September 10, 2017
Evening Service

Paul asked and began to answer the question; “If God is full of grace and forgiveness why don’t we just keep sinning so God’s grace can abound.”  The quick answer is certainly not!  He then explained further that we had all died to sin and were now alive to God.  It was through our baptism that this occurred as it symbolizes our death, burial and resurrection.  We arose to “walk in the newness of life.” In that new life we are no longer under the control or in bondage to sin.  Jesus has set us free.  He then encouraged us to not let sin to “reign in your mortal body.”  We need to recognize it as sin, repent of it and remove it from our lives.  We ended with verse 13 where Paul said this:

Romans 6:13 Do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God, as one alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

·         “The newness of life” that we now live should be one that “yields” ourselves to be a tool in the hand of God to be used to help build His kingdom.  He now returns to the idea that we are saved under grace, not the law.

 

Romans 6:14-16 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under Law, but under grace.  (15)  What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law, but under grace? Certainly not!  (16)  Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to him whom you obey; whether it is of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness.

·         Paul here asks again the question he began this chapter with.  Since we are under God’s grace and not the rules of the law, can’t we just continue to sin?  It is the same question with the same answer, an emphatic no!  He now begins to explain it from a different angle. We choose to either obey sin leading to death or obey God leading to righteousness.  He says we are slaves to whoever we yield ourselves to.

·         In Paul’s day slavery was widely used and understood.  You could “sell” yourself into slavery for a time period to repay a debt that you could not pay.  You literally belonged to your master 24/7.  The master had absolute and total control of every aspect of your life.  The picture Paul is painting shows that while we were in our sins, sin was our master.  It had exclusive and total control of our lives.  But now, with God as our Master He has exclusive possession of us.  Now that we serve Him there is no time allowed or any given to sin at all.  We are all in for God.

·         William Barclay put it like this:  “Once you gave yourselves to sin as it slave; when you did righteousness has no claim on you. But now you have given yourselves to God as the slave of righteousness; and so sin has no claim over you.”

 

 

 

 

 

Romans 6:17-19  But thanks be to our God that you were the slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.  (18)  Then being made free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness.  (19)  I speak in the manner of men because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you have yielded your members as slaves to uncleanness, and to lawless act unto lawless act, even so now yield your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness.

·         Paul apologizes for using human terms, because he doesn’t want the Christian life to be compared necessarily to slavery, but that makes it easier to understand that way.  A true Christ follower has given total control of his heart (obeyed from the heart) to God holding back nothing.  No one who has surrendered their heart can ever think of using grace as an excuse for sin.  He will yield his own will to the will of God and seek to live a life that pleases his Master.

 

Romans 6:20-22 For when you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.  (21)  What fruit did you have then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.  (22)  But now, being made free from sin, and having become slaves to God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life.

·         Our choice of whom we serve has its consequences or has its rewards.  A life given to our own lusts following sin will end in death.  We are alive to sin, but dead to God with an eternal future that will end with the end the resuscitation our life (end or cease to exist) in the lake of fire. The path we chose led to death. 

·         A life given to following Jesus will be one where we seek to avoid sin and seek the fruits of holiness.  We are alive to God, but dead to sin with a promise of heaven.  The choice we made led to an eternal home that is beyond our imagination.

·         That was an easy choice for me to make at the age of 12 years old and it seems even easier now.  Why can’t everyone see the simplicity of it?  Because they are slaves to sin and are too busy serving their master to notice. 

·         Paul summarizes this chapter in a very powerful verse.

 

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

·         In our baptism class, I always tie this into Romans 3:23.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,

·         “All” have sinned (that includes us) and fall short of the requirements needed to “earn” heaven as an ultimate reward.  The wages (deserved result) of this action is death.  I work at Lehigh to earn my wages; I deserve that paycheck.  Paul says I have sinned; I deserve to die; end of story?  Thankfully not, Paul places a huge three letter word; BUT:

·         “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  A gift is something given to us that we did not “earn” nor attempt to pay it back.  How foolish would it be to offer to pay someone for the gift they have freely and willingly given you?  You just don’t do that it negates that it was a gift in the first place.  The attitude that a gift should bring to us is one of gratitude.  Salvation is offered through grace and we only have to thankfully accept it, not try to pay for it.

 

 

Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,  (9)  not of works, lest anyone should boast.

·         It then is not with a sense of duty or obligation that we become Christ followers, but one of love and gratitude for doing something for us that we could not do on our own.  We return His love with ours.

 

1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.

 

Romans 5:8 But God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

 

John 3:16-17  For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  (17)  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

 

Father, thank you for breaking the bondage of our sins hold on us by offering us the free gift of salvation which came at a tremendous cost.  Allow us to serve you with a pure, sincere and grateful heart.