If We're Saved by Grace, Why Not Sin?

Rom 6 | Ps Alex Huggett | 16.11.2025

Part of a series on the gospel

© Bentley Baptist Church Inc.
www.bentleybaptist.org

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So we’ve been in this series on the gospel.

You know, there are relationships in life that become a hinge point that fundamentally change our identity in the way we live. Marriage is one of those. We go from being a single person who can more or less do what we want to sharing a life with this human being who shapes how we live and think.

A hinge point for me was the birth of my 1st child. It completely changed my view of not only myself, but my relationship with God and even what his fatherhood means as I stepped into that experience in a very small way compared to God.

Becoming a Christian is the single biggest hinge point. A life can have. It changes us at the most fundamental levels, but we still often grapple with how that change should affect our life. If we’re saved by grace and my sins are forgiven, Does it even matter how I live? Does sin matter? Jesus has died for them and saved me.

Well, in Romans 6, Paul says yes, it actually very much matters. Our relationship with Christ changes everything. And he says, because of Christ, we died to sin, we have a new identity and we flee sin because sin kills and grace saved. So let’s unpack these this morning.

So 1st Paul says, In verse one of chapter 6, what should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not. How can we who die to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptised into Christ were baptised into his death? Therefore, we were baptised with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. Because we know that Christ, having been raised from dead, from the dead will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time, but the life he lives, he lives to God. And so you 2 consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

And of course, there is far more there than we can unpack this morning, and that’s not all we’re reading.

You know, like getting married or becoming a parent. Christ’s death wasn’t only a sacrifice for sin. It was a doorway into a radically new life. When we were joined to Christ in his death, we underwent a transformation and were raised from death to life. And as a result, Paul urges us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

Now, in the Greek, this word consider was originally an accounting term. It’s about making sure that the ledger of our mind reflects this new reality. An accountant has to make sure the numbers on that page actually reflect what’s happening in the real world. And so it is with us when we’re thinking about ourselves and our status, consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God.

The respected scholar John Stott wrote, this reckoning is not make believe. It’s not screwing up your faith to believe what you. Do not really believe. We are to consider what, in fact, we are, namely, dead to sin and alive to God, like Christ. And once we grasp this, that our old life is ended, with the score settled, the debt paid, and the law satisfied, we shall want to have nothing more to do with it.

Now, Paul isn’t just saying that we should try to die with sin. He says we have died to sin, and we are alive to God if we have put our faith in Jesus. Now we have to make an effort, but that effort is in fleeing from sin. The sin we’re already dead to. It no longer has power or authority over us. We simply aren’t those people anymore.

Now, baptism has an integral part to play in this. The Bible says that through baptism, we identify with and are united with Christ in his death and share in his burial so that we can be raised to new life in him.

So in a few minutes, the peer will be baptised and the question is why? If he believes, isn’t he already saved? You can’t become a member of our church and most Baptist churches unless you’re baptised. You know, I was speaking to a gentleman the other day who thought we shouldn’t be baptised because it’s a form of works, not of faith, and he thought that baptism is spiritual, not by water.

Now, it is true that we’re saved by grace. Ephesians 2, 8 to 9 says, for you were saved by grace through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not from works.

But baptism isn’t a way to earn salvation. It’s a sign of salvation. Baptism is the way we enter into covenant with Christ. Paul says we were buried with him by baptism. And Paul normally when he talking about baptism means water baptism. Jesus initiated the covenant in his blood and baptism is how we sign. and put it into effect, so to speak.

You know, when you have a covenant or a contract, both parties have to sign. Jesus signed in his blood, and we sign in the water.

As a result of this transformation from death to life, we have a new identity. We aren’t bound by the law, but by grace, Paul says. You know, before we knew Christ, we were subject to sin’s power, and this brought us condemnation under the law of the Old Testament, the Torah.

But when Someone dies, they are set free from the things that used to bind them. So for example, if you’re unlucky enough to have a hex debt, When you die. So if you’re not sure what that is, that’s a government university loan, when you die, that debt is extinguished.

In fact, it doesn’t have to be paid back at all, not even out of your estate. And the fact there’s even debts that you, you know, still have to be paid after you die out of your estate, they’re no longer your problem. There’s someone else’s problem.

And so it is in Christ. We die to sin, and we die to the law. The authority of law and sin is extinguished in our lives. And we take on a new identity as we rise in Jesus.

And so this new identity, this change means we can expect there to be a change in our behaviour as well. If our very nature is changed, our new nature should drive our actions.

I have a dog and a cat. They have different natures. The dog does doggy things. And the cat doesn’t care about anyone.

And so Paul says, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, and do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive with from the dead offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

For sin will not rule over you because you are not under the law, but under grace.

He says, do not let sin reign. So why does Paul say this if we have a new nature? Well, because there’s still the possibility for sin to have some kind of control in our lives. Aren’t we all just too aware of this? We have this struggle. I’m a Christian. This is who I am. Why do I still wrestle with these things? I don’t want to do.

Paul’s gonna go on about this in the next chapter? He reminds us that despite our new nature, we still live in this body of death, in a world of sin. And it’s only by the spirit of God that we can have the life of God and we can live that life that we’ve been raised into. And that’s the subject of the next 2 chapters, which we won’t cover today.

Now, I’m not sure you’re aware of this in your life as I am in mine. The battle against sin is a daily struggle, but we struggle from a place of grace and a victory in Christ.

You know, Paul says, we used to struggle against righteousness using sin as a weapon to assert our own desires to please ourselves, and now we struggle against sin using righteousness as a weapon to assert our desire to please God.

And so Paul picks up his opening question from verse one in a different way in verse 15 when he says, what then should we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Doesn’t matter. No, absolutely not.

Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey, either of sin, leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

You know, as they say, actions speak louder than words. And Paul says that actually the Romans are living consistently with the gospel.

He says, you used to be slaves of sin. You obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching and you became enslaved to righteousness.

In other words, he knows they’re really saved because of the way they live. They’ve internalised the law. Sorry, not the law. Well, they have in a sense, but they’ve internalised this new identity and been transformed by it and it overflows in their lives.

So when kids come along. Not only does our identity change, but so does our lifestyle. You know, friends may lament if they don’t have children and they don’t understand yet that they don’t see as much of their friends who have become new parents. That’s because these new parents have a completely new set of commitments and demands on their time, their attention, their energy, and their money.

Unlike sin, they still value their friends, but their primary commitment is to their new family.

Christians become new people, slaves of righteousness, so to speak, and you can’t be a slave to righteousness and a slave to sin. You can only be a slave to one master.

And unlike your old friends who you can still see. The severance from sin is complete.Paul says in verse 19, I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

So he repeats this exhortation to flee from sin. Although we live in resurrection life, the body is still weak. And he’ll later tell us in chapter 12 to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices to God. And when we do that, the result is what we call sanctification.

And sanctification simply means the process of making someone or something holy or sacred. It’s set apart for a divine purpose. So we are justified when we believe. That’s instant. The moment you trust in Jesus. You’re justified before God, your sins are forgiven. We move from death to life, from condemnation to salvation.

But becoming like Jesus is a journey.

And just as offering ourselves to impurity leads to increasing lawlessness and everything that goes with that, the death, offering ourselves to righteousness leads to increasing sanctification, which is becoming more like God.

And so we flee from sin because we have a new identity, one that’s given over to righteousness, It’s simply who we are, and sin can have no part of that.

So let’s read on in verse 20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you’re now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now since you’ve been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification, and the outcome is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Or as a friend used to tell me, sin kills, Grace saves.

So poor contrast, being free from righteousness, but slaves to sin, with being free from sin, but slaves to righteousness.

You know, many people love the freedom that sin brings, and there is a freedom in it. They can do whatever they want. So they think. When we’re a slave to sin, that means we can do whatever we want as long as it’s sin. Not everything, everyone does is sin all the time, of course. But we are bound by it.

And Paul asked, what does it achieve? Ultimately, it achieves only death.

You know, I meet people all the time. You think they’re free, but they’re wrapped up in addiction. Maybe they’re wrapped up in someone else’s addiction. not through their own fault. But nevertheless, They’re living with this death. I meet people who are wrapped up in bitterness and unforgiveness. In greed and lust. That’s not freedom. That’s slavery. And that’s slavery to death.

As the old Bob Dylan song goes, you’re going to have to serve somebody. Maybe the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re going to have to serve somebody.

And as God’s people, we have been set free from serving in sin, and instead we can pursue life, not because we have to earn it, but because we already have it.

And the good news of the gospel is that in Jesus we have life, so why would we pursue death?

Rather, we pursue righteousness and those things that bring life, like, love, joy, hope, and peace.

And this is the good news of the gospel, sin kills, but we die to sin and have a new… In a new nature, in fact. We have life in Jesus and we’re set free from sin to pursue that life as we pursue him.

And just as we were slaves to sin and couldn’t help sinning, now we’re slaves to righteousness, and can’t help doing good.

Previously we pursued selfishness, ambition, and pleasure, which resulted in death. Now we chase God, godly ambition, heavenly joy, and Christ, not likeness, and the result is life.

So how do we live this out in the world where we so often still struggle with temptation?

Maybe you struggle with trusting God for your finances? Maybe you struggle with anger, maybe pornography, maybe some kind of addiction, The list goes on. How does the gospel, this whole life we have become real in our lived experience?

Well, I want to suggest 3 things based on what Paul has said? There are more, but I want to restrict myself to these.

First, have you been baptised? Now that might sound like an interesting one, but many Christians I meet, haven’t been baptised, because they’re not really ready to commit, or they’re not fully submitted to Jesus and his teachings.

You know, at Bentley, we say a disciple of Jesus is someone who follows the words, ways, and works of Jesus.

I applaud the honesty. of someone who says they’re not ready to commit. But you can’t say Christianity doesn’t work for you if you’re not giving yourself fully over to Christ.

I know in our Christian culture responding to an altar call, putting up your hand and saying the sinner’s prayer is popular. 1000s of people became Christians tonight because they put up their hand and came forward instead of prayer.

That’s not what the Bible defines a Christian as. That’s not what the Bible says. The starting point of the Christian life is. The Bible says. The starting point of the Christian life is getting wet.

Baptism is the sign of repentance. It’s where we sign on the dotted line with Christ. It says to God, to yourself, and I think importantly to the devil. I have died to sin and belong to Christ. I am alive in him.

And so friends, I want to urge you, if you haven’t been baptised, and you are a follower of Jesus. Come and speak to us afterwards.

Secondly, Do you count yourself dead to sin? Does your conscious identity reflect the gospel reality?

If you have a mindset still that, oh, I struggle all the time. I only a sinner, I’m dirty, rotten sinner. Look at me, woe is me, what do I do? You’re going to continue in that mindset.

You’ve got this record going over and over in your head, and you need to change that track because if you’re a believer, that is simply a lie, it is not true.

You have to start telling yourself the truth. Part of that is just getting into the word and meditating on that, reflecting on that, just letting the word of God soak into your mind and into your soul so that that truth can become part of the way that you see things.

And listen, again, this isn’t to deny that we struggle with sin. We all struggle with sin to some extent. But when we take on the mindset of Christ and the Bible talks a lot about mindset, then we grow in our victory over sin, this is what the Bible calls sanctification.

So walk in the mindset of someone who is dead to sin and alive to Christ and apply that grace.

When you fail, which you will, then you just apply that grace and say, well, that’s not really who I am. That’s the old wife. Still hanging on to the Chuck that out. Let’s just keep walking with Jesus.

And this is anticipating what Paul’s going to write a little bit about, but I think it’s really important. And we did look at this a few months ago in chapter 8. Have you been filled with the spirit? Are you embracing the life of the spirit?

If you’re a Christian, you have the spirit, but sometimes we sort of say this far and no further to the spirit.

I’ve talked a lot about resurrection, life and identity this morning, and this is all a work of the Spirit. Paul said in Galatians 5 that if we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

So how do we get filled by the Spirit? Well, we cry out to him constantly? And we seek his presence daily, and it is a daily walk.

Friends, the good news of the gospel is that you are forgiven. If you’re a Christian, you’ve been forgiven, that’s just the reality as it is, and we’re free from that authority of sin and law.

And this is why it matters how we live and that we flee from sin because we have died to sin. We have a new identity based on God’s righteousness. And because sin kills, and it still kills, it brings death, but we are people who have died to sin. And were alive to God.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for this truth. We thank you that it is all based on what Jesus has done. It’s not about how I feel. And Father, that it’s not even about how I think. My thinking just has to catch up with the reality of who you’ve made me.

Father, I pray that we will be people of that truth that we have died to sin. We are alive in Christ and may the life of God, the life of Christ permeate our hearts, and our gatherings, our homes, and our families.

Father, as Paul says elsewhere, so we can be the aroma of Christ. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.