Romans 6:1-14; Dead and Alive

Jason Sterling April 5, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Transcript

Scripture Reading And Setting The Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:23

If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me this morning. Romans chapter six. Also, if you need a Bible, you'll see in front of you. Uh you'll see some Black Pew Bibles. Encourage you to grab one of those. It'll also be in the bulletin and on the screen behind me in just a moment. One of the things we do at our church, again, if you're visiting with us, we just go through books of the Bible. We just every week study the Bible. We believe this God's word is our only hope for faith and life. It's what we most need. And so we open up the scriptures and just simply work through them. And right now, we are working through the book of Romans. And in God's providence, we find ourselves this morning in Romans chapter 6. And in Romans chapter 6, the resurrection isn't just background decoration in this passage. It's not just a nice Easter detail that Paul is mentioning in passing. The resurrection is the engine of Paul's entire argument in this passage. Everything he says depends on an empty tomb. So with that in mind, follow along with me. This is God's word. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. In that order, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 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. 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So that 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 of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. This is the word of God. Let me pray again for us and ask the Lord to help us this morning with this passage. Please bow with me in prayer. Father, we come this morning from lots of different places. Some of us have followed you for years, and we've been in services like this as long as we can remember. Some of us are here for the very first time in a long time. We have come back to church. Some of us are not sure we even believe this. Some of us are full of grief. We're missing someone that we love, others full of shame for what we have done. Some of us are here because it's just what you do on Easter. Wherever we find ourselves, I pray that you would meet us. It's no accident that we're here. You've brought us here. May every person in this room have a powerful encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ through his spirit and through the preaching of the word. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You know that moment in your life where you say something or do something that you swore that you would never do again. That version of yourself that keeps showing up no matter how hard you try, and no matter how many times you promise that it'll never happen again. We all know what that's like, don't we? To have a pattern that just seems to keep winning, to have something in our lives, a habit that we name and can name, but can never seem to break or fix? And somewhere underneath all of that, and you might not ever say this out loud, but it is an honest question. And maybe it's a question that you have this morning. Does all of this matter? Does Easter really matter? Does the resurrection really change anything? Did we get all dressed up for nothing? And on Easter, we usually talk about what the resurrection means for the future. Jesus rose from the dead, which means that you will too, if you know him. Death no longer has the last word. Heaven is waiting for you. Yes, and amen. And we will talk about those things. But my question is what about today? Not someday, not when you die, right now, this week, with the pattern that you cannot break and the person that you keep being. Here's the question this morning that I want us to consider. What does Easter mean for you right now? Today, or as we like to say around here, on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Three things. Sin no longer rules you. So sin has been dethroned. The second point is you have been raised, so you're dead and alive. And then lastly, you can live differently. Dethroned, dead and alive, different. That's our outline this morning. Let's look at our first heading: dethroned. Sin no longer rules you. We came this morning to celebrate the resurrection, but Paul does not let us get there without first stopping at the grave. Not Jesus' grave, not Paul's grave, your grave. In my grave. Look at verses one and two. He opens with a question, he's clearly heard before, are we to continue into sin so that grace may abound? Remember Romans 5, if you were here a couple of weeks ago or you've been following along, Paul says that grace overwhelms all of our sin, that the grace of Jesus is much more and swallows it up and forgives all of our sin. And so then the natural question is well, if that's true, then great. I can do whatever I want. Why not just sin freely? I'll sin more. You see it there with the exclamation point. By no means. And he says, How can we who died to sin still live in it? Please notice what he says there. He does not say you shouldn't sin. He does not say that you ought to be different. He says you died. Past tense. Done. Then the question is, what does that mean? Well, again, it doesn't mean that the urge for sin is gone. We all know that. It doesn't mean that you have made some decisive resolution. I'm never, you know, to stop sinning, because why? A resolution is something that you do. But notice what Paul's describing here: something that has been done to you. It's not a resolution, it's a reality. That's what it means. Not that sin is gone, but sin has lost its authority over you. Verse six. The old self has been crucified so that you are no longer slaves to sin. Again, notice that's master language there. You're no longer at sin's beckon call. Verse 7, for one, the one who has died has been set free from sin. Then the question is, okay, so how did this happen? How did you die to sin's dominion and authority in your life? We'll work this out, but the answer is through union with Christ. When you trusted Christ, you were united to Christ in his death and resurrection. Look at verses 3 through 5. Paul gives you a picture and he points to baptism as a visible sign of this union. Baptism doesn't create the union, faith creates the union. Baptism is a picture of this reality. You went into the grave with someone death could not hold. And when he walked out of the grave on Easter morning, the regime changed. Sin's dominion collapsed. A new king took the throne. And here's what it looks like. Tim Keller has this great illustration, I think, that works this out, and it will make sense to you as you think about just the history of our world. But he says, think about what happens when a legitimate army invades and defeats a corrupt regime. They take the capital, they seize the seat of government, the old power structures are dismantled, a new authority is established, the war is won. But what happens to the defeated soldiers? They don't disappear overnight. They scatter to outside the city, to the countryside. They still show up, they wreak havoc, they ambush, they disrupt, they cause real damage. And for a time, it feels like nothing has changed because the fighting has not stopped. But there is something that is different, and here's what it is they no longer rule, they no longer have authority. And so what looks like ongoing war is actually guerrilla warfare, disruptive and persistent and sometimes dangerous, but the throne is taken, the regime is finished, and that's what happens the moment that you're united with Christ by faith. Sin lost its throne, it no longer is your king. Will you experience daily struggles? Yes. They're not evidence that sin still rules you, it's the last desperate disruption of a defeated power. Jeremiah Burroughs, the great Puritan, puts it this way when he talks about union with Christ. He said, Christians have been reconcilably bothered. Christians have been irreconcilably bothered. We no longer make peace, he is saying, with our old patterns and ways of living like we once could. That bothered feeling, that distaste isn't weakness. It is a sign that there's life in you and that there's a new king on the throne. But here's my question for us this morning. Are you bothered by your sin? Are you bothered by your not crushed by it? Not performing because of it. Bothered. Unsettled. If that's you, that's evidence that the regime has changed. That bothered conscience is grace at work. You're not failing. You're alive. But if you're sitting comfortably this morning with your patterns of sin, if you've made peace with them, you've looked at them and just said, whatever. Friends, that's worth paying attention to. Because Paul's argument here is that if you have Jesus, something has changed in you. And if you sit comfortably and have made peace with your sin, the question isn't whether you need to try harder. The question is, do you belong to Jesus at all? And this morning, if you do not belong to Jesus yet, that happens by faith, that union with him. Not by cleaning yourself up first, not by fixing your old patterns on your own. It's trusting that Jesus died for your sin and rose from the dead. And the moment that you believe Jesus by faith, you're united to him, the transfer happens and the regime changes. Easter means your old self is gone. That sin is over and you no longer are a slave to sin, the regime has changed. Secondly, dead and alive. So you've been raised. Look at, we're looking now, Paul takes us to the grave or takes us to the empty tomb. Look at verse 9. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. Stop there. Death no longer has dominion over him. That means death tried, that death had him for three days, and then Jesus walked out. And death had nothing left in that moment. No power, no claim, no final word. And Paul says this with certainty. Look at verse five. You will be. Verse eight, we will also, future tense, not maybe, not hopefully, certainly. If you know Jesus, your bodily resurrection is an absolute certainty. Your resurrection is coming. That's not all. Look at verse four. Christ has been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. And that same glory, get your mind around this, enables you to walk in newness of life. Not in the future, right now. The power that will raise you one day is at work in you today. Not willpower, not trying harder on your own, resurrection power. The power that walked Jesus out of the grave is at work in you right now if you belong to Jesus. And so, how do you get this reality? Look at verse 11. You must consider. Your translations might say reckon or count, but that word means to calculate based on evidence. And so, Paul, and I think this is important, he's not saying think positive thoughts. This is not the power of positive thinking here about yourself. What he is saying is do the math, add up all that is true of Jesus, and now add what is true of you because you are united to him. And his answer is, you are alive. Rory Shiner in his book, One Forever, describes what it means to be in Jesus with this analogy of, it's a great analogy of plane travel. And he says, if you want to get to Australia, then it's a good idea for you to book a ticket to Sydney. He says it would be strange of you to sprint down the runway after the plane, hoping to go in its general direction. It would also be strange for you to just simply watch from the lounge seeking some inspiration of the powers of flight. No, if you want to get to Sydney, there is one relationship you must have with the plane. And what is it? You must be in it. Not beside it, not under it, not behind it, not inspired by it. You must be in it. Why? Because by being in the plane, what happens to the plane happens to you. And that's Paul's logic here. Christ died and you died. Christ rose, you were raised. Not because you were sprinting after him, not because you watched from a distance and felt inspired, but because you are in him. And so do the math this morning. What is true of Jesus is true of you. Death no longer has dominion over you. What does that mean? Two applications. One for your future. If someone has died that you love and you are grieving in Christ, death does not get the final word. If you're suffering from a diagnosis or a disease, death and disease do not get the final word. The tomb is empty. And one day yours will be too. And let me just say this we got this beautiful new sanctuary. We're all dressed up. You look wonderful. But it's still true. And you've heard me say this. It is still true that somewhere, somewhere, someone in this place is in the worst week of their life. And if that's true of you this morning, here's the promise of Easter that one day all the sad things will come untrue. Not consolation, restoration. Because of the resurrection, listen to this, you will not miss out on one good thing that God has for you. Because of the resurrection, whatever it is this morning that you're afraid of or worried about, because this is true, it means it's all going to be okay. Pull what we believe about the future, which is a new heavens and a new earth and a new world and a new body. Pull that truth into your present and let it sustain you in this broken and fallen world. Secondly, this means, as far as application, that you have power to change and fight against sin right now. Not someday, not sometime later, today, Tuesday afternoon, when your life feels hard and you run up against that pattern and that habit that you cannot break and you feel powerless, that's when the resurrection matters most because it tells you who you are. And the most important thing about you is that you are united to Christ in his resurrection. That means that you are alive right now. Consider it. Do the math. What's true of you or true of Christ is true of you. He will never die again. You have a future beyond death. He is alive in you. You have resurrection power today, not because you've earned it, but because you are united to him by faith. Lastly, you can live differently. This is really interesting. I think this point, I just I found myself this week studying, and I was like, the Bible. I mean, I've never noticed this before, studying this passage. Truly amazing. First command in the entire book of Romans doesn't happen until chapter six. Paul has spent five and a half chapters on doctrine, on what God has done through Christ, on who you are, and on justification, not a single word about what you need to be doing until now. And I think that's really important. And it's not an accident, it's gospel order. Who you are always comes before what you do. Identity in the Bible before imperative. You don't fight to become someone. You fight because of who you already are. Look at verses twelve and thirteen with me, and we'll walk through this. The word instruments literally means weapons, military arms. Paul is not saying here, use your hands for good things. Paul is saying you are armed. Your tongue, your eyes, and your hands, and your habits, and your time, and your money. They're all weapons. And every single day you're presenting them to someone. And the question isn't whether you'll fight, the question is which king gets your weapons? Look at what he commands. Verse 13. Present yourselves, those, I think this is so interesting, who've been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Not just to resist sin. Not just resist sin, present yourselves, offer yourselves to God everything, your whole life as an instrument of righteousness, not because you have to, look at what he says, but because you've been brought from death to life. That's who's making the offering. Someone who was dead and is now alive, and that changes everything about how you fight. You're not fighting to escape something, you're fighting for restoration to something, to the person you were designed to be before sin reduced you to something less. And so present your whole self. That's what Paul's saying, all of it, to God. Here's what I don't want you to miss. Look at what happens before and after verses twelve and thirteen. Verse 11, look at it. You are alive in Christ, verse 14. You're not under law, but under grace, gospel sandwich. You see it? Between these imperatives, we have gospel realities. The commands live inside the gospel, not outside the gospel. If you land in verses 12 and 13 and you stop there, that's why reading the Bible in context and studying the Bible in context is so important. If you stop in verses 12 and 13, you walk out of here saying and thinking, try harder, do better, get it together, and you've missed Paul's entire point. That's law. That's not Easter. When uh America entered the Second World War, you might be familiar with this. Churchill slept what he called the sleep of the saved and thankful. Because the war was over. It was decisive because the decisive factor had entered in, the outcome was no longer in doubt. That's how we fight, not desperately, but confidently, from victory that's already been secured. That's Paul's posture here. And notice Paul ends on a promise. Look what has the last word in verse 14. Sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace, a promise. Grace is the ground you stand on. Grace makes the fight possible. Grace is the last word. Let me close with a few applications for you. Some of you this morning are fighting your patterns and the versions of yourself that you don't like. You're fighting them with guilt and shame. Every failure, another promise, another cycle. It's exhausting. And is it working? I would say it is probably not working. Why? Because guilt is not a power source. Shame is not a power source. Jesus is the power source. Paul says that the engine for change is gospel identity. Listen, you are not your sin. You are not your shame. You are not your failure if you are in Christ. You are a child of God fully, permanently, right now. That's who picks up the weapons. A child of God fighting from grace. Others of you have given up. You've stopped fighting. And you've said, This is just who I am. Paul says, sin no longer has dominion over you. That's a promise. Remember who you are and fight from that reality. And if you do not know Jesus this morning, maybe you're saying, does the resurrection actually change anything for me? And it does. Only if you're united to Christ by faith. And how does that happen? Well, you say, Jesus, I give up. I give up. I cannot save myself. I am trusting only in you. You do that, you go from death to life. You don't fight your way in. You receive what Christ has already done, and that is available to you right now, this morning. We came here asking the question whether Easter changes anything. What do you think? Paul's logic is yes, the tomb is empty. And because the tomb is empty, you're alive in Christ, and death no longer has dominion over you. That's the gospel. That's Easter. That's an invitation. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the empty tomb. Thank you for breaking sin's power and raising us to new life in Christ. Would you forgive us for the ways that we live, like the old regime still rules? We're forgetting that we're under grace, not law. And Holy Spirit, help us to fight from the victory Jesus has already won. There's someone here this morning that does not know you. Open up their eyes, give them faith. I pray that they would come to the Lord Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.