Romans 6:1-14

This sermon I dislike as I couldn't think of any practical modern day analogy. Still it recieved good feedback at the time.

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Before we get into the text it is probably worthwhile setting it its context with the book of Romans as a whole. 

It is believed the letter was written around 57 AD, and authored by Paul whilst he was still at Corinth ministering there. Besides preparing the way for his own visit to Rome, it was designed to present the basic system of salvation to a church that had not received the teaching of an apostle before. This is good for us, as it means it covers such a wide variety of theology compared to some of the other letters that addressed specific needs. 

The main subject of the letter is faith: faith in Jesus Christ. Paul contends that salvation comes to us not through what we do, but from whom we put our faith in. It is God’s forgiveness and love that rescues us, not our own efforts. Paul argues that salvation it is not a matter of obeying the Jewish Law – nor even a case of obeying natural laws or morality. It is a gift of God. That is not to say it doesn’t matter what we do. As Christians, we are obliged to live lives of love, hope and sacrifice. But Paul argues, we do this as a response to salvation, not in order to obtain it.

In the section immediately preceding tonight’s passage (3:21-5:21), Paul has been discussing the place of faith in bringing us into a right relationship with God. In chapter 6 verses 1-14 he goes on to explore how God’s grace frees us from a life of sin and gives us new life - now broadly speaking, sin can be thought of choosing to live apart from God. This is easiest to think of in terms of actions – in doing something that God has commanded you don’t, but it also applies to our attitudes. 

Anyway, the structure of this passage could be roughly seen as an initial piece of teaching about the work of the Cross and Resurrection 1-10, and then 11-14 how this should impact our daily lives. 

Paul begins this passage in a rhetorical way, he is using 2 voices to present the arguments against his teaching, and then counters it gracefully.

In verse 20 of the previous chapter, Paul had said “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,” – very true, but it can easily lead to a misinterpretation that it doesn’t matter anymore how much you sin; that somehow grace encourages sin.

This is the question Paul asks in verse 1 “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?”, and just in case anybody gets confused and thinks this is what Paul is preaching, he instantly answers his own question with “certainly not”.

But really the rest of this passage is trying to answer that question more fully & explain why it is a ‘no’ in the light of verse 20. 

I think I want to spend a moment looking at the baptismal imagery in verses 3-5.

Most commentators seem to agree that Paul is referring to baptism in water as the point in time at which people become joined with Christ. The point in time when we were baptised “into” Christ, and hence “into his death”.

Baptism essentially means death to the person I once was, self centred,

unforgiven, and alienated from the life of God. 

And just as Christ rose from the chill waters of death on the first Easter Day,

so you and I rose from the waters of baptism to enter into the new life he gives us,

a life that is shared with him, governed by him, a life that will never end. 

And to me it it’s really the impact of being united to Christ that Paul uses as a backbone to the rest of his arguments. 

Now from verses 3-5 Paul has established the fact that believers participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection thanks to our baptism. So now he elaborates on what that means; the “death” side is dealt with in verses 6-7, and the “new life” side in verses 8-10. 

The other thing to note is that in the previous verses he was using words like ‘we’ to empathise the community aspect of being united with Christ, now in verse 6 he has replaced ‘we’ with ‘old self’. 

Precisely what the old-self is referring to is not certain, however, much of the weight of opinion seems to be in favour of one suggestion that – and I quote from one commentator - “what was crucified with Christ was not a part of me called my old nature, but the whole of me as I was before I was converted”. Which I think makes a lot of sense, Paul is making reference again to how our whole self was united with Christ in baptism, to Christ’s resurrection, - and this was done so verse 6 “.. the body of sin might be done away with”.

This is God’s purpose – that “we should no longer be slaves to sin.”

But how is it that our former self being crucified with Christ might mean that sin no longer has a hold over us?

Verse 7 supplies the answer, “because anyone who has died has been set free from sin”

.. so what does this mean??

I think I need to pull back to look at a wider context for a moment, and that is to do with sin & death.

Basically whenever the bible talks about sin, you are sure to find the wages of sin being referenced close behind – namely death. 

Right from the beginning of the bible in genesis, God tells Adam that if he sins and eats the apple he will die.

What most scholars seem to agree on, is that this death, by which we have died, is symbolic in some sense, and that thanks to us dying with Christ – our wages for our sin were paid in that act of crucifixion of Christ. 

But the story doesn’t stop there, because verse 8 “if we died to Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

He has been raised to an altogether new plane of living. Verse 9 “death no longer has mastery over him.” .

Now we can live in a state where sin no longer carries this condemnation with it of death, verse 10 “the death he died, he died to sin once for all; BUT the life he lives, he lives to God”. 

Now onto the final section of the passage, verses 11-14;

These fit into the passage in a way that reflects a common pattern in Paul: What God has done for us – should be the basis and the motivation for what we do for God. 

Verse 11 perhaps suggests an intermediate step working on our self-motivation – only by constantly looking at ourselves as people who really have died to sin and been made alive in Christ will we be able to live out the new status God has given us.

In verses 12-13 Paul moves into the realm of action. He begins with a negative: we must not let sin “reign” in our lives. 

Here we are faced with the tension between our ‘being set free from sin’ and our command to ‘not to let sin reign’. And yet Paul claims again in verse 14 that sin is no longer our master. 

The relationship between these two ideas is not easy; but what we can say is that putting away our sins is not an automatic process, something that will happen without our cooperation. 

Instead a determination of our own will is called for to turn what has happened in principle into actuality.

Verse 13 makes the same point in a different way – Paul, by using words such as “instruments” and “parts of your body”, is bringing to mind all of our capacity and capabilities, and instructing us to bring them no longer to the service of wickedness, but instead to be used for the service of God. So that in everything we do, we are doing it as an act of service or worship to God. 

Finally Paul offers a further reason for offering ourselves to God rather than to sin

Because we are “not under law, but under grace”; this is the final key to our freedom from sin. 

To be under law is to accept the obligation to keep it and so to come under its curse or condemnation. To be under grace is to acknowledge our dependence on the work of Christ for salvation – Moreover to recognise the power and significance of the Cross and resurrection in lives day to day rather than to be under law and reduce things to simple rule keeping.

Remember I said the opening question in verse 1 was a response to 5v20, that where the law reigned more and more sin also increased. And so ‘does grace encourage sin?’ 

The answer Paul offers us, is that on the contrary, Grace discourages, and overthrows sin, it was the law that provoked and increased sin; but grace opposes it and lays upon us the responsibility of holiness. 

So what then should we take away from this passage tonight?

Perhaps you find this message still a bit new to you, and you want to let your full energy be a work for God, but feel daunted. 

Maybe you’ve tried before and found you end up falling into sin again and feeling discouraged.

I think if that’s you, the key thing to take away, is that you do not have to feel any guilt or condemnation from sin – this is the good news of Easter. Focus instead on verse 11, counting yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ. 

Perhaps instead you have heard all the recent Celebrate at 7 sermons on ‘newness’, and feel you’ve already made a start - or maybe even more than a start – I want you to consider asking yourself the question “what would it look like if every part of me in every part of my life was lived as an “instrument of righteousness” for God’s work?” 

Let’s end with a prayer –

[nb the line spaces are almost entirely unrelated to grammer, and are there to help me follow the printed version]