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This message is part of a sermon series. For the rest of the sermon series go to Dead to Sin |
| Image @CreationSwap/Jeff Miller |
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (NKJV)
In our two previous posts we started to consider the question in verse 1 –”Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Paul in attempt to answer this question said “God forbid! Or certainly not! How can we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” So he began in verse 3 to give the Christian his reasons why the Christian cannot continue in sin. He said that the thorough understanding of these reasons is hidden in a thorough understanding of THREE Key WORDS – KNOW, RECKON and YIELD. In our last talk we considered KNOW – What are we to Know? – That we were baptized symbolizing death into Christ. We were buried with Him in baptism. Secondly we should know that we have died and that dead people do not sin. Thirdly, our old nature which is symbolic of the sin nature has been crucified, dead and buried and fourthly that we have been raised in a new nature. “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.” Just as the raised Christ cannot die again, so we that have been raised with Him can no longer live in sin which is death. What a great truth we are called upon to know.
Today, we look at the last two key words –RECKON and YIELD.
RECKON
In verse 11, we read: “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” We are to know this truth and then continually second by second, moment by moment, hour after hour, day after day; we are to reckon it to be so. Don’t ever lose sight of it! Don’t doubt that you are dead to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Don’t let the devil say “you did not die back there, you were not even born when Christ was crucified” You did die – you were buried with Him, raised with Him,. That is the secret of a holy life. God declares it so, now reckon it to be so. I wish to illustrate this with a story I heard not long ago. It is a true story. Whenever a young man who may be a member of an orthodox Jewish family becomes a Christian, the father says: “This son is to me dead” He turns him out of his house and in some extreme cases, performs the funeral ceremonies of his “dead son”. He never speaks to him again. If friends come in and ask about the son, he says “My son is dead” He is not actually dead, but the father considers that boy as dead. He has reckoned him as dead. In the same sense, even though the old self is still alive, God says: “Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin.”It is like an old associate who exercised terrible influence over you. There is only one way to get liberty. Break it off once for all. Call him and say, “You have exercised a powerful influence over me in the past, but from now on, it is to be as if I had died. You have no relationship with me anymore.”
In verse 12 he says: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” Paul is here making reference to that physical part of us which is subject to death. Paul has proved that the principle of sin has no relation to the new nature of the believer. Here he exhorts the Christian not to let sin rule over that part of us which is mortal – subject to death. He has said that sin cannot live in the believer’s new nature. Here he urges that sin must not be allowed to express itself through that part of us that is not yet redeemed. The redemption of the body will not be till the resurrection of the body. He does not say that sin resides in matter, but encourages that the physical body be not surrendered as instruments of the devastating tyrant of sin. Sin is not innate to matter but the body is the most common instrument under the reign of sin. Sin does not find its rise in the flesh, though it finds in the flesh its most common instrument often a means of expression. It is therefore important that we reckon ourselves as dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are here again given both the new life, “unto God” and the means of the new life “through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Let us therefore reckon it as God says it is.
YIELD
In verse 13, we read: “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God”The King James Version reads: “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.”
The word “instruments” is a military term. It is also a scientific term. It would be better translated by the word “weapons” – The Interlinear Greek English New Testament has replaced instruments with weapons in the New International Version (NIV) Your hands, your feet, your tongue – the members of your body – they are weapons in “the good fight”. Now Paul says, “don’t take your weapons and give them to the enemy” It would be foolish if a man should hand over his weapons to his enemy. But that is exactly what happens, for instance, when a person takes the tongue, which ought to be used as a weapon of righteousness and praise and uses it to wound somebody.
Here a thought unfolds out of this passage. It starts out with the words “Neither yield” and the idea is a continuous yielding. “Do not yield all the time your members – day after day, hour after hour; giving up your weapons to sin, your enemy”
And the thought now goes on to imply once for all yield; here it is a different tense; at one great crisis point in your life; once for all, yield to God. The Christian ought to come to this place where he says; “Lord I yield once for all to You!”
Now in verse 14 he closes with a promise: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” He now gives the reason for all the argument advanced from verses 2 to 13. This verse is the summary statement of the first thirteen verses of Romans Chapter Six and it forms a transition into the remainder of the Chapter. “You are not under law but under grace” is the negative and positive explanation of why sin is no more lord over us. Sin shall not have dominion over you and you are not under law are the statement and explanation of the same idea, Sin is a monarch, the law is his strength. The one is king; the other is his regal authority. The power of sin is the law and sin has lost its power in that we live under grace (First Corinthians 15:56) Living under grace is to be free from both the guilt of sin and the power of sin, from the corruption of sin and the penalty of sin. Sin reigns in death, law reigns in execution, grace reigns in life. There is neither death nor execution in the realm of grace.
I said we now have a promise. If we know these things, - if we reckon these things to be so; - if we yield our members to God, then remember this: “Sin shall not have dominion over you” Why? because you are not under the law, but under grace!. It is the grace of God that breaks the power of sin. The law cannot do it. The reason that sin shall not have dominion is because you are under grace and not under law.
Paul concludes this argument proving that grace does not encourage sin. He has proved that we are dead to sin (6:2); that sin has been rendered powerless (6:6); that death is dead (6:9); that we are alive unto God (6:11); and that Grace is reigning (6:14)
Up to this point we have dealt with the fact of continuance in sin. Somebody is bound to say, “Well, all right, I won’t continue in sin. I can see that now; But surely it won’t hurt if I drop into sin once in a while” Shall we commit even an act of sin? Is it not permissible to drop into sin once in a while because we are not under the law?
Paul deals with that also. Paul’s answer again is “God forbid!” or certainly not!”
In our last post on this Chapter we shall take the rest of this chapter which Paul now discusses using three Key Words again: Master, Servant and Obedience.
May the Lord help us to know that we are dead to sin but alive in God through Christ Jesus our Lord; reckon this to be so and therefore yield our members not as weapons or instruments of unrighteousness unto our else while master sin but as weapons of righteousness unto our new Master God. Christ alone is our strength and in Him are we more than conquerors and it is only in Him that we can do all things. May His grace abound!
Let us sing this old Scripture Union Chorus:
Let not sin:
Reign as king;
In Your mortal body!
But submit;
Every bit;
Into Jesus hands
By blood bought;
Let each thought;
In subjection bow;
Own Him Lord-
Deed and word;
Shall His glory show!
God bless you all.
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