Morning Light – Romans 6: Free NOW and LATER

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Today: [Romans 6:] Free NOW and LATER: In Roman 6 Paul asserts that the work of God in Christ not only brings forgiveness of sin but actual deliverance from those things in us that result in sin and disobedience. In Christ Paul declares in this chapter sin is now OPTIONAL and not an unavoidable consequence of the fall. Christianity and the evangelical community generally do not believe or teach this, but it is the unimpeachable assertion of Paul in this chapter.
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[Rom 6:1-11 KJV] 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [his] resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Romans 1 Paul declares that the sin condition is because men do not like to retain God in their knowledge; therefore God gives them up to those actions and heart conditions that fall under the definition of sin. This is important to realize because why would we condemn men for what God has given them up to? Sin is symptomatic of men not retaining God in their knowledge, the knowledge of God that is inherent in the law for the Jew and in knowledge of creation for everyone else.
Romans 2 concludes that because what may be known of God is evident to all men there is no excuse man may use to insist they are exempt from accountability to God whether one believes in God or not. This condemnation is upon those who offend and likewise upon those who believe based on their knowledge of God’s law that they are qualified to condemn others. In Romans 3 Paul then answers the question of what is the benefit of being a Jew and receiving the law if the law is not a basis to escape judgment? In other words, if we know right from wrong and do our best what is the point if our best efforts to obey God are no basis of approach to God? The answer is that God’s law is given to convince us of our need of the salvation only found in Christ. Thus all men are rejected as inherently incapable of being vindicated before God either by ignorance of the law or knowledge of the law. Salvation is only found in Christ through the faith that God has given to every man. In Romans 4 Paul gives Abraham as an example of a man who was justified not because he was a good man or because he had any religious standard of performance handed down to follow. Abraham was justified and placed in a beneficial relationship with God because he chose to believe promises that God communicated to him that he would be the father of many nations and all the nations of the world would be blessed in him. This, Paul contends was not a unique covenant for Abraham only but for all men – whereby we are invited to approach God through faith in Christ and thereby have a covenantal relationship with Him. The difference between Abraham’s approach to God and ours is that Abraham’s faith was based on a promise and our faith is based upon the person of Christ and His work on the cross not only to bless us but to deliver us entirely from the full scope of the consequences of the fall. These promises are fully and wholly based upon who Jesus is and what Jesus did, and our evil cannot diminish the promise neither can our good augment that promise in any way.
If our good cannot move God and our evil cannot diminish His willingness to make salvation available in Christ – then Rom. 6 asks the question is it OK then to continue in sin? No, verse 2 says if we think that God sent Jesus so that sin might merely be overlooked then we didn’t pay close enough attention to what Paul said in chapter 5.
God’s intent in sending Christ and giving man the measure of faith to accept Christ was not only to wash us from sin and extend forgiveness but also to deliver us from sin by making us dead to the sin nature that was in us from our birth. This is an aspect of salvation and the New Birth that is much neglected in Evangelical and Christian teaching today.
Paul clarifies what he is stressing here by saying that our baptism was baptism not only into Christ but into the death that He died whereby in God’s eyes we are buried with Him and raised with Him to new life. Jesus was raised up into the dimension where no death and no sin can exist. When you were born again, you were brought into a sinless and deathless environment according to what Paul is saying here, and in verse 4 Paul states that our walk should then reflect that newness of life by those sins that infected us and condemned us prior to New Birth no longer hold sway over us in any way. That may not be your experience, but it is God’s promise.
How do we posture ourselves so as to express faith and walk in what He has done for us? We are to reckon (v. 11) ourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That term reckon suggests that there may be a process maturing, even a wavering experience of not seeing it fully realized but our commitment is to base our belief not on our track record of sinfulness but on the sinlessness of Jesus, expecting it to be manifest in our lives along with the benefits of power and glory that goes along with it.
[Romans 6:12-23 KJV]
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things [is] death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Verse 12 says “let not sin reign in your mortal bodies…” Do you realize what that is saying? You will find no similar statement applied to any Old Testament saint. The Old Testament saint had no recourse of deliverance from the Old Nature. We in Christ however now have the way open. Sin may exist, but we have power in Christ not to LET sin reign in our lives. Regardless what any false teacher or tepid believer may assert – in Christ SIN is optional and not mandatory. The Christian life is meant in Christ to be something FAR, FAR more than an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven.
How do we move toward this victory over sin and the fallen nature? By (v. 13) not yielding our members as instruments of unrighteousness. All sin and obedience begin in an act of yielding. What the New Birth does is back the strength to resist sin and stand in holiness with the same power, Holy Ghost power that raised Jesus from the dead! Therefore v. 14 sin shall not have dominion over you – and if it does in any area of your life, it is by YOUR CHOICE which is a deep iniquity that puts you in jeopardy more than you might know.
Having said all of this Paul concludes (v. 18) that we are free from sin because we have chosen by an act of our will to yield ourselves to righteousness. Salvation is not the result of God winking at your sin because Jesus died, but rather salvation is manifest in your life as the grace not only to resist sin and the acts of sin in your life but to actually overcome sin by virtue of the same enablement of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
What are the benefits of this freedom from sin that our faith in Jesus has connected to us in Christ? Primarily, eternal life. This word eternal life is not spoken of as something only respecting the afterlife. Theology consigns the concept of eternal life to after death. It is more than this wonderful as life after death must be. The word eternal means “irreducable” both NOW and in ETERNITY! Thus the wages of sin is death but the gift of God through Jesus accessed by faith is ETERNAL LIFE both NOW and THEN!