Romans 5-6: So I'm saved. Now what?

We read Romans 5–6 to answer the question that comes right after justification: now what do we do with grace in real life. We follow Paul’s logic from peace with God and hope in suffering to a blunt choice about who we serve and what kind of freedom we actually want. 
• justification by faith leading to peace with God and access to grace 
• rejoicing in suffering as a path to endurance character and hope 
• God’s love proven by Christ dying for sinners and reconciling enemies 
• Adam’s trespass contrasted with Jesus’ gift where grace multiplies 
• baptism as being united with Christ’s death and resurrection 
• rejecting the idea that grace gives permission to keep sinning 
• presenting ourselves to righteousness leading to sanctification and life 
• the payoff of sin as death contrasted with God’s gift of eternal life 
Join me next time as we continue going through the book of Romans in what is one of the most powerful chapters in the whole Bible. 

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Transcript

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Welcome And Romans Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Podcast. This is Mike, and we're going through the Book of Romans. Really powerful book. Really lays out like a very strong argument for the case for the gospel and what to do in light of the gospel. Because Paul is writing to a church that does not know him, and they've been getting some conflicting messages about like, wait, what is actually required here to be a follower of Jesus and what's not? Can we get some clarification on this? So Paul is laying it out very clearly what it is and what it is not to be a Christian and what to do in light of that. Last time we focused on this concept of justification, this idea that what Jesus did on the cross to die as a sinless sacrifice, which had been foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament, the need for a perfect, sinless substitute that could be the substitute for all people for all time, so we didn't have to keep killing lambs on behalf of our sins every time. What Jesus did there now makes us justified before God, if we have faith in Jesus. Justified meaning it's just as if I'd never sinned in the first place. Okay, great. Praise the Lord. Now what? All right, I'm saved. Now what? Paul goes into this to answer the question, now what? Here in Romans chapter 5 and 6 in the New English Translation. Let's check it out. Well, therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained access into this grace

Peace With God Through Faith

SPEAKER_00 1:59

in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God's glory. Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die, but God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we'll be saved through him from God's wrath. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation. So then, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned. For before the law was

Adam's Sin And Christ's Gift

SPEAKER_00 3:33

given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there's no law. Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who didn't sin in the same way that Adam, who is a type of the coming one, transgress? But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, multiply to the many? And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment resulting from the one transgression led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. For if by the transgression of the one man death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ? Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be constituted righteous. Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, to eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So what shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not. For how can we who died to sin still live

Dead To Sin New Life

SPEAKER_00 5:45

in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. For if we've become united with him in the likeness of his death, we'll certainly be also united in the likeness of his resurrection. We know that our old man was crucified with him, so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For someone who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he's never going to die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once and for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its desires, and don't 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? For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law, but under grace. So what then? Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? Absolutely not. Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves,

Grace Is Not Permission

SPEAKER_00 7:46

you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness. 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, and have been freed from sin. You became enslaved to righteousness. I'm 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. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you're now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. For the payoff of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So if the question that Paul was addressing today is, all right, I've been justified, now what? Now I think we could summarize, well, pick who you're going to be enslaved to.

Enslaved To Righteousness Real Freedom

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Well, I don't want to be enslaved, I want to be free. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I get that. There is a lifestyle of being enslaved here that leads to life and freedom. That's being enslaved to righteousness. What do you mean, enslaved to righteousness? I I mean, kind of like what Paul means here, that there are expectations of how to live. There are things you cannot do. You are not free to do whatever you you want to do if you are enslaved to righteousness. Jesus bought you with his perfect, innocent, sinless blood. So you owe him. I owe him. I'm not free to do whatever I want to do now just because he says, all right, you're no longer enslaved to sin. There's no middle ground. You're either enslaved to sin, or you're enslaved to Jesus in his service. But being enslaved to Jesus and his righteousness is a life and a freedom that we do not even see as an option when we're enslaved to sin. Being enslaved to sin, you think you're free, because you get to do whatever you want, but then we find out that whatever we want actually leads us to more and more being trapped by guilt, by shame, by purposelessness, by hopelessness, and ultimately complete separation from God. So, one way or another, we're slaves. Are you in an enslaved mindset? What does being enslaved to righteousness, enslaved to Jesus, who bought you with his blood, what does that compel you to do? I've been justified. Now what? That's the thinking out loud thought for the day. Thanks for joining me here in the Out Loud Bible Podcast. Join me next time as we continue going through the book of Romans in what is one of the most powerful chapters in the whole Bible.

Final Thought And Next Time

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Well, check it out next time. We'll see you then.