Well, I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 6 tonight. We're looking at just the first four verses of Romans 6, such a rich section. And after last week, in comparing the two Adams, if you will, what was lost in the first Adam, what was gained in the last Adam, now he begins to apply that great truth in Romans 6.
So beginning at verse 1, just four verses tonight of life. And there will end the reading of God's Word.
Well, I know the Christian life can be confusing in terms of our continued battle against sin. That is one of the most confusing aspects of the Christian life. We struggle to understand, I suppose, why there is such little progress in our experience with Christianity. At least as we experience it, we would like to see a lot more progress and wonder at times because of the lack of progress. Maybe we doubt whether the Lord is really with us at times and helping us.
Paul is now turning to this great issue he's helping believers with now: their relationship as believers with sin. How does that play out? What does that look like? How are we to go forward when we're still carrying around these sinful natures? This is important now that he develops in chapter six, and seven And eight to some degree. And you'll remember he is helping us to look at all of life. How do we look at life as Christians? How do we think of the life that we have?
Romans 5 made absolutely clear. Paul's whole point is to make us understand and help us to understand that what happened to us in Christ is permanent. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. That's not taken from us. That's not something that can be robbed of us. In fact, Paul was furious when people tried to rob that liberty of people. But because rooted in their justification, they had been set free. And Paul believes we can have assurance in this life.
But at the end of chapter 5, he helped us by doing something that was really unique. He showed us the Adam-Christ parallel, if you remember. That what he said was, just as you were united in Adam's sin to the first Adam, so that his sin remember what He said, was the sin of all the people. He says that there, therefore, just as sin, came into the world, verse 12, through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. Now notice this: because all sinned. We weren't just influenced, or we didn't become guilty when we made personal sins ourselves. What he said there, what we saw was Adam representing us. Adam's sin was itself the sin. of all people, an original sin. We received the guilt and the pollution and the corruption of it. That's why we're born into sin from conception.
And the comparison was, remember, just as in Adam all sinned and died because that was the curse, remember, at the beginning, the day you eat of it, you shall surely die." So in Christ, the free gift is not like the trespass. He represents us so that whatever he did, we receive. We are given the gift of righteousness, super abundant, he says, and free to us so that we reign in this life through him.
So being in the last Adam, we receive justification by faith. We receive all that's necessary to be set free. We are placed out of the old Adam and into the last Adam. It's a categorical change. Out of the old man, old Adam, and into the new man. We are taken out of the consequences of the old Adam and brought into the consequences of the life of the last Adam.
See, that's federal headship, we call that. That's representative actions by each Adam that affect the entirety of those they represent. Adam represented everyone. Jesus represents all those who believe by faith.
So Paul wants us to think about this now as the objective work of Jesus for us. This has huge implications tonight for the Christian life. Huge implications. The basis of your right standing before God, he says, "I want you to take your eyes of faith, and I want you to look so much at your Savior that I want you to see that you are so united to him that whatever happens to him happens to you."
And that's why we have this language in Scripture all over the place, saying things like, "For you died, and your life is now hidden, think about that, with Christ in God." You have a hidden life. You're placed into Christ. Think of Moses in the cleft of the rock. You are positioned in him. You're united to him. Love of God has been so poured out in your hearts by the Spirit. You have everything you need in him. What great news this is! All of it is a free gift. All of it is a free gift of grace. super abounding grace That's why we named our program that. But super abounding grace with no working on your part to be justified. It's a free gift we looked at. You saw that this morning: the tie. "Freely you've received, freely you give the kingdom. It's free. Receive it by faith." That's what the Lord wants from us.
Now, Paul knew if you preach the gospel like that, some people are going to get really nervous. Some people are going to get really bothered if you make that so clear and you tell people it's all a free gift, you don't have to work for this, your working's an abomination. They're going to get really nervous about this. People are going to get uncomfortable about this message. And you know what's going to happen, Paul? If you say that too much, here's what's going to happen: it's going to lead to licentious living. It's going to lead to people saying they can go out and do whatever they want to do. That's the great issue here. Paul deals with that single great objection to the gospel message: "Your doctrine is going to promote loose living. You're going to become an antinomian. You are going to be someone who just disregards the law of God and says you can live any way you want to live. And because you run around saying Jesus did it all all the time, that will be the concern."
So Paul is addressing that now. Paul is moving to that great issue. And you'll notice he begins chapter 6 with that: "What shall we say then?" Notice that. "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" Say then to what? "What shall we say then?" Say then to what? Right?
Well, it's something he just said in chapter 5. And it's specifically verse 20 of chapter 5. "Where sin, listen to this, where sin increased. So in people's lives where we saw sin increase, now listen to this, listen to this radical statement." This is this is really a radical statement: "Grace abounded all the more."
So put it together: "What shall we say to this great thing you said, that where sin abounded, grace abounded more?" Well, that must mean then we should keep sinning so that grace keeps abounding, right? That's the tie. "If grace increases all the more where sin increase, it seems that one could easily make the case in your message, Paul, or in your idea of the gospel, Paul, that they could continue in sin. It showcases grace. Shouldn't we just keep on sinning? Doesn't Does it really even matter? right? Does it really even matter? If God gave his law that the offense might abound more and more only to demonstrate the righteousness of Jesus Christ more and more, if the multitude of our sins really makes clearer the magnitude of grace, then why not just go on sinning? It really doesn't matter. God has desired our sin to abound to show us how great his grace is." You see?
Now, that's what everyone who's ever preached the gospel has been accused of, by the way, preached it correctly. That should, when you hear that charge, it's important that the doctrine of grace would promote the act of carrying on with the remaining in, the continuing of in sin. This was the great charge that was made against the Reformation. This was the great charge that's been made against anyone who's been clear with the gospel: "You preach that super grace stuff, you will lead people to antinomianism. People to set aside the law of God." And that's been a huge controversy in our day. It never goes away.
Now, I believe Paul's disgusted by this. The whole idea of it. I think he bore a certain kind of cross. I think any faithful preacher of the cross, preacher of the gospel, bears this sort of cross himself when he preaches free grace that it's this good, this free, that he knows he is going to deal with the problem that continues to arise: that people are going to tell him, "Listen, that guy is a grace boy. He just preaches so much grace."
And the natural tendency of man, since we're wired, now listen, we're wired to work in the first Adam. It's not natural for us to rest and receive in the last Adam. We're wired to work. We always, by default, go back to our wanting to be under the first Adam. That's what happened in Galatia. So they had turned from the gospel, and they had attacked the gospel and preaching of Paul, being influenced by Judaizers. That's what he called them: Judaizing tendencies that want to bring them back under bondage. And Paul pulled no punches with them. "Listen, if you want to go back to a message of works and you want to make justification dependent on your contingent upon your obedience, you're putting yourself back under the old Adam. You're putting yourself back under the law to fulfill it yourself." You see? "So you don't want to be in the first Adam. You want to be in the last Adam. Let them be anathema if they're doing that." That's Paul's answer.
So they're charging me with being antinomian. "Let them be anathema for what they're doing to the gospel," you see.
So Paul tackles this attack, and I think it's really important to say: when you ever hear this attack, I've rarely met a genuine antinomian. I've never really met a genuine antinomian who comes up to me and says, "You know, I don't think we need to keep the law of God for our gratitude at all. I just throw it out of the Christian." I've never met somebody like that. So when you hear people making that charge, they really are people who don't comprehend grace yet. It's assumed that God would freely justify somebody. Think about it. Is it assumed that God would freely justify somebody, leaving them in the old Adam? His whole point was, "Being the death of Christ, being united to him, has resulted in our justification, being in the last Adam."
Now, what are the implications of that for the Christian life? That's what he's helping us with. What are the implications of now being brought out of the old and brought into the new? And that's his question.
Here's the answer: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we, this is such an important verse in verse 2. How can we who died to sin live any longer therein?"
What in the world is that? Think about that. None of you in experience tonight think you died to sin yet, have you? Ultimately, Paul is first dealing with how we think. This is how he's addressing the sin problem. It was announced from the beginning that Christ Jesus came to save people from their sins. What does that look like? What does that mean?
Here's what I want you to think about: Paul in chapter 8 is going to talk about our responsibility to put to death the deeds of the body, and then he's going to encourage us in chapter 7 about the warfare that's going on in your life. You find yourselves doing the things you don't want to do, and it really messes with your head. You're sick with yourself. You're tired of that. And you don't understand at times why you would continue to do the things you don't want to do. "How could that be that you're a Christian if that's the case?" you see? That's chapter 7.
But here he says, "To begin with, I want to first deal with your mind on the issue. There is no way that somebody brought out of the first Adam and being put into the last Adam could continue in sin." What does he mean? He says, "You died to it."
Now, continuing in sin means, "I'm going to go do whatever I want to do. I'm going to live in it. I don't care. It doesn't matter. I belong to Jesus." That's not a Christian. That's what Paul's saying here. No Christian thinks like that.
See, Paul is saying to us something powerful tonight. It's encouraging for the Christian. "If the grace of God has come to you, super abounding grace, if you have been justified and you have peace with God by believing the gospel, resting in Christ, something has happened to you. Here's what's happened, number one: You died to sin."
What does that mean? What does that mean? "What do you mean I died to sin?" This may be the most single most important verse for the Christian to understand when it comes to Christian life. Not only is it true that continuing in sin, living in sin is inappropriate. Paul just said it's impossible! Why? Because you died. You died.
Now, I know we're struggling when we hear that. That doesn't seem to fit reality. Our life is like a broken record, it seems. Paul's going to deal with this. Again, that's Romans 7, the continual struggle. God made rich provisions for you in that struggle. You know 1 John 2: "If anyone sins, we shouldn't sin, but if you sin, you can come to the Father, confess your sins. He's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness." That's what he's going to do for you. That's the promise. That's the struggle. That's life. The godly saint knows that struggle. He's constantly coming to the throne room of grace. God's wonderful grace through the Spirit is constantly helping you to put to death sin. It's a lifelong process. That's sanctification. We know that.
But what does Paul mean, "you died to it"? That's not what he's talking about here in a sense. "Are you saying now that the Christian no longer sins?" No, of course not. Paul's going to show us in the next chapter we keep doing the things at times we don't want to do. "How in the world did I die to sin? What does that even mean?"
The word here died, and I know you're not all scholars in the Greek, and that's okay. It's not the most exciting thing in the world, but it's important: That it's an aorist tense. And anyone who studied Greek aorist tenses knows that it's a definitive action of the past, a completed action. So it was an action completed in the past that continues to have all this great significance for the present.
What was completed in the past? You died to sin. You died. Finished. So you put it together: at some point, we died to sin. When? Well, that's what chapter 5's been explaining for you. You were brought out of the first Adam, and you were put into the last Adam.
If you look back at Romans 5:10, he says it: "For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more shall we be saved, remember the qualification here, in his life." The whole point is, "We are so united to Christ by faith in his death and in his life that whatever happened to him is regarded of us."
But what happened to Christ? He died. So when he says, "You died to sin," he's speaking of Christ dying for you because that's how united you are to him. God decided to bring the death of you and the death of his son, the death of death and the death of Christ, the death of the old man.
2 Corinthians 5, 14, "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again."
So when Christ died, we died. It means that in being in union with him, we share in what his death accomplished. Our sin was nailed to the cross. Our old status of being in the old Adam is done. We're in him. You're hidden with Christ in God. We died in the sense that we no longer live for ourselves, but for him. We're in him. He wants us to think this way.
Now, notice verse 10 of Romans 6, that he's after the mind here: "For the death he died, for the death he died, he died to sin. Notice how he applies it. Once for all, that's done, for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. You must reckon to yourselves what's already been done for you. You must learn to think you died when Christ died. Your old Adam, your old man being in him died, and you were put to death your old way. Your old Adam was done. He definitively dealt with sin once and for all. I want you to look at him when he was nailed to that cross and see that's you. You see? Your life was hidden there, and he crucified you, your old man."
And you see, that's what he's emphasizing here in verses three and four: "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were, now listen, the whole story, buried. Therefore, with him by baptism into death. In order to that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life."
So, died, buried, resurrected. That's you. You see? That's what he's doing here. Water baptism signifies that. But baptism is not our act. It's an act here he speaks of the past, if you will, that we were washed into his death. We were washed. We were brought into union with Christ. We were identified with him in every way. And that kind of union is so close that whatever Christ did, that's how we are to regard ourselves now: that we no longer live just for sin. We died. We're not in that old Adam.
Now, again, I'm not talking about the daily struggle against sin. I'm talking about in principle our status. The old Adam was killed. Your sins were washed away with him. So when Christ died on the cross, you died. You were buried through baptism. This is a permanent identification.
Let me just show you how this kind of plays out. If I just were to take, give me a second here, Lord's Day 16 and apply these things, you'd see it.
So this is Lord's Day 16: "Why did Christ have to suffer death?" "Because God's justice and truth require it. Nothing else could pay for our sins except for the death of Christ." "Why was he buried?" "His burial testifies that he really died." "Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?" Notice there's no payment mentioned here. "Our death is not a payment for sins, but only a dying to sins and an entry into eternal life. What further benefit do we receive from christ's death and sacrifice on the cross?"
"By his power, now listen: the old man is crucified, put to death that's the old adam buried with him so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer rule over us, but that instead we may offer ourselves as sacrifices of thanksgiving to him."
By the way, they're taking that right out of Romans 6. "Why does the creed add he descended into hell?" "To assure me in times during attacks of the deepest dread and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul on the cross, but also earlier, has delivered me from the hellish anguish and torment. Fully delivered, died, buried, resurrected in him."
That's why Hebrews says, "And as much than his children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death are all the time lifetime subject to bondage."
So his death satisfies. His burial means your sins were really buried. How shall we think of the question? "We who have died to sin live any longer there in it." See how he sees that as utterly impossible?
It's impossible because if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away, and behold, all things have become new. It says in verse 14, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."
And so he says in verse 4: "Just as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk now in the newness of life." That's what we need to think. We're brand new. We're new creatures in Christ. We look at life differently now. And that's why all the New Testament comes to us when it's directing our lives, and it says, "Listen, and don't continue in the things to which you're now ashamed. Put to death those things that God's going to judge the world for. Because you are no longer in the old Adam. You're in Christ."
And Paul's encouraging us with this. It would be impossible for a Christian to say, "I can just live and do whatever I want and think I'm going to heaven." No Christian thinks like that. He's been given a new mind. And now we can start to talk about from this principle of union with Christ and the blessings of that, how we now from this point work to put to death in our lives sin and the fight and struggle against sin. That's what he will help us with in the next chapters.
But again, that verse 11 is so important: "Likewise, you also reckon yourselves. You go out into this week and you face temptations, you face lust, you face trials, you face difficulties, everything having to do with regard to sin. Whatever your sins are, whatever your struggles, the first thing you have to do is think. This is hard, hard business. Reckon myself, think of myself: I died. That's not me anymore. Why am I playing with the old man? I'm alive to God in Christ," you see. "Think that way. You're free from sin's dominion. Its presence is still there, but you're free from its dominion. Knowing and believing that Christ has been raised from the dead, death no longer has dominion over him, so we must live believing that we are indeed dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. We have been made alive."
What a wonderful truth tonight. As we celebrate all that Christ has done for us, I guess you say, "Well, what is the way forward?" I think of Lyle Faber always saying, "Onward and upward." That little phrase always is said: "Onward and upward." That's exactly what he's saying: "Onward and upward. You have an upward calling of God in Christ. Believe what Christ has done for you. You are his. And now think of yourselves this way: As Christ's going through all that for you, he's brought you into him, and he's delivered you from the dominion of sin and death. What a God we serve."
Let's pray.
Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for encouraging us tonight with this word. And may we, Lord, think of ourselves this way and be thankful that the objective work of Christ for us, that we are hidden in him, in the cleft of the rock, covered, buried, having died and now raised to a brand new man. We give you praise. We ask that you would help us, O Lord, to walk by the Spirit in the newness of life since we are hidden, God, in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.