Bobservations Column
Titled - "Moving Day"
Written by: Pastor Bob Lawrenz
Growing up, my folks put our house up for sale. My father had finished building our house the same year I was born. The Village was looking for a new Village Clerk, and to qualify for the position, Dad would need to reside in the village. Church and school would be the same, and my friends would be just outside the village. The house did not sell, so we did not move.
Ten years later, another FOR SALE sign went up. The house sold, and a new house was being built. Still just across town, but schools were new, and my old friends were further away. Everything changed on moving day.
This is the time of year when we celebrate changes in the times of The Word of God. He was about to embark on an enormous change. From a Heavenly abode with the Father with no constraints of time, the Word would be born of a virgin into the physical world that He created (Colossians 1:12-16).
He was to enter His world, grow up as a human child, with a human family, under the authority of human parents, and the Father. His new surroundings and life were at the will of His Heavenly Father, and ours. His experiences would be choreographed by the Father, so that nothing would be left undone. The life of Jesus would be exactly as the Father had the Holy Spirit inform the prophets, so that they would write about it and inform the human race of their coming Redeemer (Genesis 3:15).
Today’s message is about dying-to-self, to perform the will of the Father, for the fulfillment of the Father’s Word.
From John 1:1,2 and verse 14,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…"
Bobservations' Column: Audio Version
Sunday Morning Message:
Romans 6:1-13 - "Moving Day"
Summary/Additional Commentary & Definitions:
Justification and sanctification are two different realities, but they must never be separated and isolated one from the other. If they become totally separated, the logical end is license. If they become merged together, a “works” oriented salvation results.
Paul is moving from freedom from the penalty of sin, (1:18-5:21) to freedom from the power of sin (6:1ff). He has explained “the righteous by faith” in 1:18-5:21, now he is moving on to explain “shall live” and fill out the meaning of the Habakkuk quotation in 1:17—the theme verse of the entire letter. If the cross was sufficient to deliver from the penalty of sin, here it is sufficient to deliver from the power of sin.
As we beging chapter 6 this week, the apostle Paul asks believers a rhetorical question, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (KJV). This question reflects a common criticism of Paul’s teaching, both in his time and ours. Critics argue that preaching about boundless grace could inadvertently provide a license to sin.
Paul argues, however, that those who have died to sin cannot continue in it: “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2, ESV). This does not mean that believers are sinless. Rather, it means that sin is no longer our master: “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. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” (verses 17–18, KJV).
Freedom from the power of sin is not an end but a means to righteous living. For this reason, Paul writes, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. "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. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:12–14). The proper response to God’s grace is to commit ourselves to righteousness rather than sin.
Romans 6 is emphatically against the idea that grace is a license to sin. Instead of continuing to sin, we ought to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25).
Paul argues that, in spite of our past, all whom God has justified will experience personal holiness (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11a; 1 Timothy 1:12, 13).
Sunday Morning Audio Message:
Key Words and Definitions with Reference:
Shall We Continue In Sin (6:1) - Because of his past Pharisaic experience, Paul was able to anticipate the major objections of his critics. He had already alluded to this criticism, that by preaching a justification based solely on the free grace of God, he was encouraging people to sin (cf. 3:5, 6, 8).
Certainly not! (6:2) - "God forbid!" This expression, in the strongest sense, repudiates a statement, and it contains a sense of outrage that anyone would ever think the statement was true.
We . . . Died to Sin (6:2) - Not a reference to the believer's ongoing daily struggle with sin, but to a one-time event completed in the past. Because we are "in Christ" (6:11; 8:1), and He "died in our place" (5:6-8), we are counted dead with Him. this is the fundamental premise of chapter 6, and Paul spends the remainder of the chapter explaining and supporting it.
Baptized Into Christ Jesus (6:3) - This does not refer to water baptism. Paul is actually using the word baptized in a metaphorical sense, as we might in saying someone was immersed in his work, or underwent his baptism of fire when experiencing some trouble. All Christians have, by placing saving faith in Him, been spiritually immersed into the person of Christ, that is, united and identified with Him (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:17; 10:2; Galatians 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 John 1:3). Certainly, water baptism pictures this reality, which is the purpose - to show the transformation of the justified.
Into His Death (6:3) - This means that immersion or identification is specifically with Christ's death and Resurrection, as the apostle will explain (6:4-7).
Buried With Him (6:4) - Since we are united by faith with Jesus, as baptism symbolizes, His death and burial become ours.
Newness Of Life (6:4) -This is true if, in Christ, we died and were buried with Him, we have also been united with Him in His resurrection. There is a new quality and character to our lives, a new principle of life. This speaks of the believer's regeneration (cf. Ezekiel 36:26; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 4:24). Whereas sin describes the old life, righteousness describes the new life.
Our Old Man (6:6) - A believer's unregenerate self. The Greek word for "old" does not refer to something old in years but to something that is worn out and useless. Our old self died with Christ, and the life we now live is a new divinely-given life that is the life of Christ Himself (cf. Galatians 2:20). We have been removed from the unregenerate self's presence and control, so we should not follow the remaining memories of its old sinful ways as if we were still under its evil influence.
Body Of Sin (6:6) - Essentially synonymous with "our old man." Paul uses the terms body and flesh to refer to sinful propensities that are intertwined with physical weaknesses and pleasures (8:10, 11, 13 23). Although the old self is dead, sin retains a foothold in our temporal flesh or our unredeemed humanness, with its corrupted desires (7:14-24). The believer does not have two competing natures, the old and the new; rather one new nature is still incarcerated in unredeemed flesh. But the term flesh is not equivalent to the physical body, which can be an instrument of holiness (v. 19; 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:20).
Done Away (6:6) - Rendered powerless or inoperative.
Has Died (6:7) - Through his union with Christ.
Freed From Sin (6:7) - No longer under its domination and control
Freed From Sin (6:7) - No longer under its domination and control
We shall Also Live With Him (6:8) - The context suggests that Paul means not only that believers will live in the presence of christ for eternity, but also that all who have died with Christ, which is true of all believers, will live a life here that is fully consistent with His holiness.
Dominion (6:9) - Mastery, control, or domination.
He Died To Sin (6:10) - Christ died to sin in two senses: (1) in regard to sin's penalty, He met its legal demands upon the sinner; and (2) in regard to sin's power, forever breaking its power over those who belong to Him; and His death will never need repeating (Hebrews 7:26, 27; 9:12, 28; 10:10; cf. 1 Peter 3:18). Paul's point is that believers have died to sin in the same way.
He Lives To God (6:10) - He lives for God's glory.
Likewise (6:11) - This implies the importance of Paul's readers knowing what he just explained. Without that foundation, what he is about to teach will not make sense. Scripture always identifies knowledge as a foundation for one's practice (cf. Colossians 3:10).
Reckon (6:11) - While it simply means to count or number something, it was often used metaphorically to refer to having an absolute, unreserved confidence in what one's mind knows to be true - the kind of heartfelt confidence that affects a person's actions and decisions. Paul is not referring to mind games in which we trick ourselves into thinking a certain way. Rather, he is urging us to embrace by faith what God has revealed to be true.
In Christ (6:11) - Paul'[s favorite expression of our union with Christ. This is its first occurrence in Romans (cf. Ephesians 1:3-14).
Mortal body (6:12) - The only remaining repository which sin finds the believer vulnerable. The brain and its thinking process are part of the body and thus tempt our souls with its sinful lusts (cf. 8:22, 23; 1 Corinthians 15:53; 1 Peter 2:9-11).
Present (6:13) - Referring to a decision of the will. Before sin can have power over a believer, it must first pass through his will (cf. Philippians 2:12, 13).
Your Members (6:13) - The parts of the physical body, the headquarters from which sin operates in the believer (7:18, 22-25; cf. 12:1; 1 Corinthians 9:27).
Instruments of Unrighteousness (6:13) - Tools for accomplishing that which violates God's holy will and law.
