Slaves to Righteousness

We're in our eighth week, can you believe it, in Romans 6. I went back. Eighth week in Romans 6. So what I wanted to do this morning as we get going is to kind of take a step back and to make sure that we don't lose sight of the forest for sake of the trees. Because we've been looking at lots of details over the past eight weeks and I wanted to, let's not lose sight of the forest and the beauty of it for sake of the trees. So I want to kind of do some big big picture type stuff as we go on. So first page of your notes there, I just wanted to just point out how often faith has been referred to. Verse 5 in chapter 1, verse 5, verse 8, verse 12, verse 17, and actually it's mentioned three times in verse 17, the word faith is. Now these are all in the introduction there in verses 1 through 17. And then 1.18-3.21 talks about the unbeliever. All are unrighteous. All mankind is unrighteous and condemned. But notice in 3.20, faith picked up again. Look how many times faith was mentioned.

But then notice it stops. And I found that to be very interesting. I was just simply making some basic observations regarding faith in the book of Romans. And then it's not mentioned again, it's not picked up again until chapter 9 and verse 30. So when we looked at the word believe, We saw that it was used 3.3, 3.22, and you can see continues on there, and then believed where it's used there. So Paul, as he's writing this book, is wanting to clearly communicate to us this principle of faith.

We spent a lot of time on it earlier on, before we even got to chapter 6, because it's not mentioned too much in chapter 6. One thing I really want to stress is everything that we're talking about regarding positional truth, regarding conditional truth in chapter 6 is based on faith.

And we see it clearly. We've talked through it. All of it is based on faith and walking in dependency upon God. So then we moved on into the positional truths brought out in chapter 5 and chapter 6. Chapter 5 talked a lot about the Federal Headship. We're no longer in Adam, but now we're in Christ.

We spent several weeks communicating that. And then Chapter 6, which is where we are now. We're in our 8th week in Chapter 6. A couple more to go, I think, before we're going to get out of it. Our identification with Christ. We're because of what it is that God has done for us. We're dead to sin, and we're alive unto God. Just to kind of get a refresher of the big picture here.

Four weeks ago, We got to verse 11, where it says to reckon, having taken an account of what has happened, in a sense, balancing your checkbook, having taken an account of what's going on there, believe it, rely on it, count on it to be so, or consider it to be so. This is an imperative, and we talked about that four weeks ago.

And now we've moved on into this idea of present, which came in chapter 6 and verse 13. And we see this is mentioned in 6.13, again in 6.16, and then 6.19, which is where we're going to be at today. And then again, it's repeated in 6.22. No, I'm sorry, in 12.1. The idea here of slaves, we're in this section right now, 6.6 was mentioned slaves. 6, 16, again 16, then 19, and then verse 22.

So, just kind of keep in mind the big picture of what's going on here. But I really wanted to communicate this right here, because it's easy for us to to move on into these positional truths, to move on into the conditional truths that are laid out in chapters 6 and past that, and forget about that it's all based on faith. So I really wanted to draw our attention to how often that faith is brought out there in chapters 4, 3, 4, and 5. Okay, don't look at, if you already switched your page, don't look at your next page yet, okay? Kind of the sequence, again, look at the big picture of what's happened here in Romans chapter 6, the sequence of Romans 6.

So 1 through, 118 through 320, we saw the condemnation of all mankind. That is specifically written about unbelievers and describing unbelievers, a position that all mankind was born into. No one was exempt from that. Nobody at all. So then we get into 321 and following, with the exception of chapters 9-11.

This section is written to believers. We've talked about this. In chapter 6, we're dead to sin. We're going to get to chapter 7 in maybe 3 or 4 more weeks where we're dead to the law. We might, we might not. I'm not sure there. Chapter 8, we're going to be talking a lot about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then chapter 12 through 15 and 13, it's practical application. How does all this play out? What does it look like in our lives in a daily way?

9-11 would obviously go right there, and this talks about Israel, and how does Israel fit into the whole scheme of what it is that Paul is describing about believers and all that it is that God has done for them. So, let's ask this. When we're talking about chapter 1, 18-3, 20, is that conditional scripture or is that positional scripture? It's really important as we go through scripture that we keep in mind, is this positional or conditional? What do you guys think about that? Or it could be both. Positional, conditional, or both. I think we should describe what positional means and what conditional means. Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Al. When we talk about our positional scripture, it's something that is true of us whether or not we We're walking in it, whether or not we believe it to be true.

It's a position. It cannot be changed. It cannot be taken away. It can't be altered or anything like that. It's a position. Positional truth that can never be changed. And our condition is our walk here on the earth. It's our daily walk. practice, our daily condition, our experience, so to speak. Anyone want to add to that description of position or conditional truth? Really important that we grab that. Thanks, Al. Well, position is from God's perspective, right? Yeah, that's right. Looking at things from God's perspective, sure. Okay, so with that little explanation, what do you think about the condemnation of all mankind? What was the question? Is it a positional truth? Is it a conditional truth? Or is it both? Isn't it both? It's both. For the unbelievers?

You got it, that's right. They're positionally condemned, they're positionally separated from God, and they're walking in their condition and sin. They have no other option. And that's a state in which all mankind is. And that's really the issue, they have no other option. They have no other option. Because that's their source. That's right. That's who they are. Their source is the Old Testament. and dwelt with us in nature by birth. There's no new nature there. That's right. Hi Wendy, or not Mandy.

Okay, so when we go to righteousness imputed, this one, is this talking about position or just talking about condition? What's your thoughts there? Justification imputed. Righteousness imputed. Justification 321-425. Is it that everybody is really quiet or is that really people don't know? It's position. Yes, both, okay. Yeah, it's position.

It's talking about we have been justified. We've been declared righteous. That's a positional truth. Now, from God's point of view, God views us as being declared righteous. We have been brought from the place of an enemy to the place of a friend. It's a positional truth talked about there. Okay, in Adam or in Christ, we talked about that in chapter 5.

Is that positional or is that conditional? Positional. Alright, that's right. Exactly right. Okay, now we've been in chapter 6 for now for the 8th week here. This is Dead to Sin. Is this positional? Does chapter 6 talk about position or does it talk about condition?

We're talking about both. Both, that's right. Yeah, okay. But from God's perspective, it's positional, right? Sure, God views us as being dead to sin, but what's the context of chapter 6? It contains both. That's a good thing, because we always think of Romans chapter 6 is, boy, this is a positional truth passage. And it is.

There's no doubt about it that chapter 6 contains the invaluable position of our identification with Christ and His death and His burial and His resurrection. Wherefore, we've been separated from the power of sin, given the new nature, the very life of Christ. Therefore, it's freedom from the power of indwelling sin. Which, I'm going to go to another slide in a minute, don't flip through your slides, but we'll get to this in a little bit, a little bit more detail, but it's interesting.

Okay, dead to the law, chapter 7, is this talking about a positional, conditional, or both? Both. Yeah, exactly right. We'll get into that in the upcoming weeks. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in chapter 8. What's that? Is it positional, conditional, or both? Yeah, it's both. Exactly right. How about... Boy, I don't know where I went next with my click. Practical application. Positional, conditional, or both? Yeah, that's right. Conditional.

And then Israel, chapter 9 through 11. What's that going to be? Yeah, it's both. It talks about what it is that God has done for them, where they are, and what that looks like for them, and futuristic. See on the timeline here, we're here, we're here, before we were saved, we're unbelievers, we're here right now, and then obviously things that are written about Israel and Romans are stuff that's yet to be, that future, when we consider the timeline here.

When we're thinking about the sequence of Romans chapter 6, Romans was written in a sequence as a book, and this follows this, which follows this, which follows this, just like any book is going to be written. There's a sequence to it. So, it's to be believed in and appropriated as a single unit. See, it's written in a sequence, like anybody would naturally write a book, you write this chapter, and then you're going to go to chapter two, you write that, and on and on and on until you get to the end of the book. But when it comes to how is it that believers, in a sense, engage the book or interact with the book. It's all to be appropriated, to be believed in, to be walked in as one unit all at the same time.

In this way, it's not like we have to go through this door, and then go through this door, and then go through this door, and then go through this door. So, it's not in such a way that we have to go through and understand Chapter 3 before we can go through and understand Chapter 4, before we can understand Chapter 5, before we can understand Chapter 6, before we can understand Chapter 7, before we can understand Chapter 8. I don't believe that was the Lord's intent as we look at the whole book of Romans. I think it's to be viewed as a unit, walked through all at once, and appropriated all at the same time as a unit in a sense like this. As we're just walking by faith, we're going to walk through all of them at the same time. It's going to be the appropriation of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, all the way through 15.

There's some thought that, well, I have to go through this before I can go through this, and I have to go through this before I can go through this, and I have to go through this before I can go through this. Well, I'm not sure that's really the way that the Lord intended for it to be understood, and intended for us to walk through it, and to believe in it. I think it's all to be appropriated, believed in, trusted the Lord for, and walked in at the same time.

Jim, it's not like you're being dropped down from outer space through the fifth corner, right? I mean, you start at the beginning. Sure. You start. Yeah. The doors open all the way. Right. You've got to start from entering in from the first meeting. Meaning one. Well, I mean, I think. Let's take somebody who knows nothing about the Book of Romans, and he or she starts with 11-4. So in other words, you have to go through that first portal.

But it's a continuum, right? It's a continual thing, that's right. She's writing in a logical progression from 1 through, at least through 7 and 8. But she probably could take that whole thing as some concept or whatever you have in mind. But he has to explain it in that way. But then once you've learned it, at that point you have to take it as a whole and walk it in that way. That's right.

I don't think there's to be any delay to say it's only after I come to full understanding of what Romans 6 means that I'm going to be able to understand Romans 7 or understand and walk in Romans 8 or it's only after I go through Romans 7 therefore I'll be able to move into Romans chapter 8. That's not what I think the Lord intended. I don't think it's what Paul intended. It's all to be believed in and walk through starting with the beginning and walk through to the very end of the corridor, all at the same time.

And that relates to the important fact about once we're saved, we're positioned above, right? Yes. And then the condition begins immediately. Before, our position and condition was entirely of Adam, correct? That's right. And then when we're positioned in the Lord Jesus Christ, then our condition reflects our walk by faith, right? That's right. So you're right. Yeah. Does this make any sense?

This may be something we haven't thought much about, but I think it was something really worth talking about and worth thinking about. Okay, so we're in Romans 6, so in light of the sequence, and we talked about condition and position from chapter 1 all the way through to chapter 15, let's look at this slide, and condition and position in Romans 6. I had never really given this much thought until two weeks ago, and we've been going through 6, looking at the trees. We haven't really been looking at the forest, we've been looking at some very detailed trees. As we've gone through this, I've been seeing position and condition and position and condition.

So I said, let's just chart this thing out. And so when I did it, it was incredible to see it in this light. Have you guys ever thought through Romans 6 in this context? It was pretty neat. Note though, sometimes a verse can be either positional or conditional, so just please allow interpretative room for that. We know, we've talked about that. A lot of verse can be either position or condition.

And this morning, we're going to be right here. We're going to be in verse 19 and it's going to be a conditional verse. Last week, Bob walked us through basically a salvation passage. We believed We're therefore freed from the slavery of sin, become slaves unto God. Positional verses of chapter 7, verse 7 in 17 and 18. Now notice though, we come to the conditional verse of 19. It's critical for us to understand, as we look at the conditional verse of 19, that there's position on either end.

Because we don't want to get to a conditional passage and lose sight of the position. That's always a danger that we're going to become off balance one way or the other. We're going to overemphasize one or we're going to underemphasize the other. So this morning we're going to talk about a conditional verse, but notice it's on either end of it, it's position. And I just want to make sure that we all Take note of that. We don't want to get to over-emphasis of one or under-emphasis of the other. We want to be, in a sense, balanced in that regard. So, let's kind of narrow it down to the verses that we're going to be looking at this morning. We'll get to chapter 6 and let's just read verses 16 down and through verse 19.

Do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God, that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And I am speaking in human terms, because of the weakness of your flesh, for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. We're going to be focusing this morning on verse 19, but the facts of verses 16 through 19. 16 we talked about two weeks ago, simply was this, presenting oneself to sin makes one a slave to sin, results in death. Presenting oneself to obedience of faith makes one a slave of God, therefore resulting in righteousness.

Last week, Bob talked us through this, taught through this. They trusted in the Lord as their Savior and now free from sin and are slaves of righteousness. And so have we that have put our personal faith and trust in the Lord. This morning we're going to look at 19. Present your members as slaves of righteousness resulting in sanctification. So a simple progression here. There's just general knowledge about the slavery issue. You're going to be a slave to the one that you present yourself to. General knowledge there. And then we've got salvation. truth there, positional truth, you trusted, your position has changed. And therefore, because your position has changed, now therefore present yourself this way, and the result is going to be this. Can you kind of see the natural progression, the flow of these couple of verses here? Any thoughts? The idea here of being slaves to sin, and the opposite, slaves to righteousness or up to God. We saw that mentioned in verse 6, slaves to sin, and also in verse 17. Righteousness of God is mentioned in 3 verses in a row, 18, 19, and 20.

We are separated because of our identification with Christ. Our faith in Him, our identification with Him, we're separated from being slaves to sin. We're no longer positionally slaves to sin. And we have become slaves to righteousness, slaves to God.

Being a slave to sin, simply the result is death. Being a slave to righteousness or God, it results in righteousness, and we're going to see today, further results in sanctification. Slave to sin results in more lawlessness. We're going to see that played out today. Slaves to righteousness results in sanctification.

Slaves to sin, we're free from righteousness. Slaves to righteousness or to God, we're ashamed of sin. We're going to talk about that next week, I think. I'm sure. When we were slaves to sin, the result results in death. We're born into this position. We're born sinners. We're born as slaves to sin. The result is spiritual death. We're born spiritually dead. Born spiritually separated from God. And ultimately physical death.

Do you want to add to that? This here, this column over here, is how everybody is born into the world. Calvin, our youngest son, unfortunately, this is where he's at. And so is Henry. Henry's still here. We're hoping that in time, they'll trust the Lord and they'll move over to this column. But as young as Calvin is, and he's separated from God, he's spiritually separated from God. And yeah, that's true of them and everybody that's born into the world. When we put our personal faith and trust in God, this column becomes true.

Any other thoughts? because it talks about the fact that whether they're the same or very different. So the question is, is it the same? So, okay, present yourselves as someone of slaves for obedience. You are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin. Okay, the death that's being talked about there, it is when we are believers, okay? Do you remember the chart I showed you? Flip to the very end of your notes. There's a chart there.

Once we trust in the Lord as our personal Savior, we're still left with two options. Before salvation, there's only one option. There's the option of only presenting ourselves to this in nature, because we only have one nature at that point. There's only one option. Now, we put our personal faith and trust in Christ, now there's two options.

Once I'm a believer, if I'm walking in the flesh, If I'm presenting myself and my members, presenting my body to sin, as a slave to unrighteousness, there's still going to be death. And what the death means there is not a loss of salvation, but it is broken fellowship. We talked about that. I'd say the best way to communicate that is just a loss of, there's a broken fellowship. Because separation still carries the idea of, I'm separated from God, and positionally we're still joined together with God, but there is broken fellowship. If I present myself as a slave to righteousness, or a slave to sin, after a believer, then there's broken fellowship. That's what death means there. But prior to salvation, the result is going to be spiritual death, that position that we're born into.

A little squinty eyes. A little bit unclear because it came out of verse 16 there. 16 has both, doesn't it? Both columns. Sin resulting in death would be your left column. Obedience resulting in righteousness would move you over to the right column. Sure, sure, that's right. Does this make any sense to you? Does it? Okay, cool, good. Any other thoughts or questions? Okay. Okay, so let's look at verse 19.

So, I am speaking in human terms, because of the weakness of your flesh, for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity, to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to unrighteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Okay, so I'm speaking in human terms. What he's driving at here is he's using this slave analogy and he has been using this slave analogy for a while. So when he says, I'm speaking to you in human terms, he's using the example that they would understand. And that's what he means by speaking in human terms. I'm speaking to you in a way that you understand, because we talked about it two weeks ago, much of the population of Rome and of the surrounding area, they were slaves. So therefore I'm speaking in human terms, terms that you're going to understand, in terms that you're going to be able to be familiar with, and you're going to be able to relate to. That's what he goes by. And it's still inspired. Absolutely. Yeah, it's still inspired.

Sure. the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to speak in a way that would be easily understandable for them, which is really pretty neat. Think about that. That takes us back to 2 Corinthians where we dealt with the whole aspect of trying to come into the modern world in which you live to communicate. Remember the issues related to gifts and all that. That's right.

Okay, so we're speaking, he says, I'm speaking to you in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. So what I think is coming out here is that they were having a hard time understanding what Paul is trying to teach and they were much of the time still walking in the flesh. I think there's indication that despite all that's been said, despite all that's been shared, they're still having a difficulty. understand what's happening. They're still walking in the sin nature. They're still walking in the flesh. Still kind of stuck in that spot.

You've presented your members are slaves of impurity. Uncleanness I think the KJV uses there. And also to lawlessness or to iniquity. So, before salvation, we alluded to this earlier, before salvation they presented their bodies to send 100% of the time because they had no other option. They had one nature. You have to function within that one nature. There's no other possibility. And present theirs, aorist, active, indicative, plural. So they were doing it and it's referring to past tense. Before you presented in the aorist tense there.

But also, I think because of the previous phrase, because of the weakness of your flesh, it appears that even after salvation, that they are still spending much of their time walking in the flesh. Despite the positional change, they have been separated from slavery to sin, they've now been joined to a slavery of righteousness, a slave to God, they're still struggling with walking in the sin nature, in the flesh, and we do as well.

So, the next phrase is resulting in further lawlessness. When they were walking in the flesh, presenting their members to impurity and lawlessness, this led to an ever increasing lawlessness. It just kind of compounds itself. The flesh is only going to produce more of the flesh. The sin nature is only going to produce more of the sin nature. If I'm walking in sin, if I'm walking in the flesh, and I'm not responding by faith to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, what's going to happen? It's just going to get worse, and it's going to get worse, and I'm going to go farther down into the pit of mire of ugliness of sin, if I don't respond by faith. preceded all that we talked about to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. That's what is referred to there as further lawlessness.

Questions or thoughts? So here comes the comparison. We have this and we have this. Just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which has resulted in even further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness. So we've got this comparison going on. You presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness. Now present your members to something else, to the slavery of righteousness.

Present yourselves to God. You were doing this. Let's not keep going in that direction. Let's stop doing that. Let's be presenting this way. So, present your members. The idea there of members, I didn't really include it in my slide, but it also means body. Present your bodies. Present your body. That's what's referred to in several different places as well. What's coming out here with this presenting of your members is this. All believers must right now present your body as a slave to righteousness.

Present errors, active imperative. The imperative comes out as a command. Remember that Verne walked us through the imperative of Logitsima in chapter 6 verse 11. He took A lot of time to describe to us the imperative there. So that's why it comes out as must. You translate the imperative, you have to use the word must. It's something that we must do. Now, is this something that we must do independent of God? Absolutely not. The only way we're going to be able to do this is because of God. This whole thing was front-loaded by faith.

Look at that. This verse has position on both sides of it. In 17 and 18 it's position. 20 and 21 are going to be positioned. So here's a little conditional part here. This is something that we need to do. This is only possible because God has positionally already freed us from sin and made us positionally slaves of righteousness. He's done the positional work. So by faith We need to, we must present ourselves as slaves of righteousness.

Are we okay with that? I know when we get to the imperatives and, in a sense, man's part, it gets a little bit, I don't know what word I'm trying to find there, but it gets a little bit hard to discern what's God's part, what is man's part in the whole thing, but it's something that God wants us to do only by faith, Only independence upon him is that case. I quote Vern here from four weeks ago.

The believer's position in Christ is intended to be applied and is the basis for every application in the Christian life. So the position is intended to be applied. So this is what we're talking about. There's an application here of our position. But notice that the position is the basis for the application.

It's not, Jim, independent from God, I am now having to, independent from God, present myself. No, it's only on the basis of our position in Christ. So by faith in our position we must, here's the application, right now present our bodies as slaves of righteousness. So present or yield your members.

Next page here. The idea here of present, or the KJV uses the word yield, is to place beside or near, to set at hand, to provide, or to prefer, and the word prefer simply means to offer ourselves, or to present ourselves. That comes from the lexicon there that's mentioned. So, let me ask you this question, and I'll look at your notes for the answer, in case you already did.

When presenting, is it important to make a distinction between the flesh and the spirit? Or it doesn't really matter. Is that important that we make a distinction? There's two natures involved here. There's the flesh, there's the old nature, the flesh, sin nature, and then there's the new nature, the life of Christ. Is it important to make that distinction?

Well, the flesh is never going to present itself to God. It doesn't want to. He wants to do the opposite. I mean that's what I think. I just don't, I don't think the flesh wants anything to do with God. Right. Right. But we have to be careful here, because if you start, you know, feeling that the Spirit's leading, you start taking credit, right? So, I think the Christian life is a life. It's not deciding whether that's the flesh or the Spirit. Right. It's a life. Right.

And it's not me discerning, gee, was that in the Spirit or that? I mean, I think you can intellectualize this too much. And so I kind of disagree with this. I don't think we're starting to put a yardstick to our walk to see how we're doing. I think that's what this ends up being interpreted as.

With this specific point of which is being presented? Or the whole thing at large? Is it important to make a distinction between presenting the flesh or the spirit? It takes me into an intellectual concept as to whether that was a fleshly thing or a spirit-led thing. And I think that's wrong theology. I think it's a life, and that life doesn't examine itself for how it's doing. I think it's important though that we distinguish that I'm not going to present my flesh or my sin nature to God. Why? Because God's crucified it. Because why present something to God that God is absolutely 100% done away with? Why present something to God that was completely unacceptable to Him?

I think it's important for us to make that distinction. Well, the Holy Spirit's going to convict you of that anyway. I mean, if you are attempting to present something or behave a certain way that's against who God is, His character, the Holy Spirit's going to convict anyone of that pretty quick. If you're a believer. Sure. Don't you think that lots of Christianity get caught up in when it's legal, when it tends to be a little more legalistic than some, and that's the case lots of places, that they get caught up in presenting themselves and being committed to the Lord and being dedicated to the Lord, and they're simply committing and dedicating to the Lord, something that the Lord has crucified.

I think that happens all the time. Therefore, that's why I think it's important for us to make this distinction. I think when you talk about it, I think when you flush it out, I think that people need to understand, look, God is not in the business of working with my old man. He has crucified my old man.

That is something that is totally useless to God. When it comes to presenting, and not in the sense that we get caught up in an intellectual moment by moment thing where we get paralyzed, but we need to understand it. What does God want me to do? He wants me to present myself alive unto Him. The sin nature was so bad, was so useless, He crucified Him. Here I am alive unto God. Here I am working.

Use me the way you want to. Well, and no law system is going to improve the old man and make it acceptable to God. That's right. It might try, but it will never succeed. No, my refrigerator list is not going to improve the old man. That's right. Period.

Do you have a question? or present your body. It doesn't say present the flesh or the spirit, just present your body. Your body contains both natures. And in presenting it, I think it's understood in the presentation that you understand that the old man is crucified and dead to him and alive to God.

That's a good point. Yeah, yeah, good point. Right, that's right. to present it to God, we're walking in our position, which is putting it up there in your spirit, and that is what's presented. That's right. Good point. The body contains both, so in a sense it's neutral. But we're going to present our bodies, and it is dead to sin, and it is alive unto God. Therefore, as we're walking in our position, it will be presented that way. Yeah. Good. Good thoughts. Anything else?

I quoted Verne again here, so the application in the Christian life is about who Christ is and His life, and therefore it is about who we are in Him. Verne stated that four weeks ago. So based on who we are in Him, and our faith in our new life with Him, believers are to right now, by faith, allow the Lord to live His life in and through us. Do we're just presenting ourselves to them?

Here I am Lord. You do with me what you want to do with me today. I'm walking by faith. I'm dependent upon you. I'm offering myself to you. You know what this day holds. Circumstances, the trials, whatever is going to come about my way. Here I am Lord. I'm just allowing you to live your life in and through me right now.

Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. Let's go. Let's look at that. I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Verse 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So back in verse 1 there.

Present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. Notice, acceptable to God, because in our position, we are acceptable to God. And notice, this is your spiritual service of worship. That's all that the Lord is asking us to do. By faith, present ourselves to Him. That's our spiritual service of worship.

It's not saying be acceptable, it's saying you already are. You already are. That's right. And that's grace. You already are acceptable. It's not work harder to become acceptable. That's right. Critical that we understand that. Not trying to work harder to become acceptable, but we already are acceptable.

Slaves of righteousness, back to verse Back to chapter 6 and verse 19, the idea here is we're presenting ourselves, presenting our members, our bodies as slaves of righteousness. Now, righteousness is only found in Christ. We have no righteousness of our self or of our own. The righteousness that we have is because we now have been placed into Christ and are baptized into Him because of our faith. So in essence, slaves of righteousness, righteousness is only found in Christ. So, we're slaves to the character and life of Christ, because as we are walking by faith, and Christ is living His life in and through us, therefore we're slaves of righteousness.

Does that make sense? We kind of hit it last week a little bit. What's the idea here of being a slave to righteousness? What does that mean? I tried to wrestle with that a little bit this week. There's no righteousness of ourselves. It only comes from God.

So we're a slave to that, and we're a slave of who Christ is. We're a slave, in a sense, of our position in Him. And therefore, we mentioned it last week, this is a slavery to freedom in Christ. We're a slave to, in a sense, allow Christ to live His life in and through us, as we're walking by faith. That's a pretty neat thought, to think about that. As we are presenting our bodies, dead to sin and alive unto God, then Christ will be living his life in and through us and therefore we are slaves of righteousness.

The result is sanctification, or holiness, as KJV uses the word holiness. I know that KJV also uses the word unto, holiness. It doesn't use the word resulting in, which is what the NAS uses. Now the Greek word, I didn't go into it in a lot of detail in the slides, But it's a little word, ice, a little preposition, ice, and the KJV has chosen to translate it with the word unto, so unto holiness, and the NAS has gone with resulting in sanctification. I think it's pretty much the same thing. The bottom of your notes there, you'll see that this word for holiness and sanctification is used 10 times in the New Testament, 5 times translated as sanctification, 5 times translated as holiness.

So it's split down the middle. Sanctification is a set apart for a special purpose. So presenting ourselves as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. We're going to be set apart for a special purpose. to set apart from one thing or purpose to another thing or another purpose. So there's an idea there of a separation. Apart from this, unto this. So believers have been positionally and are being conditionally set apart from the sin nature to the new nature, the very life of Christ.

We have been positionally and we are being conditionally. The are being conditionally part is what we're talking about here in verse 19. Yield. There's the imperative. God wants us to right now yield ourselves to Him. We are being conditionally separated.

Sanctification has a past, present, and future meaning. Past or positional sanctification has already happened because of who we are in Christ. Present sanctification is our practice or it's our walk and it's our condition. That's what's being referred to here in verse 19, is our present sanctification. So, as we're walking by faith, presenting ourselves to Christ as slaves of righteousness, we will be conditionally set apart from the sin nature, and Christ is manifested in and through us, God is glorified. Future, perfect sanctification will happen when we meet with the Lord, meet the Lord in glory.

I mentioned that already. Now, I got some of these thoughts here from Hal's notes on Lesson 31, Major Vowel Themes class, and so if you want more details on sanctification, this is a real brief, but we needed to talk about it because it came up in the verse. Go to Lesson 31 on Sanctification and Major Bible Things. It's a great, great lesson.

So this is the slide that comes right out of that. Sanctification is past, present, and future. In Romans 6, verse 19, we're right here. God wants us to, right now, present ourselves to Him. It comes across as an imperative. It comes across as a command. And the result is what? Present, right now, conditional sanctification, which is a result of our position that we're walking in. And this is a slide I showed two weeks ago, I think it was now. Here's kind of the option. And so, by faith, let's be doing this. That's what the verse is saying. This is what the Lord wants. It's for us to, by faith, be presenting ourselves to the Lord, dead unto sin and alive unto God.

Thoughts or questions? Both bells are rung. Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank you for this time. Thanks for your word here, communicating to us these truths. And so we just pray for Vern, the rest of the service this morning, that you'll be speaking through him and guiding him as he gives us the message out of Isaiah. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.