Week 21 - Free weekend program for street & vulnerable children.

Teaching from Romans 6:11-15

Brief recap of previous sessions :

From Romans Chaper One, we see the iniquity and idolatry (worship of self - idols ) by the human race and the fearful indictments; only a fool says in his heart there is no God. Psalm 14:1

In Chapter 2, we see how people exempt themselves from the iniquity and idol worship described in chapter one, they don’t believe that the nature of continual sinfulness and iniquity described in chapter one applies to them, they appraise themselves as people with high moral standard, void of sinfulness because of their religion and it’s activities like fasting, baptism, race, civility, education, culture etc but God judges according to truth not according to man’s imagination.

In chapter 3 and 4, We learnt justification by Faith alone; God makes us righteous only by believing, Abraham was an example and David spoke of the blessedness of a man whose sin is not imputed to him ( put in his account), no sin in his report card though he had sinned.

In Chapter 5, we saw the benefit of our redemptions, the security and assurance of our justification- peace with God.

In Chapter 6, we are learning of the effects of our redemption, which is holiness in our position with God , a state of godliness and holiness in our behavior, which is our main focus today.

Romans 6:1-10 is a statement of fact, it is called doctrine, things God Himself has accomplished and have clearly stated to be true.

As Christians, we are one with Christ. All who put their faith in Christ is one with Him. Like egg white and egg yoke, we are one with Christ. Always remember this -

1. When Christ died, we died too

2. When Christ was buried, we were buried too

3. When He rose from the dead, we rose to new life as well.

We have fulfilled the penalty of sin (death - Romans 6:23) we cannot pay again.

All who are in Adam will die and die again(second death), the soul that sin shall die, Ezekiel 18:20, but all who are in Christ have risen to a new life - Christ life, never to die again.

Galatians 2:20-21

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

We have a new life! We are no more who We used to be.

The first thing is to know this truth, you can’t believe what you don’t know; people are destroyed for lack of knowledge not lack of fasting, dedication, submission etc, no! Lack of knowledge destroy people. Hosea 4:6

We know first before we can obey, knowledge is essential.

Secondly, we must believe! The text verse 11 says to Reckon yourself, count yourself, consider yourself dead…

this is the hard part, I know that in Christ I died to sin and have risen to a new life but it’s hard to believe this because I didn’t die physically with Christ, I wasn’t born when he was hung on the cross and he died, I wasn’t there literally. I have no physical experience of this death and resurrection; yes, Baptism is a symbol but it’s hard to believe.

Why is it hard to believe? Here are the reason :

1. We are looking for experience but this is divine act, a spiritual act of God, which is recieved only by faith.

Think of your birth, you didn’t see your eyes or nose form, God hid you in your mother’s womb till you were complete then you came out. We still can’t see our internal organs ( kidney, live, intestine etc) by looking at our body.

Also, God’s redemptive work in use was not made physical, he accomplished it by Himself and we recieve it by faith.

2. The second reason we doubt our assurance of perfect justification- dead to sin is because Satan as the accuser doesn’t want us free from guilt, he wants you to fear judgement and flee from God.

Have you seen the movie “Lion King” ? Scar convinced Simba to run away and he did.

but for us, we know our sin penalty are all paid, armed with this truth, we run to God not from Him.

Our third reason for doubt is Sin, sin is still waging war in our bodies and we lose that battle every now and then, so we wonder and question, if we actually dead to sin why are we falling over and again.

We must believe because God said it’s true. God gives us faith as a gift, so we can believe and be blessed. It was hard for Abraham to believe he will have a child considering his physical condition, Sarah laughed but God’s word always prove true.

However, by believing, we become confident in temptation, sin and death.

In temptation, we know we can overcome because sin has been defeated, in sin, we are confident, knowing it will not snatch us from Christ. In the face of death, we are confident because we are sure of eternal life.

This is the victory over sin, it starts with faith - believing

Now, Verse 12 -14 says “ therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey its evil desire. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Just as satan was vanquished from heaven Rev 12:7-12 and is reigning amongst sons of disobedience Ephesians 2:2, Sin has been vanquished from our inner man, who is made perfect in Christ but sin is still a force, seeking to reign in our body, don’t let it! This is a command for us.

Don’t let sin reign in your body, don’t allow your members to be used as instruments, weapons of unrighteousness- sin.

Sin can’t reign over our soul, but it wants to reign and rule over our bodies, we can say no! It is no longer our master, we can’t take orders from it, we can say no! We sin with our bodies, which are corrupt, which are subject to death by yielding our members - tongues for gossip, slander, hands for stealing, killing, mind to envy, hatred etc, we can say no! to the use of our members as instruments of wickedness. If a Killer is on the street, don’t loan him your dagger ( knife), satan is roaming around, don’t loan him your mind to use , plan evil or your body to use for evil

Instead, Let’s give our bodies as instrument of righteousness, let God use our members for His glory.

We can choose obedience or disobedience but God empowers us continually to choose obedience, though we fail every now and then, our desire obedience deep within us. Disobedience grieves our soul.

Finally, shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means.

We are not under the guilt and condemnation of the law or the curse associated with it.

We have a love for holiness and a hatred for sin.

The love of Christ by grace is imprinted in our hearts, we are under obligations to it. A neglect or transgression of this, is visited with stripes - chastisement, but God’s eternal kindness is never removed from us because we are forever in Christ.

Reference :

1. William R. Newell Commentary & John Gill Exposition on Romans 6

2. Freedom from Sin by John MacArthur.