We've frequently considered the doctrine of sanctification
here in GraceLife. We have at various times talked about
mortifying sin, putting to death sinful passions, saying no to
sinful desires, putting off the old man, putting on the new
man, keeping a pure mind, feeding your appetite for
righteousness, and living a resurrected life in the power of
the Holy Spirit. All of those things go together. They are all
different aspects of the same thing. And they are all summed
up beautifully in Romans 6, where sanctification is the
theme.
And this morning I want to look at four verses at the heart
of that chapterCRomans 6:11-14. Here is a summary
statement of everything Scripture teaches about how
Christians become holy. Paul has just mentioned the
resurrection of Christ in verses 9-10. Now he says (verses
11-14) "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your
members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present
yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death
to life, and your members to God as instruments for
Romans 6:11-14 2
righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since
you are not under law but under grace."
Now let's look at the context. The whole book of Romans
is an extended, systematic presentation of gospel truth. The
outline of Romans makes a perfect outline of the doctrine of
salvation.
So let's quickly trace how Paul got to this point in
Romans 6.
The gospel presentation starts immediately after 15 verses
of greeting in Romans 1. The greeting culminates in verse
15, where Paul says, "I am eager to preach the gospel to you
also who are in Rome." He is so eager to proclaim the gospel
to Rome that he decides to devote this whole epistle to
itCand everything from that point on is a systematic
exposition of the gospel. It starts with that famous statement
in verse 16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Notice
how Paul says very clearly there that the result of the gospel,
faithfully proclaimed, is the salvation of individual souls.
You hear a lot of people today claiming the gospel message
really isn't about individual salvation at allCit's about the
kingdom of God; or it's about justice here on earth, or
whatever. Sometimes you'll hear people suggest that if we
really understood the gospel we would be less concerned
about who is going to heaven and who is going to hell and
Live Like You Were Dead 3
more concerned about God's will in the here and now.
Whenever you hear anyone talking that way, watch out. It's
fine to be concerned with God's will being done here on
earth; that's even part of the Lord's prayer. But Colossians
3:2 says, "Set your minds on things that are above, not on
things that are on earth." And anyone who thinks a heavenly
mind-set is somehow contradictory to God's will on earth
probably doesn't understand the first thing about the gospel.
And unfortunately, the church is full of people like that
today. Steer clear of them.
Now follow this: Paul first mentions the gospel in
Romans 1:15-16. Then he immediately launches into his
exposition of it in verse 17. Verse 16 says the effect of the
gospel is salvation. Verse 17 says the subject matter of the
gospel is "the righteousness of God."
But then he begins with a long discourse on the
UNrighteousness of all humanity. The first three chapters are
all about sin and guilt, and Paul meticulously demonstrates
that all the world is guilty of sin. Not one person escapes
God's guilty verdict. Chapter 3, verse 10: "None is righteous,
no, not one." Verse 23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God."
Then he introduces the doctrine of justification by faith,
which is the very heart and soul of Paul's soteriology. The
doctrine of justification by faith is also the central focus of
Romans 6:11-14 4
the entire epistle to the Romans. The section on justification
starts in chapter 3, verse 21 and continues through the end of
chapter 5. To sum up that section: Paul is teaching that
sinners can have a righteous standing and full acceptance
before God because of a righteousness that is imputed to
them, or reckoned to their account. No one earns favor with
God by their own works, he says, but (in the words of
Romans 3:24) we "are justified by his grace as a gift, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." He also says in chapter
4, verse 6 that "God imputes righteousness [to sinners] apart
from [their] works." In other words our standing before God is
a free gift of divine grace, based on a perfect righteousness
that exists outside of us, which is imputed to us. And we lay
hold of it by faith alone. That is the very lesson of chapter 4.
And then chapter 5 rehearses the benefits of our justification.
Verses 1-2 of chapter 5 say, "Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by
faith into this grace in which we stand." We have peace with
God, the assurance of eternal blessing (that's what Paul
means when he speaks of "hope" in verses 4-5Cit's a firm
assurance). We also have (verses 2-3) an unassailable reason
for joy and rejoicing, and an abundance of grace. Chapter 5
unpacks all of that.
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So that brings us to chapter 6, where Paul begins to
explore the practical ramifications of this doctrine of
justification. He begins with a question: "What shall we say
then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" If we
obtain a right standing with God on the basis of Christ's
work and not because of what we doCif salvation is a free
giftCdoes this mean we can continue in sin? Does the
doctrine of justification by faith give us license to sin? And
he immediately answers that question in clear and
unambiguous terms. Verse 2: "By no means! How can we who
died to sin still live in it?"
Now: the remainder of chapters 6-7 is an explanation of
what that one statement means. In what sense are we "dead to
sin"? What does it mean to be "dead to sin"? And if we are
truly "dead to sin," why is it such a struggle for us to
overcome sin in our daily lives?
That issue introduces a significant change in subject for
the apostle Paul. He moves from the doctrine of justification
to the doctrine of sanctification. The focus shifts temporarily,
in chapters 6-7, from the issue of our standing before God to
the question of our daily walk. And it is absolutely vital to
keep these two doctrines of justification and sanctification
distinct. Although they go hand in hand in a way that makes
them practically inseparable, they are not the same thing.
Romans 6:11-14 6
They can never be completely divorced from one another,
but they must also never be confused.
Now, I hope you haven't tuned me out. If it sounds like
I'm about to go into a theoretical discussion of some
doctrinal fine point here, some of you are going to be
tempted to think, This is not for me. I'm not a theologian.
Give me the practical stuff, and leave the doctrinal details to
the seminary students. But this is not a fine point. It's not
theological hair-splitting. And it's not just academic. Right
here at this very point is where New Testament doctrine
becomes most practical. In fact, I'd say that if you understand
nothing else about the theology of the gospel, you need to
understand what justification is and what sanctification is,
and how the two are different, because this has huge
ramifications for how you live as a Christian.
In fact, if you want to see how important and how
practical this doctrine is, look at the confusion and
corruption that exists in the Roman Catholic ChurchCfrom
the sale of indulgences and other abuses that led to the
Protestant Reformation, to the widespread sexual misconduct
among Roman Catholic priests today. I'm not exaggerating
when I say that all of it is ultimately rooted in Roman
Catholicism's failure to understand the proper biblical
distinction between justification and sanctification.
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The most fundamental error of Roman Catholic doctrine
is this very thing: they mingle justification and sanctification.
They combine and confuse what needs to be kept distinct,
and from that one mistake all their other errors flow. Let me
try to explain what I mean:
Justification is what occurs at the moment you first
believe. Your sins are forgiven, and your record is wiped
clean of all guiltCpast, present, and future. Christ purchased
that forgiveness by taking the full weight of sin's guilt on
Himself and paying the penalty for it in full. In the words of
2 Corinthians 5:21, God the Father "made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin." Christ "bore our sins in his own body on the
tree," According to 1 Peter 2:24. Isaiah 53:5: "he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and
with his stripes we are healed." That is what the cross was all
about. Christ paid in full the guilt of all the sins of all the
people who would ever believe.
But there's something more in justification than just
forgiveness. Christ did not merely take our sins and erase our
guilt; He also provided for us a perfect righteousness. There's
an exchange here. He took the guilt of our sins; we get credit
for His righteousness. "He hath made him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him." His righteousness is imputed to us, and that becomes
Romans 6:11-14 8
the basis of our standing before God. God accepts us as if we
were perfectly righteous, because He has clothed us in the
perfect righteousness of Christ. So now we stand before God
"not having [our] own righteousness, which is from the law, but
that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is
from God by faith"Cas Paul says in Philippians 3:9.
Justification occurs in an instant, and it is complete for all
eternity. It is not a process. It is a legal decree from the
divine Judge, who declares us once and for all not guilty, but
fully and perfectly righteousness, solely on the basis of what
Christ has done for usCnot because of anything we do to
earn it. That is what Scripture means when it says we are
saved by grace through faith and not by works of
righteousness which we have done.
The proof that justification is a one-time event and not a
process is that Paul always speaks of it as an accomplished
fact and a past-tense reality in the life of every believer.
Romans 5:1: "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Romans 8:1: "There is therefore now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus." This is Paul's whole point in
Romans and Galatians: Justification is free and final on the
basis of Christ's work alone. For those who trust Christ, our
standing before God is a settled issue. Romans 5:2: "we have
also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,
Live Like You Were Dead 9
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Again, this is not
just a vague, wishful hope, but an absolute certainty.)
Now think with me: If that were not trueCif our
justification were an incomplete process that is not going to
be settled until the final judgment, Paul would have no
reason whatsoever to raise the question he deals with at the
beginning of Romans 6. "What shall we say then? Are we to
continue in sin that grace may abound?"? If our justification
depended on our own righteousness, no one would ever ask
that question. But the whole point of Paul's teaching up to
this point has been to say that justification is free, and final,
and we are secure in Christ, because of what Christ has done;
not because of anything we do. And Paul will have even
more to say about our eternal security when he gets to
chapter 8.
But here he interrupts the discussion of justification to
deal with the obvious question. If our standing before God is
so secure, why not just continue in sin? And that question
brings up the issue of sanctification.
Sanctification is the ongoing work of God in us whereby
he conforms us to the image of His Son. Unlike justification,
sanctification is a process.
Having given us a secure standing before God in
ChristChaving imputed Christ's righteousness to our
Romans 6:11-14 10
accountCGod is now bringing us into practical conformity
with that righteousness.
In other words, when God justifies us, He imputes
righteousness to us; when He sanctifies us, He imparts
righteousness to us. Both things happen in the life of every
believer, but our standing before God is established by
justification, not by sanctification.
The reason for this is obvious. In order to have a righteous
standing before God, we need a perfect righteousness,
according to Matthew 5:20. But the righteousness of
sanctification is imperfect and incompleteCand it will remain
imperfect and incomplete until we are glorified. So we need
a better righteousness than any righteousness we could ever
attain on our own, and Christ supplies that for us.
Justification forever settles our eternal standing before
God.
As I said, virtually all the errors of Roman Catholic
doctrine stem from their confusion on this point. They
mingle justification and sanctification. According to Catholic
teaching, until we are truly and fully perfected by
sanctification, our justification is not complete. In other
words, they teach that justification is a process dependent on
sanctification. That is why they sell indulgences; because
their theology doesn't permit Christians to enjoy the full and
free forgiveness of justification.
Live Like You Were Dead 11
That is also why they invented the doctrine of
purgatoryCto explain how people who die in a state of
imperfection can gain entrance to heaven. Purgatory is the
place they invented to explain how the sinner's own practical
righteousnessCthe righteousness of sanctificationCcan be
perfected enough to please God. It's an unnecessary doctrine,
if you understand that we are justified solely on the basis of
Christ's already-perfect righteousness.
The Catholic confusion on justification also explains why
authentic holinessCpersonal sanctificationCis so elusive,
even among their clergy. Because true holiness is the fruit of
a right standing with God. Sanctification is a fruit of
justifying faith. And therefore you cannot even begin to
understand or participate in authentic sanctification unless
you have laid hold of justification by faith. If you put the cart
before the horse, you'll get nowhere. And if you think
justification is a reward for sanctification rather than a fruit
of it, you'll get nowhere spiritually.
Here in Romans 6, Paul is dealing with those very issues.
He is explaining why people who are already justified and
fully accepted by God in spite of their sin cannot continue to
sin in their daily walk. He is showing us the relationship
between justification and sanctification.
Now remember, this is the issue Paul raises at the
beginning of chapter 6: If we are justified by faith and fully
Romans 6:11-14 12
accepted by God for the sake of what Christ has already done
on our behalf, what would keep us from continuing in sin?
Paul has one answer to that question, and everything else
in Romans 6 flows from it. And here's the answer he gives to
that question: We cannot continue in sin, because those who
are justified are spiritually united with Christ.
After all, this is the whole point of justification: Christ's
life counts for our life. His righteousness counts as our
righteousness. His death counts as our death. And we even
participate in His resurrection. We are spiritually united with
Him in the most intimate and inseparable way, so it is fitting
to say, as Paul does in Ephesians 5:30: "we are members of
his body." The closest earthly comparison is marriage, where
two become one flesh. We are united with Christ in a
spiritual union that is even more intimate than that.
This idea of union with Christ is a constant theme in
Paul's theology. His favorite way of describing believers is
by saying they are "in Christ." Second Corinthians 5:17:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." He
repeatedly addresses Christians as those who are "in Christ."
In Romans 16:7, he sends greetings to: "Andronicus and
Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known
to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me." And the
verse I quoted earlier, Romans 8:1, ties our union with Christ
Live Like You Were Dead 13
to the doctrine of justification: "There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Now, follow his line of thought here. If we are in union
with Christ, so that His righteousness counts as our
righteousness and He life counts as our lifeCthen His death
and resurrection count as ours also. That's the argument he
makes in the verses that lead up to our passage, starting in
verse 2:
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in
newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his,
we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like
his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in
order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so
that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will
also live with him.
Romans 6:11-14 14
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will
never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but
the life he lives he lives to God.
Now, we can't really go verse by verse through that whole
passage, but I hope the sense of it is clear to you. The gist of
it is this: if we're united with Christ, then in a spiritual sense,
we are already dead and resurrected. And it doesn't make
sense to continue sinning if you are dead to sin and raised to
walk in newness of life. Sin is a contradiction in the
Christian's experience. It is utterly out of place and
inconsistent with who we are.
There's been a lot of discussion about whether Paul is
referring to water baptism in verse 3. One thing is clear: he is
not suggesting that the ritual of water baptism in and of itself
unites us with Christ. According to Ephesians 3:17, Christ
dwells in our hearts "by faith." But water baptism symbolizes
and signifies that union, and especially our union with Him
in His death, burial, and resurrection, which is graphically
pictured by immersion.
And Paul's argument is this: Since we are spiritually
participants in Christ's death and resurrection, we have in
effect died to sin. Verse 6: "our old self [the person I was
before salvation] was crucified with him in order that the body
of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer
Live Like You Were Dead 15
be enslaved to sin." So I'm a different person than I was
before I was saved, and I should live like it. Again,
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old
has passed away; behold, the new has come."
And here in Romans 6, Paul uses a series of verbs (some
stated and some implied) that outline the steps of our
sanctification: Know, reckon, resist, yield, obey, and serve.
There's a progression there. Follow it:
Know. There's some doctrinal truth underlying our
sanctification that we need to lay hold of with the intellect.
Verse 6: "We know that our old self was crucified with him in
order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that
we would no longer be enslaved to sin."
Reckon. We have a moral responsibility to embrace the
truth and take it into account in all our thinking. Verse 11:
"So you also must [reckon] yourselves dead to sin and alive to
God in Christ Jesus."
Resist. We also have a duty to act on the spiritual truth we
know, by resisting the power of sin in our everyday lives.
Verses 12-13: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to
sin as instruments for unrighteousness."
Yield. There's also a duty to surrender all our faculties to
God. Verse 13: "but [yield] yourselves to God as those who
Romans 6:11-14 16
have been brought from death to life, and your members to God
as instruments for righteousness."
Obey. True submission involves an active, deliberate
obedience. Verse 16: "Do you not know that if you present
yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the
one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of
obedience, which leads to righteousness?"
And then serve. The bottom line in sanctification is that
we exchange the slavery of sin for a different kind of slavery.
It's not a question of whether we are slaves, but whose slaves
we are. Verse 19: "just as you once presented your members
as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more
lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to
righteousness leading to sanctification."
And that's the whole matter in a nutshell. Know, reckon,
resist, yield, obey, and serve. Sanctification is the process of
perfecting a new kind of slavery. If we want real
freedomCfreedom from sinCwe must become slaves of
righteousness. The yoke is easy and the burden is light, but
it's still a yoke. The truest kind of freedom is itself a kind of
slavery.
That's the essence of Romans 6, and it is summed up
perfectly in our passage. This passage is an exhortation to
exchange one kind of slavery for another. In the same way
we once served sin, we must now serve righteousness. In the
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same way we once yielded our bodies to our own lusts, we
must now yield ourselves to God, as those who are alive
from the dead.
So let's look closely now at these four versesCverses
11-14. Notice that verse 11 lays a doctrinal foundation,
verses 12-13 practically apply that doctrine, and then verse
14 suggests a motive for taking all of this very seriously.
So we'll let that be our outline. First, we'll look at the
doctrinal foundationCverse 11. Then verses 12-13 are pure
practical application. And then we'll see in verse 14 the
spiritual motivation Paul gives for the command in verses
12-13. So that's our outline if you want to write it down: A
Doctrinal Foundation; A Practical Application; and A
Spiritual Motivation.
First, notice in verse 11:
Romans 6:11-14 18
THE DOCTRINAL FOUNDATION
Verse 11 sums up in one simple statement everything Paul
has said in verses 1-10 about our spiritual participation in
Christ's death and resurrection. This doctrine, he says, ought
to frame the way we view our relationship to sin and to God:
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Dead to sin;
alive unto God. That's the implication of our union with
Christ. That's why we cannot continue living the way we did
before our justification.
Now, I hinted at something earlier that I want to elaborate
on just a little bit here. The minute you speak of doctrine,
there are always some people who think you're dealing with
something that is inherently impractical, theoretical, abstract,
hypothetical, academicCirrelevant to life in the real world.
Here, I hope, you can see clearly why that is not a very
helpful perspective. It is doctrine that has brought Paul to
this point. For five and a half chapters he has been
systematically expounding profound doctrinal themes. And
all the doctrines he has dealt with now converge and
culminate in this truth that we are united with Christ in His
death and resurrection.
Here's a doctrine that has obvious and immediate practical
ramifications. There's a reason Paul took five and a half
chapters to get to this point. You don't just skip to practical
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matters. Objective doctrinal truth is not incidental; it is
foundational. If you remove the doctrinal foundations from
the Christian faith, as many have tried to do, you end up with
sheer moralismCan empty, worthless,
works-based,man-centered religion. One of the reasons I'm
so opposed to the popular trends in modern evangelicalism is
that most of those trends have undermined and sabotaged the
doctrinal foundations of the Christian faith.
Visit the typical evangelical megachurch today and you'll
hear practical messages with precious little doctrine.
Doctrine is considered too controversial, too confusing for
the unchurched. So they simply skip most of it completely
and cater to people's itching ears. The apostle Paul warned
Timothy that "the time will come when [people] will not endure
sound doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:3). We live in such a time, and
apparently there are plenty of church leaders who are
perfectly willing to give people whatever they want. The
problem with that, Paul said, is that when people are
deprived of sound teaching, they "turn away their ears from
the truth, and [are] turned unto fables" (v. 4).
Without a proper foundation of sound doctrine, all the
practical exhortation in the world is just pious moralism.
That's why Paul spent several chapters here laying the
doctrinal foundation of justification by faithCso that when he
gets to chapter 6 and begins to exhort his readers to yield
Romans 6:11-14 20
their members as instruments of righteousness unto God, no
one could possibly imagine that he is teaching that we can
save ourselves by reforming ourselves. Everything he has to
say here about obedience hinges on the truth of our union
with Christ and our spiritual participation in His death and
resurrection.
By the way, I also want to say that along with those who
aren't interested in doctrine because they think it's not
practical enoughCthere's an equal and opposite error. There
are other people who are obsessed with academic doctrine
and aren't interested in obedience. Doctrine is just an
intellectual hobby with them. They love to engage in
philosophical debates over controversial points of doctrine,
but their interest is academic only. They are hearers of the
Word but not doers. That's just as bad asCmaybe even worse
thanCignoring doctrine altogether.
Jesus said in John 13:17, "If you know these things, blessed
are you if you do them." And Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:2,
"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." Doctrine is always
to be applied. Truth is not something merely for our
intellectual consideration. There is always an application,
and we are commanded to "be doers of the word, and not
hearers only, deceiving [our]selves." (James 1:22).
Live Like You Were Dead 21
Here in Romans 6, doctrine and practice come together in
perfect harmony. Our union with Christ means we are "dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God." And as we are about to
see, the practical implications of this doctrine are enormous.
You cannot make progress in sanctification unless you know
this truth and reckon it to be true in your experience. Let it
frame your whole worldview, Paul says. Reckon it true.
"Consider yourselves dead to sin."
The Greek word translated "consider" in verse 11 is
logizomai, the same word the translators of the Authorized
Version translated as "impute" throughout Romans 4: God
imputes righteousness apart from works (4:6); "Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (4:8). And wherever
Paul speaks about the imputation of righteousness in Romans
4 and elsewhere, this is the word he uses. God reckons
believers to be righteous. He imputes righteousness to them.
He accounts them righteous. He doesn't count their sins
against them. It's all the same concept.
And here, Paul is saying that in a similar way, we should
consider ourselves dead to sin. Reckon it to be so. Suppose it
to be so. Operate on that assumption. That is the proper
perspective of our relationship to sin and to God: we are
"dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord."
Romans 6:11-14 22
Notice: "Dead indeed." It's not a fiction; it's a fact. It is a
spiritual reality. Consider it real. Reckon it to be a fact. It is a
fact. Think like that, and you'll live like that. That is the
whole key to sanctification and victory over sin.
Now, notice: he's not saying that sin is dead. Sin is very
much alive and still seeking to have dominion over us. Not
only is sin alive and trying to rule us, it is in our mortal
bodies (v. 12).
But, he says, we are dead to sin. We are beyond the reach
of its dominion. Colossians 3:3: "For ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God." That is a liberating truth. We were
once dead to God and hopelessly enslaved to sin. Now,
because of our spiritual union with Christ, we are dead to sin
and alive unto God. If you genuinely embrace that truth and
let it frame your perspective on everything, it will change the
way you live. Romans 6:7: "because anyone who has died has
been freed from sin."
That is the doctrinal foundation of our text for this
morning. Now let's move on to a second point. This isC
THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Verses 12-13 give us a practical application in three
simple admonitions. The first is verse 12: "Therefore do not
let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil
desires."
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Now, one thing leaps out clearly first of all: there's
nothing passive about how we should respond to sin. This
calls for an aggressive, active, assertive resistance against the
dominance of sin in our lives. This is something we have to
do. It is an imperative. An exhortation. A command to be
obeyed. It doesn't present sanctification the way so many
teachers today doCas a gift to be received passively, by faith,
through an act of surrender or a resignation from all effort.
Paul doesn't tell us to let go and let God. He doesn't suggest
that all we have to do is abandon our own efforts and allow
Christ to live His life in us.
On the contrary, this calls for effort, resistance, and active
opposition to the tyranny of sin.
There are many people today who claim that
sanctification is an instantaneous deliverance from the power
of sin's temptation. And there are many Christians who are
seeking that kind of experience. That's what the charismatic
movement is all about. It's what deeper-life theology is all
about. It's what every kind of perfectionist teaching claims.
All of them promise a quick and easy deliverance from
sinCusually by a single, passive, one-time act of faith. After
that, victory is supposed to be easy.
It would be nice if it were so simple to be rid of the
problem of sin, but that is not how the Bible portrays the
Christian warfare. Christians who think sanctification works
Romans 6:11-14 24
like that are usually frustrated and miserable, because what
they are seeking doesn't exist. So they grow discouraged, and
they question their own salvation. I have personally known
many who pursued the promise of once-and-for-all victory
over sin until they finally gave up in defeat or made
shipwreck of their faith.
But if that is what you are looking for, you are seeking
something the Bible doesn't promise. Sanctification is not
(like justification) a gift to be received by faith. Unlike
justification, sanctification is a process. It is a lifelong
process, whereby God gradually conforms us to the image of
His Son. Yes, it is a work of God in us, and it's not ultimately
the fruit of our independent efforts. But don't imagine that
your sanctification is a work God will accomplish without
your efforts. There is work we must do in the process of our
sanctification, and our part begins with a determined effort to
resist the power and dominion of sin. Don't let it reign, Paul
says.
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that
you obey its evil desires." What does he mean by "your mortal
body"? He seems to be talking about the physical body there.
That's the part of you that is mortal. Mortality and corruption
always go hand in hand.
But as I have said before, we're not to interpret language
like this to mean that the material part of us is inherently evil,
Live Like You Were Dead 25
or that our physical body is the seat of the evil in us and the
source of all our sin. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew
15:19-20, "Out of the heart [the immaterial part of
man]proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which
defile a man."
But the physical body is a fitting symbol of that
corruption, because the body itself is subject to death and
decay. And the body is also where our sin is so often
manifest. Most sinful lusts are bodily instincts which in and
of themselves are not evil. But sin turns them into inordinate
affections, and those lusts of the flesh get out of control and
try to dominate us. Don't yield to them, Paul says.
When we are finally liberated from this fallen flesh by
death or by the second coming of Christ, we will also at last
be free from the presence of sin. But as long as we are in the
body, sin will pose a problem for us. That's why Paul often
uses the mortal bodyCthe fleshCas a shorthand expression to
speak of the principle of sin that remains in us even after we
are redeemed. And it will remain in us until the corruptible
puts on incorruption and that which is mortal puts on
immortality.
So don't get too hung up on the fact that he refers to the
mortal body. It's another way of saying "Don't let sin reign in
Romans 6:11-14 26
you while you are still in this fallen flesh." Don't yield to sin.
Don't acquiesce to its demands. Don't give in to your lusts.
There are two more practical admonitions in verse 13.
One is negative and the other is positive. The negative one
says, "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments
of wickedness." That obviously includes your physical body
partsClimbs, digits, organs, and other members. But it also
includes all the powers and faculties of your mind, emotions,
and will. Don't yield any part of your self as an instrument of
unrighteousness. You're dead to sin. Live like it.
But there's another side to this, tooCand it's the positive
admonition: "but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who
have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your
body to him as instruments of righteousness." If your members
are employed in service to God, they cannot be servants of
sin. And that is only fitting for people who are dead to sin
but alive unto God.
Again, this calls for an active, deliberate effort on our
part. There's nothing passive about this. It uses the word
"offer," as in "yield," but what it describes is not a passive
surrender. It calls for an active employment of all our
faculties in the service of God, as "slaves of righteousness"
(to borrow language from verse 18).
That is the path to sanctification. It starts with a doctrinal
foundation, grounded in the fact of our union with Christ and
Live Like You Were Dead 27
our spiritual participation in His death and resurrection. It
goes from there to the realm of practical application, with
these three simple exhortations that set forth our whole duty
with respect to sanctification.
I wish we had time this morning to outline all the various
practical ways of resisting sin and yielding our members to
righteousness. A few years ago we did a study on Colossians
3:5 and the command to mortify the deeds of the body. You
can still get that tape or listen to it on the Internet. That
message outlined a number of practical suggestions for
yielding our members to God, so there's no need to rehash all
that this morning.
But now I want to move on to point three. We've seen the
doctrinal foundation and the practical application. Now look
atC
Romans 6:11-14 28
THE SPIRITUAL MOTIVATION
Verse 14: "For sin shall not be your master, because you are
not under law, but under grace." We barely have time to
summarize what this verse means. If we had time to do a
proper exegesis of this verse, there is a lot I would want to
deal with: the contrast between law and grace; the question
of what law this refers to (Is it the law of Moses, divine law
in general, moral law in particular, or what?); and the
question of what Paul means when he says we are not under
law.
But we'll have to save most of that for another time. This
morning, I just want you to see Paul's main point in this
verse.
Notice, by the way, that when he makes this contrast
between law and grace, he immediately raises a second
question similar to the one he began the chapter with. And
the rest of the chapter is devoted to answering that question.
But Paul does not make this statement in verse 14 in order
to introduce a new subject. Verse 14 is actually Paul's
conclusion to the discussion of verses 1-13. The conjunction
"For" clearly ties it to what he has been saying up to this
point. It's the culmination and the conclusion to the
admonitions of verses 12-13.
Now, at first glance, it may be hard to see how verse 14
fits into the logic of Paul's argument. But here's why he says
Live Like You Were Dead 29
this: He is giving us a motive and an incentive for obeying
the commands of verses 12-13. Why should we resist sin's
efforts to dominate us? And why should we yield our
members as instruments of righteousness? Because "sin shall
not have dominion over you." This is not a hopeless or endless
struggle, but a battle in which the ultimate victory is
guaranteed for all who are truly in Christ. "Sin shall not have
dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace."
I wish time permitted us to go into detail about what Paul
means when he says we are "not under law." But we'll have
to save that for another time. For now, let me just say that he
clearly doesn't mean the law's moral principles no longer
apply to us. After all, the law defines what sin is. "Sin is the
transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). And he's saying we
shouldn't let sin reign in our bodies, so he certainly doesn't
mean we are free to ignore the moral demands of the law.
But he means we are not under the law's curse. We don't
have to be motivated by fear. We aren't condemned to death
and damnation for every failure. And failure is never the end
of the matter, because divine grace covers us with God's
forgiveness and empowers us to will and to work for God's
good pleasure.
God's graceCa positive and powerful forceCis now the
governing power in our lives. Ultimate triumph is therefore
Romans 6:11-14 30
assured, because whom God justifies, He also glorifies. Sin
shall not gain dominion over us. And that is a powerful
incentive to obey. That is the point Paul is making here.
It's a powerful point, and he elaborates on it again in
Romans 8. "What shall we then say to these things? If God be
for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?"
"Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And if that
is not a powerful motive to pursue sanctification, then you
haven't really laid hold of the truth at all yet, and you need to
pray that God will open your eyes to it.