Freed From Sin to Live New—Romans 6:1-14

As we get back into our series in Romans, I want to review where we have been in the first five chapters.  Our series is called The Gospel Unveiled because, as we have seen in the book of Romans, Paul, the author of this letter to the church in Rome, shows us the beauty of the Gospel message.  Remember, there is a good deal of conflict going on between the Jewish and non-Jewish Christians in Rome.  

The Jews were, for a time, kicked out of Rome by order of the Emperor, and when they were allowed to return, they found a church that did not look very Jewish.  The church had left behind many of the old Jewish traditions and laws, and the Jewish Christians were not happy about that when they returned.  So, Paul, in his letter, is trying to bring the church together by uniting them around the most important thing, the most important message, and that is the message of the Gospel.  

Remember, the word gospel means “good news”. When we talk about the message of the Gospel, we are talking about the good news about Jesus, what He has done for us, and how what he has done changes our lives.  Rather than be divided over all these peripheral issues, Paul wants to unite the Roman church around this one issue: the Gospel of Christ.

He starts by reminding us that we have all sinned and how sin destroys our lives and separates us from God. He then begins to unpack the beauty of the Gospel by reminding us that when we confess our sins and give our lives to Christ, we are justified before God and united with Him.

Remember, justification means being declared righteous, as though we never sinned.  When we stand before God, our position is that we are sinless, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Jesus has done for us.  Because we are seen as sinless, there is now peace between us and God.  All that happens when we receive God’s free gift of forgiveness and give our lives to Him.

Beginning in chapter six, Paul will move from discussing our position before God because of our justification to discussing its practical implications. In other words, how our lives are different because we have been justified.

It’s like learning to swim by watching YouTube.  There are probably hundreds of videos that will give you information about different swimming strokes and how to be a good swimmer, but it doesn’t mean much until you jump off the dock into the lake.  This is where knowledge and application meet.

In chapters one through five, Paul has shown us the beauty of the Gospel, and now he will unpack how that beautiful Gospel changes us, what we do, and how we live.

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Have you ever misunderstood someone or a situation?  

A reporter asked, via social media, what kinds of things adults misunderstood when they were children.  Over 4,000 people responded.  Here are some of the funnier ones:

• As a kid, I thought adultery meant pretending to be an adult.

• I thought cars automatically turned on their turn signals and thought they were smart for knowing where my parents wanted to go.

• I assumed people on TV could see who was watching.  I refused to turn a show off even if I didn’t like it because I thought it would be so demoralizing for them that they’d just give up once I’d gone. I kept watching and smiling at the TV to encourage them.

• I always thought prosecuted meant electrocuted. As in, “All trespassers will be….”. Terrified me.

In the first five chapters of Romans, Paul makes it abundantly clear that when we come to Christ, we are forgiven for our past, present, and future sins. There is nothing we can do to earn that forgiveness; only what Jesus did on the Cross covers our sins. We can never measure up, so Jesus does it for us.

But there is often a misunderstanding about our forgiveness, and it goes like this:  If I’m completely forgiven for my sin, then what I do doesn’t matter. If what I do doesn’t matter, I can do whatever I want without consequences.

Paul begins chapter six by saying, let me be clear about this so there is no misunderstanding.

Rom 6:1-2 (CSB)—What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?  Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul asks, ” Because we are dead to sin and dead to our old way of life, how can we still live in sin or willingly partner with sin?”

We who follow Jesus have all struggled with this question in one way or another: If God has saved me from my sin and the Holy Spirit now lives in me, why do I still do things I know are sinful?  Why do I still struggle with sin?

Paul sheds some light on this question and puts to rest the lie that since we are forgiven for our sin, we can continue to sin unrestrained.

Paul will now show us how we are Freed from Sin to Live New.  This is a practical application of our justification.

When it comes to sin, many Christians will say no, no, no.  Don’t drink, don’t chew, don’t date girls that do.  They have a list of things that are no-nos.  They have a list with two columns.  One side is the list of things you can do, and the other is a list of things you can’t do. The list of things you can’t do is usually way longer than the list of things you can do. 

The church I grew up in believed that playing cards were evil and that having cards in your house was sinful.  They connected cards to gambling and because gambling was wrong, by association, so were playing cards.

Also, going to the movie theater was sinful because people might not know what movie you are attending.  If there was a rated R movie and a PG movie playing in the theater, people might assume you’re going to the R movie even if you were planning on the PG movie, which would damage your testimony for Christ.

Instead of no, no, no, and a list of dos and don’ts, Paul takes a different approach.  Instead of saying these are no-nos, Paul says, know, know.

Rom 6:3-5 (CSB)—Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Dying to sin requires us to

Know We Have a New Identity. 

You’re identity, or how you perceive yourself and how you want others to perceive you, has a tremendous impact on what you do, what you say, and how you act.

The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus.

—Timothy Keller

In other words, when we identify with anything other than Jesus, sin comes easily.  There is no reason for us not to sin.  Sin is a natural outcome of our identity being connected to our success, what we own, who we’re married to, our vocation, etc.

Paul uses baptism as a picture of the new identity we receive when we give our lives to Christ.  

When you were baptized, you received a new identity.  Being immersed in the water symbolizes the death and the burial of Jesus.  Coming up, out of the water symbolizes Jesus rising from the dead.  By being baptized, you are saying publicly that you have died to your old life, and now you identify with Jesus.

Does that mean you have to be baptized to be saved?  Ask the thief on the cross.  You remember when Jesus was dying on the cross, one of the thieves asked him to remember him when Jesus came into His kingdom.  Today, you will be with me in paradise, Jesus said.  Obviously, there was no opportunity for him to be baptized yet he was saved.

So, no.  You do not have to be baptized to be saved.  Some people will say that if you are not baptized a certain way, your salvation is invalid.  Again, not true. Salvation is by faith alone in the work of Jesus on the cross.  End of story. Baptism is an outward symbol of an inward change.

When Stacey and I got married, I gave her a ring. Now, the ring didn’t make us married.  But if she had refused the ring and said, I’m not really into outward symbols, we would still be married, but I would probably wonder why she didn’t want to wear the ring.

Baptism is important because it marks the beginning of a new identity.  I now identify with Christ.  It shows the world in a public manner that I’m not my own; I belong to Him.  I am His son or daughter.  I was lost, but now I’m saved. I am His representative in the world.  I identify with Jesus and a new way of living.

That’s why I scratch my head when someone who has asked Jesus to forgive them of their sin and started a new relationship with him would say, I’m not ready to be baptized yet.  Either you follow Jesus, or you do not follow Jesus.  If you do, then baptism is the outward declaration of your decision.  It marks your new identity now that you are in Christ.

Paul has said, know that you have a new identity. Next, he will tell us if you want to be freed from sin to live new: 

Know that we have been released from the power of sin.

Rom 6:6-7 (CSB)—For we know that our old self, was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.

Our old self, our old way of life, was put to death on the cross so that sin would be powerless over us, and we would no longer be slaves to sin.

The word powerless is the Greek word katargeō. It means “rendered inactive” or “paralyzed.” It doesn’t mean “annihilated.” Therefore, when your old sin nature screams, “You’ve got to take that smoke, pour that drink, look at that website, lose your temper, or gossip,”—Paul says that although your old nature can yell at you, he is powerless to act since the Cross paralyzed him from the neck down.

Before we chose to follow Jesus, we were slaves to sin.  We were bound or tethered to sin, even though we might not have seen ourselves as slaves. Now, Paul says we are no longer slaves to sin.  

Rom 6:8-11 (CSB)—Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In other words, the work of the Cross of Christ is complete.  There is nothing you can add to it.  It is done.  It is finished.  In the same way that Christ, who was once dead, is now raised to life, we should know that once and for all, our old man is dead, and now we are alive in Christ.  

Now that the old man is dead, a new man is being created inside us.  Instead of a desire for sin and self-gratification, God has placed in us a desire for holiness and righteousness.

Rom 6:12-14 (CSB)—Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.  And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

Now that we know about our new identity and we know we are free from the power of sin over us, we have a choice.  We can choose to let sin control us, or we can choose to offer ourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

This is a moment-by-moment choice for followers of Jesus.  

• When tempted by lust, appropriate the power Jesus has over sin and pray, “God, give me strength to stand.  Give me the fortitude to say no.”
• When you are tempted to sin in your anger, appropriate the power Jesus has won over sin and ask God to give you patience and self-control.

• When you are tempted to lie, ask God to give you the courage to be honest.

It is amazing how when the sons and daughters of God bring Him into the moment and the temptation, He gives you exactly what you need to stand firm.

If we simply pause and, even audibly, if necessary, yield to the Lord whatever instrument of our body we’re struggling with, our inclination to sin will decrease dramatically.

1 Cor 10:13 (CSB)—No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

I like the way Paul puts this idea to the Ephesian church:

Eph 4:21-24 (NLT)—Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Earlier, I reminded you what that justification means: when God looks at us, all he sees is the righteousness credited to us by Jesus.  Not only does He see us this way, but He is helping us become the people He sees.  That’s what Paul is talking about here.  He is talking about becoming more like Jesus, putting on the new nature, and becoming truly righteous and holy.

Becoming holy and righteous does not earn us points with God.  Even on our best, most righteous day, we can’t measure up to God’s holiness.  But we strive for holiness and righteousness because of what He has done for us, because of His great love for us.

Putting on our new nature and not allowing sin to rule over us is a daily exercise.  It certainly doesn’t happen overnight.  Sometimes, that process is three steps forward and two steps back but as we offer all the parts of ourselves over to God as weapons of righteousness, He is faithful and good and will empower us to overcome sin.

Some questions to think about:

• Where does your identity lay?  Are you putting your identity in anything but Christ?  Ask God to help you understand what putting your identity in Christ means.

• What is something in your life that you have struggled to give over to God?  Identify it.  Name it. Then, ask God to give you a strategy for a way out when tempted.