1 Introduction

Problem with salvation

• "born again"
• loosed from the bondage of sin
• yet sin again
• sanctioned to sin?

Romans 5–8

• lifelong process of growth in grace
• roots of sin
• ravages of sin
• restoration from sin

Romans 6:15–7:6

• justification leads to sanctification
• first image of slavery (6:16–23)
• second image of marriage (7:1–6)

Romans 6:12–14

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

Explanation

• transition verses
• raised to newness of life in Christ
• must not let sin reign in our bodies
• present our bodies as instruments of righteousness
• obliged to live in the light of our union with Christ

2 The Stupidity of Living in Sin

Romans 6:15–20

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

Romans 6:21–23

21 So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 23 For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Domain change

• justification by faith
  • removes from the dominion of sin
  • put under the dominion of grace
• "under"
  • authority and power
• sin no longer "reigns" in the believer (6:12)
• sin no longer master (6:14)
• for the first time we are able NOT to live sinfully
• for the first time we are able to live righteously

3 The Antagonist

Paul's rhetorical question

• "What then?"
• anticipates false conclusion of 14b
• Are we free of all moral restraint?
• not condoning lawlessness in the name of grace

4 The Answer

Strong refutation

• "May it never be!"
• the idea of God's grace is license to sin
  • self-contradictory
  • absurd logically, morally, spiritually
• grace frees us from sin
• cannot justify continuing in sin
• grace also transforms the saved life
• evidence of salvation

5 The Axiom

Paul's question

• "Do you not know?"
• unsophisticatedly sin is stupid
• world thinks otherwise

Sin is enslaving

• like a drug
• we cannot master sin, though it can master us
• we become slaves of the one whom we choose to obey (16)
• all of us are slaves
  • sin
  • righteousness

Salvation is liberating

• breaks the believer's enslavement to sin
• no longer slaves to sin (17)

Obedience is called for

• "present yourselves"
  • willing choice of obedience
  • voluntary slaves are bound to total obedience
• our lifestyle reflects who our true master is

No neutral ground

• people resist Christ, unwilling to give up their "freedom"
• actually no freedoms to lose
• no obligation but reality
• not that we ought to be slaves
• rather that we are made slaves

Discipleship today

• easy
• commitment minimized
• the gospel watered down
• speaks of God serving people
• no cost in discipleship

Turning back to sin is stupid

• returning back to slavery
• 2 Peter 2:22; Proverbs 26:11
• a dog that returns to its own vomit
• a pig wallowing in the mire

Turning back to sin
is turning away from grace

• rejects God's grace
• incites God's righteous wrath
• falling from grace (Gal 5:4)

6 The Argument

Their position (17–18)

• "Thanks be to God"
• saved solely by the grace and power of God
• once slaves to sin but no more
• "Were" in imperfect tense, on ongoing reality

Change in heart

• "obedient from the heart"
• God works in the innermost being
• obedience is vital
  • 1 Pet 1:2, 22–23

Disclaimer on obedience

• does not produce or maintain salvation
• only a characteristic of those saved

Committed to truth

• "that form of teaching to which they were committed"
• "form" = mould where molten metal was poured
• "committed" = delivered
• JB Philips on Rom 12:1, "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mould"

Study of the Word

• we cannot fully comprehend all of God's truth
• desire to know and obey is a mark
• early church example (Acts 2:42)
• true believers (Jn 8:31; 14:21, 23, 24; 15:10)
• 2 Tim 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1

Their practice (19)

• "flesh" = humanness or mortality
• influenced by sin
• present their bodies as a living and holy sacrifice
• outer person still subject to defilement of sin

Living corresponding to new nature

• "impurity and lawlessness" = outward and inward sin
• like cancer, sin reproduces itself until whole body is destroyed
• still possible to sin
• no longer bound to sin
• free not to sin
• life of sin leads to further sin
• so also the life of righteousness
  leads to further righteousness
• the ultimate end is
  complete sanctification

Their promise (20–22)

• slaves to sin have no connection to righteousness
• it makes no demands on them
• they are controlled by sin
• all other good works are dung (Phil 3:8)
• sense of shame over the past
• benefit now is sanctification
• outcome is eternal life
• capable of sinning,
  but no longer enslaved to sin

7 The Absolute (23)

The first absolute

• the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)
• spiritual death is earned

The second absolute

• "free gift…eternal life"
• God's grace is freely given
• Eph 2:8–9
• Jesus Christ is the only way
• Acts 4:12
• John 10:7–9
• John 14:6

8 Conclusion

8.1 Cost of discipleship

• Parable of the Pearl and treasure in the field
• Mat 13:44–46
• Not required
  • insurance against hell
  • high moral standard
  • outward reformation
• those who are called
  • willing to be transformed inwardly
  • desire of an entirely new nature
  • recreated in the likeness of God
  • those willing to die and thus raised by him
  • slaves of righteousness