They loved what was evil. And at that moment, they were separated from God's favor. They found themselves under the curse of sin and they knew it. They were hiding from God. They were afraid of Him. Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead in our transgressions and sins. He was talking to those whose hearts were very much beating even before they were born again. But they were dead spiritually. And then the third way is eternal death, as we know. Eternal separation from God's favor and instead the everlasting presence of the wrath of God, which we call hell. Jesus described hell as the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The rich man in the story of the rich man of Lazarus, when he went to hell, he described it as a place of torment, as a place of the agony of fire. The Word of God promised death as the wages for sin and that's true of all sin and for all sinners. But you see, this wages of sin is that which is accomplished then in Christ's suffering. Only the death of God's Son could pay for our sins. And this too, according to the testimony of Scripture. Of God's Word. It fulfills God's Word. Think back again to Isaiah chapter 53 that we read last Sunday evening together. Very clearly there as it talks about the suffering servant. He did not suffer for himself on account of his own sin. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Peter says in Acts 2 verse 23, This man, Jesus, was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you put him to death by nailing him to the cross. By God's set purpose and foreknowledge. and there's so many other places we could go Romans 4 verse 25 he was delivered over to death for our sins chapter 5 verse 6 you see at just the right time when we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly Peter says for Christ died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous it's been accomplished in Christ's suffering the suffering which we know was not only at the end of his life but was during his whole life on earth We are reminded of that again in question and answer 44, in answer to His descent into hell by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, especially on the cross, but also earlier. Also earlier. His suffering, that death, was throughout His whole life long, but culminated at the end of His life, and culminated specifically in His physical death. He tasted death for sin in all of its fullness. In all of its three-fold fullness. I believe we see that as we consider His steps of humiliation. We confess that He died. Physically, He literally died. Jesus stopped breathing. His soul was separated from His body. Question 41 says, why was he buried? His burial testifies that he really died. Now, there are many who say this is the weakest question and answer in the whole Heidelberg Catechism, or maybe that's true. Indeed, it is more than that. As Dr. Howell Jones reminded us beautifully a few months back that his burial attests to his death and anticipates his resurrection, as we said a moment ago, but yet it's true. it proves that he really died. It was a fulfillment, I believe, of God's word to Adam, that dust we are, and to dust we will return. Not that Christ's body decayed, it did not, but by being put into that grave and sealed, it signified returning to dust. But he also suffered spiritual death, not because of himself again, But in the sense that all of our sin that caused our spiritual death was laid on Him as His very own. Paul says in verse 10 of chapter 6, the death He died, He died to sin once for all. He died on account of sin. He died because of it. He died for that sin. He conquered that sin. Paid for it. But also eternal death. Question 44, why does the creed add He descended into hell? To assure me in times of personal crisis and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish and pain and terror of soul, especially on the cross, but also earlier, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell. Now, we're a complaining people, some more than others. We suffer in the least little bit, and nobody else has it as bad as we do. But in those times, beloved, we are called to remember the suffering of our Lord as he suffered eternal death, extreme everlasting anguish of soul. And he did so in time. Now we can't understand that because we are finite creatures. We are bound to time, the hours in a day. We are bound to our watches, wondering how long the sermon's going to be this morning. Wondering if we have enough peppermints for some of you that I know of. But you see, Christ in time, and we can't quite fathom that, in time, in that space of three hours, He suffered God's eternal wrath against sin. Beloved, He suffered the fullness of death for you and me. These are the facts. And the beauty of that for you and me is that all of this is credited to the believer. Jesus said the Son of Man came to give His life as a ransom for many. The writer of Hebrews 2 says of Jesus that He suffered death so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. And the writer says that He made atonement for the sins of the people. And again, in Isaiah 53, the Lord says, My righteous servant will justify many. It's credited to you and me. His death for my life is a fact. It fulfills the Word of God. But the beauty here is that this is more than just an objective truth for you and me. It's more than simply something that God says to you and me about ourselves. Answer 37 in Lord's Day 15 says again, His sacrifice was the only atoning sacrifice. The only sacrifice that could pay for sin. And therefore, dear friends, that must have consequences for us, right? More than just objective. Because if my sins are paid for, if my sins are taken away, then isn't that also true of sin's wages? And that must then have some sort of an effect on our death and on our dying. And indeed it does, as this great exchange transforms the life of the believer. Not just our status as we stand before God. Not just how He looks at us in Christ. But much more than that. It transforms the life of the believer with a new direction in life. A change, an internal change. That's what Paul is talking about in Romans 6, verses 1-14. He explains now in these verses why we can't. Why we won't go on sinning. He's not talking about specific sins there, but he's talking about the sin nature. Notice in verse 2, beginning there, we 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. We were baptized into Christ Jesus. I believe He is talking there about that act of God the Holy Spirit uniting the sinner with His Savior by faith. That baptism of the Holy Spirit. And therefore, we are baptized into His death. In which Christ's death and all that His death accomplished takes on a new meaning for you and me. It takes on a true meaning with a two-fold result as Paul places before us. First of all, we died with Christ. We died with Christ. And that means very simply that just as Christ died for sin in Him, We died to sin, as Paul says in verse 2. And again, he's not talking about particular sins that you and I struggle with. That may be the result or the outflowing of it, but he's talking there about sin in general, the sin nature. So that the former power of our sin nature reigning over us, exercising control over us, holding us as captive prisoners to Satan, that power has been broken. He says in verse 6, For we know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. And this means, you see, having died with Christ means having died to spiritual death. Remember, death is separation. And those who have died with Christ have died to spiritual death. That means that we have died, we have been separated from the bondage of the old man of sin. It no longer rules over us in such a way that we have a one-track mind directly toward hell. Directly toward the things that Satan loves and things that God hates. And that's why we cannot remain in this way habitually. We cannot go on sinning that grace might increase. And Paul makes it clear that this has been accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Notice chapter 8, beginning at verse 9. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you. That same Spirit that Ezekiel witnessed bring to life that valley of dry bones. And this results in the fact too that not only have we died with Christ, but Paul says we have been raised with Christ by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit that gives new life. And that assumes then by being raised with Christ, if that's true, That assumes, then, that the old life is no more. Question 43, what further advantage do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross? Through Christ's death, our old selves are crucified, put to death and buried with Him, so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer rule us, but that instead we may dedicate ourselves as an offering of gratitude to Him. And that new direction for life, beloved, means that the old controlling influence of sin that gave us that one-track mind is gone. And we enjoy a new influence, a new GPS, as it were, the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter says His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And being empowered by the Holy Spirit that includes a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, a new way of willing, a new way of desiring and acting, new goals, new purposes, a whole new direction toward God and the things of God. And empowered by the Holy Spirit that we can confess that influence is that the joy of the Lord is my strength. And those who are raised with Christ, beloved, also live with Him. Even today. And therefore, the Christian life is to be an active life. It's to be an active life in the joy that my sin has been paid for and that my salvation is secure. Those things are to undergird our lives. Those truths. Those are the things that we ought to think about when we face a new day. It's a new day. Ah, yeah. But my sin is paid for. My salvation is secure. Those are the things that are to be in the forefront of our mind when we face decisions or even temptations of life. That my sin is paid for. My salvation is secure. Indeed, we know that the effects of sin still are all around us. We know that Satan has not yet been put away for good. We know that we are still able to sin and we do sin. There's no contradiction here. Paul made that clear in chapter 7. The good that I want to do, I don't do. The evil that I don't want to do, he says, that's what I do. He knew very well that which the believer continues to struggle with. And that's why he says in verses 11-14, 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 obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness, for sin shall not be your master because you are not under law but under grace. Now these are some powerful words. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. That's a command. Consider yourself, recognize yourself, know yourself. we are called in the strength of the holy spirit then to actively consciously intentionally continually remember that we are dead to sin and alive to god in christ these are powerful words pointing to the fact that that though justification is the work of god outside of us for us declaring us to be righteous yet sanctification is a work very much inside of us we're not just puppets on a string the holy spirit is busy working in us and with us as he cleanses us to put into practice his influence in our lives do not let sin reign as king boys and girls do not offer the members of your body you see when Satan and sin are king in your life then that king demands that your thoughts and your words and eyes and ears and hands and feet and every part of you be used for wickedness when Satan and sin is king he demands that your hands be used to hit your brother or sister or to steal from your neighbor It demands that your eyes be used to look over to your classmate's test paper and take one of their answers to cheat. It demands that your thoughts be used to think bad thoughts about others and demands that your words be used to talk back to your parents or to express those bad thoughts about others. Satan demands your feet to be used to take you where you ought not be. But Paul says, no, absolutely not. You have a new master. As a believer, there is a new king on the throne of your life. And you and I are called to use the entirety of our lives, beloved, to promote righteousness. And Paul gives us a hint to help us out in Colossians 3. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Beloved, the Christian life is to be a focused life. A focused life of thinking before speaking and acting and responding. A focused life of awareness, especially being aware of Satan and his work, knowing what he's up to. A focused life of actively living for Jesus and thinking God's thoughts after him and asking, WWPG, what would praise God? It's a life understanding that at times we do let our guard down. We do fall into sin. The old man of sin raises its ugly head, but it's also a life of comfort. That because of new life in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit gets our attention, even maybe through difficulties of life, but He gets our attention. When we fall, He lifts us up. When we go astray, He calls us back. When we fall into fear and terror, He comforts us. When we need to be admonished, He does that. He kicks our conscience into gear when we need it most. And as Paul says to Titus, he governs us by his grace and teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Christ's death transforms the life of the believer in the here and now. But also so that it is without terror in the face of death. We still die physically until Christ comes again. And therefore, we might be tempted to ask, as question 42 points to, well, if death is the wages of sin, and if sin is atoned for, it's removed, then why do I still have to die? Did Christ fail in some way? The answer is absolutely not. Until He comes again and makes all things new and puts His enemies away forever and ever, that physical death remains. That last enemy, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. And when Jesus comes again and our bodies are raised and made like unto His glorified body, then that last death, that physical death, will be defeated forever and ever. No one ever again will die that death. But you and I, I believe, can consider physical death as a conquered enemy of sorts already now. In Hebrews 2, it says of Christ that by His death, He destroyed him who holds the power of death that is the devil and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Now that does not mean that Satan is able to force death or bring death upon when only God is sovereign to do that as Job teaches us. But Satan holds that death as a weapon, as it were, over the ungodly. He holds it like a drooling monster. Knowing that death to this life is the entrance into eternal death and into everlasting separation from God, from hope for the wicked. But his power has been broken over the one who has died with Christ and who has been raised with Christ. Our death, answer 42, does not pay the debt of our sins. Rather, it puts an end to our sinning and is our entrance into eternal life. Physical death for the believer, for you and me, has a changed function. We can be so bold, I believe, as to say that it now serves our salvation as God uses it for our good. It has a changed function with regard to sin. It's not a payment, as the catechism rightly says. That's been done. But it puts an end to our sin. Imagine that. The day that you and I will no longer have another sinful thought or inclination or act against our God. Death is not an end to that true life, really. But it's an end to sin. And that is to be our longing desire. Christ took away the guilt of sin and when we die, we are freed from the effects of it. But physical death has a changed function also with regard to communion with God. No longer, as it once did, does it separate us from God. No longer does physical death break that communion between us and God and the land of the living. But it is a gateway, it is an entrance to greater communion, the fullness of communion with God, which points to life with a never-ending guarantee. And that's eternal life that is ongoing without end. Jesus said in John 5, Whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. That's a fact that is true for you and me today. That's why so many a believer on their deathbed, they have comfort. They have hope. Helen had that comfort. Even as she faced death. That hers was eternal life. That's the greatest benefit of Christ's suffering and death. That He earned for us that which Adam forfeited for himself and us. That life that will never end. We sing amazing grace. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, We have no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Boys and girls, you and I can't even imagine 10,000 years. We can barely imagine 100 or 10. But what that is saying is when we have been there 10,000 years according to our years, it's not even a drop in the bucket. It's as if it hasn't even begun. Because eternity will go on and on and on and on. A wondrous exchange, beloved. Christ's death for my life eternally, isn't it amazing again how something so bad and so terrible, namely Christ's suffering unto death, could be so good? And maybe you're wondering, well, how can I know that this new life is real for me? Will I be sinless? No. We were reminded of that with our assurance of pardon. If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves. Will I be healthy, wealthy, and wise? Not necessarily. Instead, the catechism helps us again. It says, instead, we will dedicate ourselves as an offering of gratitude to Him. We will dedicate ourselves as an offering of gratitude to Him. That means understanding by faith what Christ suffered, what He accomplished by it, and that it's all for me. And that one then desires to serve Him, to live for Him, not to shame Him, His name. but to promote His name. At the very same time that one recognizes sin for what it is, that it is deadly, that it is offensive to God, and that one hates it, that one desires to run away from it, and the strength of the Spirit strives to run away from it. When the child of God does fall into sin, he is convicted of it and is filled with sorrow, but is also again comforted as he is brought by the Holy Spirit through a remembrance of Christ's death for it. Beloved, we don't live in the fear of the unknown. But we live in the knowledge of eternal salvation in Jesus Christ. And therefore, in the midst of a world of death, we stand very much alive with Jesus Christ, both now and forever. Amen.