WEBVTT 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:07.200 Alright, so Romans 6. 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.199 Now we're gonna get to work. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:11.759 We're just gonna get busy because there's a lot to go through here. 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:16.320 Romans 6 has a ton of theological implications to it, right? 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:18.960 And this is this is again what we're trying to understand. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:25.039 What Paul's trying to bring us into in Romans 6 is a portrait of the full gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:36.799 And I'm gonna try and help labor through, helping us understand how we tend to only get a part of this, or we tend to focus on only half of what the gospel truly is, which leads to really an anemic gospel. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:43.439 It relates to something that's impotent compared to what the full gospel of Jesus actually has for us. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:56.000 And so if we look at Romans 6, and we're just gonna look at verse 1 through 7 to kick this off, what we'll see is this we're united into the death and resurrection of Jesus. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:00.479 We're united into the death and resurrection of Jesus. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.920 And that's crucial to understanding this text. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:06.959 Because Paul starts this text with a question, right? 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:08.640 What shall we say then? 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:13.040 And he proposes this question as Paul always does, which is pretty rhetorical, right? 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:21.359 He's one of his forms of argument is to present rhetorical questions that you go, duh, no, or you know, obviously, yes. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:25.680 Uh, and then he just works to unpack why that is rhetorical in the first place. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:30.000 Like there's no real argument behind the question that Paul presents. 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:34.079 But he's deriving this question of verse one, what shall we say then? 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:36.719 Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:40.000 Where he's deriving that question is from Romans 5.20. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:51.599 So if we go back up to Romans 5.20, he says this now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:55.359 So there's this there's this kind of dichotomy that we're working through, right? 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:59.680 Where sin increased, grace increased all the more. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:07.760 And so Paul's coming out the gate to try and take head on what could be an implication in thought from understanding. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:11.280 Where sin increases, grace increases all the more. 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:12.479 Here's what he's doing. 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:29.439 The assumption is going to that Paul's going to confront is that since we're saved by grace alone, and our works earn no merit for us in our salvation, then sin no longer condemns, but gives way to see God's grace increase. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:39.360 Another way to understand this assumption is since we've been saved by grace and not by our works, then sin no longer counts against us in grace's presence. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:54.080 What this can lead to is people misunderstanding grace and sin and saying, well, I can just live however I want to now because I'm no longer held accountable for sin because grace has covered it. 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:58.479 In fact, where sin increases, does not grace increase all the more? 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:08.479 And so they believe or convince themselves that they can continue living in sin even though they've experienced the grace of God. 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:14.639 The question that Paul truly poses needs to be understood in this way. 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:19.919 It needs to be understand in a concept of abiding, not in acting. 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:21.599 Abiding, not in acting. 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:24.319 What Paul's gonna say is not will you sin? 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:27.599 That question is not what's being presented at the table. 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:29.360 We will sin, right? 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:31.439 We will continue to need the grace of God. 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.560 This process of sanctification will have to take place. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:35.759 We will sin. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:41.280 But the what really has to be understood is not the action, but the abiding presence. 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:48.159 Will you abide in sin now that grace has been presented to you? 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:51.840 He's not asking, are you gonna sin in action? 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:58.800 What he's asking is, will you remain abiding in sin and refuse to come out from under its bondage? 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:01.759 You see, this is an old heresy. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:03.599 And we see this even today, right? 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:05.599 Look, there's nothing new under the sun. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:10.800 Everything that we're experiencing today is just pre-packaged, so like it's a re-gifted thing, right? 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:15.840 You ever gone to a wedding, or maybe you got a gift and then you just repackaged something and gave it to somebody else? 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:17.839 That's all heresy is anymore. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:25.360 It's just a repackaging of some ugly thing that was handed to us from heretics so that they might be presented new and afresh. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:27.040 But but this is an old heresy. 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:30.639 And we see it today in what we call hyper grace, right? 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:34.560 Uh, because I've experienced the grace of God, I can then live however I want. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:37.279 And we call this hyper grace. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:43.920 But back in the day, actually coined by Martin Luther himself in the 1500s, they called it antinomianism. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:51.199 Anti-meaning no or against, and nomos meaning law. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:58.079 Antinomianism is a belief that the law no longer has any precedence in our lives. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:02.319 We can live how we want because grace has abounded. 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:10.560 This belief is that the law has been done away with through Jesus and has no value to the believer since grace has overcome. 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:12.240 He was captured. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:14.399 The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is awesome. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:16.720 My middle son, my son's middle name is Dietrich. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:23.040 Uh he was a pacifist, and then all of a sudden he joins this team to actually uh assassinate Hitler. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:28.240 He's caught, and then he's thrown into uh prison camps and he starts underground churches and seminaries. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:31.439 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, if you want to read about him, read a lot. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:34.319 He was an amazing, amazing saint. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:37.759 But Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this about cheap grace. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:53.120 He says, cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. 00:05:53.360 --> 00:06:02.720 Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:10.240 Dietrich Bonhoeffer strived to help the church understand costly grace. 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:12.800 Grace that costs something. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:23.920 You see, when we our view of hyper grace today, that because I've experienced the grace of God, because I've been saved apart from my own work and efforts, and I'm out from under the bondage of sin, I can now live however I want. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.079 That's cheap grace. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:33.839 It states that we can go on sinning because God's grace is bigger than our sin, and we'll be forgiven through it. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:38.480 Now, how does Paul respond to his own opening question? 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:40.639 By no means. 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:44.079 By no means shall we think this way. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:50.959 It's a declaration of the never, it's a repudiation of such an idea. 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:56.480 And Paul goes on from this opening question to ask a better question. 00:06:57.279 --> 00:06:57.759 Right? 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:06.480 This rhetorical question is set up, he answers it by no means, and then he sets up a better question that we should be asking ourselves. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:15.680 And it's this how can we who died to sin still live in it? 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:18.399 That's a better question. 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:24.079 How can we who died to sin still live in it? 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:28.240 Not can we keep on sinning since we've been saved by grace? 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:34.879 Not can we do whatever we want now because God's forgiven us and Jesus' blood has canceled out our record of wrong? 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:37.279 Can we then just go on and do whatever we want? 00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:38.800 No, that's not what Paul asks. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:43.279 He says, How can we remain in sin when we've died to it? 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:47.279 If you notice, this speaks again to that abiding. 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:49.199 How can we remain in? 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.160 How can we abide in sin? 00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:59.040 If we've died to sin, how can we remain abiding in it? 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:05.519 John Knox, a Scottish reformer who died in 1572, said this about this verse. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:09.519 We have died once for all to sin. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.240 Can we breathe its air again? 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:22.639 You see, when we're united to Christ, we're united to his death and resurrection. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:28.480 And being united to his death, we become dead to sin, and it's a dominion over us. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:31.920 We actually die with Christ and we die to sin. 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:40.799 But being united in his resurrection, we're raised to new life, having been set free from sin and made alive to God. 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:42.879 This is the fullness of the gospel. 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:47.279 Not that we've just died with Christ, but that we have also raised with him. 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:57.679 If we were at one time dead in our sin, according to Ephesians chapter 2, that we were dead in our sin, then in Christ we are now dead to sin. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.639 Because we've been made alive in him. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:10.159 You see, we've been crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:19.039 This means that the body of sin might be brought to ruin, to utter destruction, that it no longer exists, that it has been decimated. 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.960 The former self was sin's possession. 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:28.639 It was a bondservant to sin, and sin proved itself to be a wicked master. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:36.559 But this is something that we have to understand that when a slave dies, the master has no claim over him anymore. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:40.879 When a slave dies, the master can't come to him and say, Well, that's still mine. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:42.799 No, he's been set free. 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:45.600 He has no claim of possession over it. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:49.759 He's no longer under his ownership, but he's set free. 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:54.399 Sin has no claim to a dead slave. 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:01.919 You see, we were once dead in sin, abiding in. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.120 But in Christ, we're dead to sin. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:06.960 Why? 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.200 Because we've died with Christ. 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:15.519 But also with him, we've been raised up from the dead into a new life. 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:17.759 Galatians 2.20 says this. 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.600 I've been crucified with Christ. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:23.840 It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:31.279 And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:41.600 You see, Paul's stating here that sin no longer has ownership of me because I have been dead to sin in Christ. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:50.320 The slave to sin died in his death, he's been set free. 00:10:51.440 --> 00:11:01.200 And now this man who is alive is a new man, a resurrected man who's been made alive to live for God. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:07.679 Verses 8 through 11, we see that we are dead to sin and alive to God. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:14.000 Because we believe the gospel and because we've been found in Christ, this is our new reality. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:17.279 We are dead to sin and we are alive to God. 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:21.120 Paul's working to bring us into the fullness of the gospel truth. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:28.159 Too many times we have this hyper focus on the cross, and too many times we have a hyper focus on what demanded the cross, our sin. 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:32.080 But what the fullness of the gospel is, is that that man's dead. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:33.840 He was dead when Christ died. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.360 When he was united in him, he died in Christ. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:42.799 And when Christ got up out of the tomb, he raised with him into new life also. 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:48.879 It's not just that we've die with Christ, but it's that we live with him too. 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:57.200 You see, like I said, our hyperfocus on the Christ, uh, on the cross alone of the gospel brings two implications. 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:03.279 We have a hyperfocus on our death in Christ, and we have a hyperfocus on the sinfulness that demanded it. 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:05.600 But this is just a half-gospel perspective. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.360 It's not the fullness of the gospel of which Paul's trying to bring us into. 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:11.679 We should look at the cross. 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:16.480 We should mourn over the cost of our sin that demanded the cross. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:26.960 But if we stop there, we're going to fall short of entering into the fullness of what the gospel has for us, and that's resurrected new life where that dead man stayed in the tomb. 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:35.759 You see, the full gospel is going to bring us into a full understanding of our new identity and character. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.879 If we have died, then now we live. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:43.759 We're in the fullness of Christ, who is no longer dead himself, but he is alive. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:47.759 Christ died to sin that in his death we might die to sin. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:51.200 Christ rose from the dead that we might rise with him. 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:56.080 Imagine that if we served a God who was still dead in a tomb. 00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:10.080 When we believe a half gospel, it's like we worship a God who didn't give up out from the grave, but that the stone still head in place, capturing his ossuary until the ages to come where there's just dead bones now lying in it. 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:11.919 No, that's not the God we serve. 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:22.399 We serve a God who got up, who the Holy Spirit filled with life again, resurrected from the dead, and in that resurrection we are united to Jesus. 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:31.200 When Jesus died, God made him sin for us. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.960 And his death dealt decisively with sin. 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:42.240 He removed sin from us, paid its penalty, removed its sting, won the victory over it. 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:52.720 This same death that has triumphantly, decisively, and eternally conquered sin is the exact same death that you and I are united into him by. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:56.399 Think about this. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:58.960 Think about the power of the gospel. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:05.120 You are united into Christ, into his death. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:07.759 What did his death accomplish? 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:11.759 It destroyed sin forever. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:16.399 It crushed the head of Satan. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:21.200 It put death to death. 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:24.559 That's what we're united into. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:29.039 That's what we're brought into in Christ. 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:36.879 And when Jesus raised from the dead, sin didn't rise up with him. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:39.519 It remained in the tomb. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:51.039 This resurrection that brought Jesus out of the grave and displayed for all the glory and power of God is the exact same resurrection that we're united to him by. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.879 You see how we often get just a half-gospel? 00:14:56.159 --> 00:15:03.279 We're united to him in his death and conquering over sin, but yet we're united also in his glorious resurrection that put on display for all. 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:05.440 He is King of kings and Lord of Lords. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:11.360 That resurrection, that same power that raised Christ from the dead now abides in you. 00:15:14.799 --> 00:15:17.519 You see, we will contest daily with sin. 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:19.120 That's not what Paul's talking about. 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:22.320 He's not talking about an action, he's talking about abiding in. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:24.559 We're gonna contest daily with sin. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:34.159 Temptation will still linger in our lives because we still inhabit this flesh, this body, but it's from a different position. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.600 And it's through a different identity. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:42.320 Once we sinned, because that was common to our nature. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:45.120 We sinned because we were sinners. 00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:47.360 You see, that was who our identity was. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:48.399 Why did we sin? 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:49.519 Well, we were sinners. 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:52.960 There should have been no expectation of anything different. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:56.720 When we were sinners, we were expected to sin. 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:59.519 That was a part of our very nature and character. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:07.440 To have any other assumption of a different behavior is not understanding what the gospel says about us before Christ. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:15.600 You see, it shouldn't have been strange to us that we were sinning, nor should it be strange to us in the church that the world goes on in sin. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:23.200 To expect anything different from them is to put some type of false standard upon their heads. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:34.240 But once we died to sin, when we were found in Christ, we died to sin. 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:38.480 Coming out from under its bondage, coming out from under its mastery. 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:44.960 You see, now what we have to understand, it would be unnatural to sin. 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:51.200 It would be unnatural to not sin in our former state. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:56.480 Because we were sinners identified by and under the mastery of sin itself. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:01.279 But now, sin should be gravely foreign to our person. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:11.519 Sin should be uncommon to our new nature, it should be out of character of who we actually are now in Jesus. 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:18.160 If we remain in sin, then we are only presenting evidence that we are not in Christ. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:20.880 Think about it this way. 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:25.200 When we were sinners, to sin was natural. 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.119 That was a part of who we are. 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:33.039 But now that we're in Christ, sin should be extremely contradictory to the person that we are today. 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:38.480 How many of you have ever had a relationship with a close friend and they just acted very out of character? 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:41.920 And the world around them thought this was a bad person, right? 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:42.480 How could you? 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:44.240 How could you ever trust or have friendship? 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:48.000 And you were the one that had their back and said, No, no, no, this isn't like them. 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:49.440 Something's off. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:50.880 I know them better than this. 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:52.319 This isn't how they act. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:54.079 Something is different here. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:56.559 That's how our relationship with sin should be. 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:09.119 When we sin now in Christ, having been united with him in his death and resurrection, when sin presents itself in our members, people around us, and ourselves included, should say, something's wrong here. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:10.960 There's something foreign taking place. 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:12.640 This isn't part of my character. 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:14.720 This is unnatural to who I am now. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:16.000 I'm no longer that person. 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:18.720 That person died with Christ and remained in the tube. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:22.960 This one that now lives lives in the resurrection power of Jesus. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:29.680 This sin that is evidenced in my life is foreign to the person and identity I am now in him. 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:37.680 You see, we are dead to sin, set free from it. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:42.079 And since we are dead to sin, then we are then alive to God. 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:52.400 Like Jesus, who lived in perfect obedience, holiness, righteousness, submitted to the Father's will, all for his glory, so too should we. 00:18:53.039 --> 00:19:03.920 Because this is the person, King Jesus, Lord of Lords, Messiah, Son of God, who we are now in. 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:07.039 This is the person who we are in. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:13.519 You see, too many times we think of our relationship with God just through who we are, who we presume ourselves to be, right? 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:23.359 We think of our relationship with God through our own experiences or the things that we struggle with in life or the personality that we have or how we were raised and what happened to us growing up. 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:30.640 But but that's not how we should ever relate to God ever, because it is in ourselves we can never have relationship with God. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:34.480 In ourselves, we are cast off, cut off from fellowship with the Father. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:39.599 But it's in Christ that we have relationship with God, that we are reconciled to Him. 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:48.720 And so when we understand who we are in relationship to God, we have to understand ourselves who we are in Christ Jesus. 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:52.880 That's how we have relationship with Him in the first place. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:20:08.160 To live this way in righteousness, in obedience, in holiness, is an actual representation of the person that His atoning work has made us into. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:16.640 You see, for us to continue in sin, it's a false representation of who Christ has made us to be. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:20.480 You're being a fake, you're being a phony. 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:30.799 But to live in obedience, to live in righteousness, to live in holiness, now that's that's a true representation of who Christ has made us to be. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:34.880 That's living out who we actually are in Christ Jesus. 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:39.920 You see, it's not an option, it's a necessity. 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:46.720 Verses 12 through 14, we see that sin has no dominion over us. 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:54.880 Paul's gonna close out this chapter or this opening section of chapter six, and he's gonna help us see that sin has no dominion over us. 00:20:55.200 --> 00:21:02.000 Don't let sin reign in your body because you're no longer under its mastery. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:10.559 Since sin no longer has dominion over us, when we sin, it's because we gave it authority in our lives that it did not have. 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:12.480 Let me say that again. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:20.559 When we allow sin to be in our life, it's because we gave it authority that it did not have in the first place. 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:24.400 This is what happens to us. 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:27.440 We surrender to its passions, Paul says. 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:32.160 Another way to say that, we wave a white flag to an unarmed enemy. 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:39.279 When we sin, we wave a white flag to an unarmed enemy. 00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:43.759 Death has no sting, it's toothless. 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:50.240 Any power that we now give it in our lives, we freely give it that power. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:54.960 Christ has brought us out from under the dominion of sin. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:59.759 We're being called here to cease from sin, a cessation from how. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:01.680 We used to behave. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:04.720 We can't continue to present our members for sin. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:07.680 We must present our whole selves to God. 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:08.319 Why? 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:10.799 Because we have been brought from death to life. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:12.559 I love the way that Paul talks about this. 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:17.839 No longer present your members to sin, but present yourselves, your wholeness in being to God. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:26.000 Now we're going to get into this in Romans chapter 12, but the fullness of who we are should be presented and submitted to God in worship to Him. 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:32.000 And everything that we do, whether we eat or drink or whatever we find ourselves doing, should be for the glory of God. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:38.319 This is a sidetrack, but this is why we don't call our team worship ministry or worship arts. 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:49.920 If you see somebody do that, try to correct them because what we've done is we've siloed worship to some music, and then we silo it to like Star 93.3 and Christian music is just horrendous today. 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:51.279 It's just terrible. 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:55.680 The theology is is atrocious. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:58.960 And a lot of us are getting our like Caleb theology, right? 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:00.720 The way we understand God is through Caleb. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:01.759 Please don't. 00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:04.480 Please read your Bible because they're getting a lot of stuff wrong. 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:08.079 But what we have to understand is that all of life is worship. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:09.279 Is this the way we worship? 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:09.839 Absolutely. 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:12.400 Is the preaching and receiving of the Word of God worship? 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:12.960 Absolutely. 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:15.680 Is the way that we love our wife and children worship? 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:16.240 Absolutely. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:18.319 Is it the way that we eat and drink worship? 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:19.920 Is it the way that we work worship? 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:22.000 Is it the way that we breathe worship? 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:25.200 Every aspect of our being is worship. 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:35.680 And Paul is telling us here stop presenting your members to sin and present your whole self and everything that you do as worship. 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:40.799 Too many times we try to uh segregate worship from other areas of our life. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:44.240 But let me tell you, the way that you manage your money is worship. 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:47.359 The way that you manage your household is worship. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:51.119 The way that you steward God's gifts that He's given you, that's worship. 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:55.920 God isn't looking to you come up here on Sunday morning, say some prayers and sing some songs. 00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:06.640 God is seeing, this Jesus, Lord of your life in every aspect and facet that is presented before him for his glory and the good of our neighbor. 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:09.759 You see, that's the two greatest commandments. 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:12.720 How do we serve and love faithfully to God? 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:16.799 We love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we love our neighbor as ourselves. 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:21.200 If we do these two things, there is no fracture in the law. 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:30.640 If your life is an instrument of sin, then you're only demonstrating that it's still your master. 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:40.079 But if your life is an instrument to righteousness, you demonstrate that you now serve the living God as your master. 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:51.599 You see, grace, grace is a liberating power that both frees us from sin and progressively eradicates it in our life. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:54.480 Well, we have to understand this. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:25:00.799 Grace is not a freedom for you to sin without judgment. 00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:05.519 Grace is a freedom to not sin with blessing. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:10.160 Grace is not a freedom to sin without judgment. 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:14.559 Grace is a freedom to not sin with blessing. 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:16.799 So, how should we live? 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:19.759 What's our main idea this morning in Romans 6? 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:21.839 Live like you've been saved. 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:25.039 Live like you've been saved. 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:29.119 This should be fundamental to our understanding of Christianity. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:32.720 This is the thrust of this text that Paul's trying to help us understand. 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:41.200 If all that we know, understand, and believe about the gospel is to be true, is actually true, then it's true for us. 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:59.680 If Christ died and conquered sin, if he put it to bed, if he robbed death of all of its power, if he was the one that crushed the serpent's head, if he was buried but rose again in victorious life, that he might be ascended to the right hand of the Father, reign in power and glory. 00:25:59.839 --> 00:26:06.480 If this is all true about Jesus, then have to understand that in Christ it is true about you as well. 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:09.839 You were seated in the heavenly places with Christ. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:17.920 When you believed in him, every part of the work of the gospel is true for you if you are found in Christ. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:22.960 When we are in Christ, we are in the fullness of all that he has accomplished. 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:24.960 Where he died, we died. 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:27.680 Where he lives, we now live also. 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:40.160 And Jesus came to defeat sin once and for all, to ransom a people out from under its power by his blood, and to see the presence of it eradicated in all of creation. 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:50.079 We cannot separate the truth of what Jesus has done for us in the gospel with the way that we're called to live to God. 00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:59.200 It's only through a deeper understanding and deeper belief in the gospel itself that we're able to live to God and die to sin. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:08.720 The gospel message is surely the inauguration of our death to sin, but it is also the power to continue seeing sin put to death in us. 00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:09.759 This is what I mean. 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:11.440 This is what I love about Paul. 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:14.480 He doesn't get away from the gospel, right? 00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:19.680 He didn't preach this gospel, and then all of a sudden he addresses sin and he just says, Stop. 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:23.200 Okay, can you just muster up the strength to quit doing what you used to do? 00:27:23.359 --> 00:27:30.480 Okay, can you just find it within yourself to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and stop doing what you know God doesn't want you to do? 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:32.160 That's not how he addresses this. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:33.920 That's not how he presents power. 00:27:34.079 --> 00:27:34.880 What does he do? 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:37.359 He preaches the gospel again. 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:38.640 How were you saved? 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:40.400 You were saved by believing the gospel. 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:42.319 How was sin put to death in your life? 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:43.759 By believing in the gospel. 00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:45.519 How will you conquer over sin? 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:47.119 By believing in the gospel. 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:49.119 The gospel is what saves us. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:50.880 It's how we are being saved. 00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:54.880 And in the end, when Christ returns, it is how we shall be saved. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:56.960 We don't get beyond the gospel. 00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:00.880 Is it an inauguration into the kingdom that sin might be put to death? 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:11.599 Yes, but it is also the continuing power to see death and sin eradicated in our mortal flesh day by day as we conform to the Son. 00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:19.759 Paul draws us intimately near to the gospel message itself. 00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:31.359 He doesn't call on our strength, he doesn't call on discipline, nor does he now allot for sin to abound because grace has flooded in. 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:31.920 No. 00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:42.079 He reminds us of it, he preaches it to us, he calls us to participate in its truth, the power of the gospel itself. 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:46.400 You see, church, we can't be beyond the gospel. 00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:53.839 The gospel isn't just a way we come into the church and then we get all these different TED talks on three ways that you can better whatever part of your life. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:57.200 We don't just come into the gospel and then seek after deeper things. 00:28:57.279 --> 00:29:02.559 We actually find ourselves uh in this uh uh torrent or in what is that thing? 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:05.440 You're in the ocean, and then it kind of sets you out that way. 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:06.640 Tide. 00:29:06.799 --> 00:29:12.640 We don't find ourselves then in the tide of culture being carried out to these deeper things, right? 00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:14.880 This is what happens in the church so often. 00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:18.079 We come in through the gospel and then we want to move beyond it. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:21.599 Paul won't allow us to, Jesus himself won't allow us to. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:26.799 The Holy Spirit, as he inspired the author's pen to write this down, won't allow us to. 00:29:27.039 --> 00:29:31.680 We have to abide not in sin, but in the power of the gospel. 00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:34.480 We say this a lot as sacred mission. 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:48.319 If you come here on a Sunday morning and we don't preach that Jesus died for your sin, that he was buried and then resurrected into new life, then go find yourself another church because we've already moved too far beyond what we're supposed to faithfully proclaim. 00:29:52.079 --> 00:30:02.400 It's because we've been crucified with Christ and have resurrected again to new life that we are expected and able to live to God. 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:04.960 It's because of the gospel. 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:09.200 So, church, let us live like we've been saved. 00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:15.440 1 Corinthians 15, Paul seeks to remind us of the gospel. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:21.680 Again, if you're gonna find two themes in every letter Paul pins to the New Testament church, these are the two themes. 00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:24.559 Fight for sound doctrine and remember the gospel. 00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:28.720 Every letter is going to have some form or faction of that inside of it. 00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:31.680 Remember the gospel and fight for sound doctrine. 00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:35.440 And here in 1 Corinthians 15, he again seeks to remind them. 00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:40.319 Now, Paul says, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you. 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:54.640 And this is what he says, I love this, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. 00:30:55.440 --> 00:31:00.079 Do we see how the gospel is the mother of our soul? 00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:04.799 It's the nurturer and caregiver, it's the one who brings us life. 00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:11.599 It is the gospel who saves us, and it's the gospel who carries us into the fullness of salvation. 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:15.839 We can't get beyond the gospel, church. 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:21.680 But some of us we like to try to in different ways. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:25.200 Some of us we exploit grace as freedom to sin. 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:27.119 I'm gonna rush through this. 00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:29.359 We exploit grace as freedom to sin. 00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:42.960 We read passages that communicate our freedom from the law, no longer under God's judgment, saved by grace, not under the weight of yoke, of bondage that the law presented. 00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:46.559 Our response to such truths, these are truths. 00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:52.400 We are free, we are no longer under the law, we are no longer under God's judgment, we are saved by grace. 00:31:52.559 --> 00:32:00.720 Our response to these truths should be gratitude, praise, and a walking away from the sin that once held us in slavery. 00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:07.759 We should respond with righteous living because we've seen the cost that it took to free us from our sin. 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:11.759 Yet too often we respond like children. 00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:18.640 We respond like little children who didn't suffer a consequence for doing what they knew was wrong. 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:26.640 We convince ourselves that simply because we didn't suffer consequence for our actions, then we might still engage in them. 00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:30.000 But like a child, we miss the point completely. 00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:34.400 The point isn't about the consequence. 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:41.440 The point is about flourishing and oppressing. 00:32:41.680 --> 00:32:48.240 The point is about freedom and slavery, the point is about blessing and cursing. 00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:58.720 Consequence aside, the only thing that you've demonstrated is that you don't understand righteousness in the first place. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.000 Salvation can never be reduced to escapism. 00:33:05.119 --> 00:33:07.839 Some cosmic get out of hell free card. 00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:12.960 We may ask ourselves, why be good if we know we will be forgiven? 00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:15.680 But we don't understand righteousness. 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:21.920 We don't understand salvation, we don't understand the flourishing of what God has intended for us as his image bearers. 00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:30.240 Salvation is about restoration, getting creation back to the beauty and flourishing that God has ordained for us. 00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:34.720 You see, we fail to see the effects of sin on us. 00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:38.079 We fail to see the effects of sin on our relationship with one another. 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:41.759 We fail to see the effects of sin in our culture and society. 00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:46.000 We fail to see the effects of sin on us and God. 00:33:48.160 --> 00:33:51.920 Grace is not an escape from punishment. 00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:54.799