Why Is it Not Neccesary to Live Any Longer in Sin?

Good morning. Okay, great verses. We're in Romans chapter 6, which probably, not probably, is really doctrine that the Lord has been so gracious to tell us about that it makes a difference in everything we are and everything we do. Better have this. So, we're talking about human beings, believers in the Lord Jesus.

We just went past, I got saved. Something happened for me. Now we're going to talk about what happened to me on the cross of Christ. Christ's propitiatory work, in other words, His satisfactory work towards God through His blood, bearing the guilt and condemnation of our sins, every believer knows that's true. Christ's identification with us, connected with Adam, in other words, becoming sin for us, releasing us from Adam, our federal head, the old man, being crucified with Christ. So we find out that there's something else that's going to happen. There's something else that did happen. And I think we get pretty excited when we start to realize that, wow, the Lord had a lot more in mind.

I remember when I first approached these verses and someone showed me Romans 6.6 and all he said was, read Romans 6.6. I did. He said, what does it say? I said, it looks like I died. He said, that's right. So that's really what we're going to talk about. Now here's what's interesting.

As a person, my Father conceived me in His heart way back in the eternal counsels of the Trinity. According as He has chosen us in Him, Christ, when did He do this? Before the foundation of the world that we should be holy. and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us, not to salvation, but predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. So God chose, He chose, to introduce me into this world via Adam, the first Adam.

And what did I get with that? I got a fallen sinful life. I got a sinful nature. I was a sinner. Other terms for this condemned life, which we've talked a lot about in the last several weeks, is old man, flesh, Adamic nature, old nature, indwelling sin, old life, the principle of sin. So primarily today, if you look at the handout, most of what I'm going to talk about answers those questions. My mind thinks that way. I read something and my mind just says, so what? And so, oh, well, I've got to answer that so what.

What does it mean to be set down or made a sinner? We studied in 5.19 For it is through one man's disobedience that many were made sinners." Everybody in Adam became a sinner when he sinned. Even so, through the obedience of one, the many will be made righteous.

We have another man. The word sinner here is not just an adjective. It's a substantive or it's a noun. I am a sinner. That's what I am. The Greek word Hamartilos, did I say that right, means not merely one possessed of a sinful nature or just a tendency to sin, but one who is regarded as having committed sins. Verse 19 sums up the doctrine of our federal guilt in Adam's sin and sums up our justification by Christ's death. So what do we know so far?

I came into this world as a sinner. I was tied to the man Adam who was a sinner, and everybody that comes into this world comes in as an Adamic man. Sinner. But then there was a new man that came, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he paid the penalty and the guilt for my sins. So I have been made the righteousness of God. So, I'm standing on new ground now.

So what's the conclusion when you get to Romans 5.21?

So that as sin reigned unto death, sin was a reigning principle. Even so, grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So God's great object now is that grace would be the reigning principle and not sin and not death. As there was a kingdom of death and all you got to do is look around, watch television, you see the kingdom of death happening all the time. I think we look at death as somebody not moving in a box. Death is walking down the street, cars driving on a freeway, that's death in action. God had determined that death would no longer, or sin would no longer be the reigning principle, that grace would be the reigning principle.

And all the divine claims should be first righteously met at the cross, and that it should be through our Lord Jesus Christ. He determined that. So we might say in verse 1 that Roger covered, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? Well, if grace is going to be the reigning principle, the more I sin, the more grace there is. Verse 2, may it never be, how shall we who did what?

We died. Well, death means separation. What did I get separated from? I got separated from the entire environment and principle of sin. And why is it not necessary that I live in sin any longer? It's really simple. I died. I died. When my parents died, what happened to them? They left the planet. They left the existence here. They no longer existed here. They had no influence here, or didn't have influence on them. They weren't here. Just the same thing. When I died with Christ, I left. I left Adam, and I'm now in Christ.

So, what makes the question in Romans 6 such a risky so risky to the uninstructed believers or non-believers alike. It's a scary proposition. The message is simply grace, apart from all works, to the poor natural heart of man, seems wholly inconsistent and impossible.

Yeah, it is. From an earthly standpoint, from Adam's standpoint, grace is not accepted. And as Louis Ferry Chafer said, it's the most hated thing there is. You know why? Because it doesn't give the sin nature anything to do. If we're sins abound, sin abounds, grace overflows, then the more sin, the more grace. That's what the Adam mind thinks. So the unbeliever rejects the grace plan because he says, look, put us under rules.

Just tell us what to do. And we'll get along fine. I need to know what the rules are. Because all of us are, you know, you walk into a strange place, I come over to your house, right away I'm thinking, I wonder what the rules are around here. Do I take my shoes off or not? Do I put the seat down or don't I?

The uninstructed Christian is also afraid because he says, if we are in a reign of pure grace, what will control our conscious evil tendencies? There's fear about that kind of freedom. When God says you're going to live under grace, you think, oh, I'm in trouble because I need to be told what to do. I'm not that savvy. And not only that, not only am I not that savvy, I also recognize that if I become a child like I became a child of God, I no longer have to sin.

When he says in verse 2, may it never be, how shall we? And he says something really interesting. He says, such a one as we are, but it changes this. What is the answer to 6.1? As we continue in sin, that grace may increase, may it never be. How shall such a one as we, who died to sin, live in any longer? Who are the such as one as we? Those who died with Christ. So Paul says, every believer died with Christ. It would not become a child of God to live any longer in sin. Do you think about this?

As a believer positioned in Christ, to sin is spiritual insanity. And you know, when you're insane, you don't act like you're supposed to. Well, if I'm in Christ, then I'm not supposed to sin anymore, and if I don't sin, the world thinks I'm nuts. Well, I am, from their perspective. From God's perspective, my position in Christ, it's normal not to sin. The necessity to sin is broken. I don't have to where before I had to. So why is it not necessary to live any longer in sin and to go on bearing fruit unto sin?

Paul characterized all Christians as those who died. The tense of the Greek verb is aris tense, you did die, which denotes not a state, but a past fact. Every one of us in this room today died with Christ 2,000 years ago. It would not be come a child of God to live any longer in sin.

God has provided the possibility and the probability of deliverance from sin's power. By judging the old nature, which he did, by giving us the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, which he did, we believers are dependent upon God alone for deliverance by His Spirit.

That's the cool thing. If you live under a law system in the Jewish economy, you were not given the Spirit of God so that you could obey the law. It was up to you. You had to do it. But under this position in Christ, resurrected, not only have I got a new position and it's not necessary for me to sin, but I also have the Holy Spirit.

And with the coming of the Holy Spirit, I can depend on someone who is God Himself, that His presence and His power will keep me from sinning. And that's the hard thing to learn, dependence on Him. We believers are dependent upon God alone for a deliverance by His Spirit, alone, just Him. Consequently, if I'm dependent on Him not to sin anymore, then the necessity of sin is broken.

So, when you look at the argument in these passages, they're based on the believer's vital union by which we organically are united to Christ through baptism by the Holy Spirit. I love the word organically. We are so united to Him that you can't tell the difference. We belong to Him. So, again, the question is, why do we not have to sin anymore? The answer is really simple. We died to it. It sounds so easy, but it's not.

So, at what point then, in the lifeline of Christ. If I was to draw a chart that had the lifeline of Christ, in that He was conceived here, born here, lived here, went here, did that, did that, then He was arrested, He was suffered, put on a cross, He died, He was buried, He was resurrected, and ascended. On that whole line, at what point did you and I enter into Christ's life? We entered when he died.

Why there? Why is that such an important part? The point that he died deals with the entire principle of sin, because he didn't die until he was made the thing sin. You see that? He was made the thing sin. before He died. And that's the reason that we are baptized into Christ's death. When He died to sin, so did we. It isn't that we went into Him on the Sermon on the Mount or in the resurrection. We went in at the time when He died. Why? In order to have resurrected life, you must first die. You have to die out of Adam. You have to leave him.

If Christ has made sin for us, and by His word was to die out of sin when we share His death, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, he who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ. Christ on the cross not only bore our sins in His own body, but He also was made to be sin by the thing sin itself. So verse 3 says to us, oh, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death?

It makes perfect sense that that's when you would go in. Because when He died, you died. You're not a minute early. You're not a minute late. So, therefore, if that's true, We have been buried with him through baptism into death so that Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father. We might also walk in newness of life.

So why include burial? Why would you include burial in this discussion? We share a union with Christ in his death, but why does he say bury? Interesting. Godet remarks, burial is the act which completes the breaking of the last tie between man and his earthly life. That's what burial is all about. You go in the ground, they cover you up with dirt, we're done. We buried you. This was the likeness of the meaning of our Lord's internment. They buried him in a cave.

So in the same way, by baptism, there is a public consummation of the believer breaking with the life of the present world with his own natural life. I got separated. Christ not only provided his blood to cleanse and judge sin, But he also took away sin. The final disposition of sin is accomplished in his burial. It went into the ground.

If you look at John 1.29, which is kind of an interesting verse, John the Baptist says, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, how did he know this? Behold, the Lamb of God, who does what? Takes away the sin of the world. If you were a Jewish person and you heard him say that, you would have no idea what he's talking about, because those sacrifices never took sin away. The best they could do is cover them.

Hebrews 9.26 tells us, otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now, once at the consummation of the ages, He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Put it away. I'm now in living union with the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. His divine human nature has become my new life.

Second Peter 1.4, I am now one spirit with him. First Corinthians 6. He is my head. I am a member of his body. The Lord Jesus is the true vine. And I am a living branch in that vine. My Heavenly Father is the vine dresser. All of those things are true of me now. True of me now. So, therefore, if we've been buried through baptism into death so that Christ who was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father might walk in newness of life.

Let's talk about this newness. What does it have to do? What is this newness kind of a thing? If you look at that, you initially look at the end of that verse and you think that walking is the noun. It's not. Newness is the noun. Brand new. Brand new creation. I don't think we appreciate a lot of times that when Christ rose from the dead, He was a new creation. And some of the elements of that new creation is I've got a new head.

I'm a partaker of an inheritance that I didn't have before. I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Not going to be, already am. I've been justified forever. And my citizenship has changed. I don't belong around here anymore. I'm not an earthly citizen. I'm now a heavenly citizen.

And in that new creation, when Christ rose from the death, there are two major components. You know what they are? One of them is the resurrected Christ. The other one is the entire company of believers, the new humanity. We don't realize that we are a brand new kind of humanity that never was on the earth before until Christ rose from the dead. That's who we all are. When Christ rose from the dead, he entered into a sphere of existence that the universe had never seen before. A resurrected, glorified man. And you know what? We rose in Him. Why? Because we were baptized into His death. We were buried. So we are now connected with Him that everything that is going to be true of Him is going to be true of us.

So what does it mean, what does the fact of being in newness of life spiritually, newness of life, qualify us for? What do you get qualified for by having this newness of life? Everyone who is baptized into Christ is vitally joined to Him in a union which is absolute, can never be changed, and which establishes identity between Christ and the believer and creates the ground upon which all that Christ is and where He is, is given to the one who is in Him. A complete disposal of the former existence of the first Adam has been accomplished.

It has been terminated by the co-crucifixion, co-death, co-burial and resurrection with Christ. Notice this, that walking in newness of life presupposes that you have the possession of that life to do it. If you didn't have that life, you couldn't walk in newness. You couldn't walk in resurrected life. Maybe look at it this way.

We look at the creation of the universe as a huge example of the power of God. Do you know it took more power to raise Christ from the dead than it did to create the universe? It took all three persons of the Godhead to raise Him from the dead. And that's called resurrection life. And that's the life that we have. So, you know what? No fair going to God and saying, I can't. This sin is too powerful for me. No, it's not. No, it's not. So, the kind of life it takes to walk in this new creation is that life. Resurrection life. New kind. New quality. Different.

Verse 5 says to us, for if or since we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, since that's true, certainly we shall also in the likeness of His resurrection. So this tells us what happened when we were united with Christ in His death. What's going to happen in the future if we go forward? Those who are saved are already united to Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, which takes place, which places them positionally beyond the judgment of sin.

You know, on Wednesday night we're studying 1 Thessalonians, and on Tuesday we're in Hebrews. And on Sunday school we were in Titus and kind of talking about what's coming in the future. And we looked in Romans 3 and it said, we have been saved from the future wrath of God. I don't know how anybody who reads the scripture can think that believers are somehow going to be associated with the tribulation. It's impossible because of who we are and where we are. We're going to escape all of that because we're in Christ. We are assured That as certainly as we shared his death, we shall certainly share his resurrection. The resurrection of your body.

You know, I was listening to Andy Woods the other day. He was talking about this event, the rapture. And he said, you know, some people think that because it says in scripture that Christ will come in the clouds and there will be those who come with Him from heaven and those who come from the earth and join up there." And he said, I got up this morning, there weren't any clouds in the sky. I said, no rapture today. It's like God needs clouds to do the rapture.

So what we find is that we're free to enter into the experience of eternal power and victory in Christ's resurrection. We're free to do that. Don't hold back. One of the great things about the book of Hebrews is that with the encouragement is to boldly go.

Go into the Holy of Holies. That's where you belong. And what you find out is that there's no way out of the Holy of Holies. You don't get 15 minutes and the sacrifice is over. Once you go in, you stay there because that's where you belong. That's where resurrected life is.

Put in another way, we're eligible for entrance into a new creation. We all qualify. To be in Christ, which is the portion of all who are saved, is to participate in all that Christ has done all that he is and all that he ever will be. That's who we are. I get going and I lose my place. I want to read this from Kenneth Wiest. I thought this was just really terrific.

The future aspect of the words we shall be is not that of a predictive future as far as time is concerned, but that of a logical future, which Paul says in his Greek, for in view of the fact that you have become permanently united with him with respect to the likeness of his death, certainly also as a logical result, we shall become those who have become permanently united with him with respect to the likeness of his resurrection.

The latter expression is defined by its context. The physical aspect of resurrection, namely the glorification of our bodies, is not in the Apostle's mind here. He's writing in the context of Sanctification, not glorification. It's an important distinction.

We know that when the rapture happens that we're going to go to glory and we're going to be united with a glorified body. But what goes on right now is what is known as sanctification. All of these things that are true of us positionally are being worked into us by the Holy Spirit to set us apart. to God for His own use and set us apart from all that we were in Adam on a practical basis. We know positionally it's true and we function and live with faith in our position, but there's a practical thing called sanctification. This setting apart goes on all the time.

The aspect of our Lord's resurrection spoken of here is that of a new type of life He lives as the man Christ Jesus since His resurrection. Not now a life in which the soul life has prominence, since He, as the man Christ Jesus, was surrounded with and had to take cognizance of the human life and limitations. That's what He did when He was here. He possessed and was surrounded Him. But now, but a life which the human spirit is predominant. The spirit of Christ in you, your spirit is now predominant, not your soul, connected with the sin nature. So that the saints of this new condition orders his behavior in the power of a new life imparted, the resurrection life of Christ.

I thought that was really good because that's who we are. Our priorities are different now. We have totally changed from what we were in Adam to now we're in Christ. Verse 6, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, knowing this, that our old man, and some of your Bibles may say self, it shouldn't be self, it's man, it's anthropos, was crucified with Him, purpose, in order that the body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. So what do we know? As my son used to say, Dad, what do we know? Knowing this, and this word means that we're growing into the understanding of what this whole thing is about. a discriminating apprehension of the facts that my old man was crucified.

I'm learning as I go, more and more every single day. It's a positional truth that I was co-crucified with Christ. I was with Him when it happened. I was in Him. The individual transfer in federal headship from the first Adam to the last Adam, I'm learning that. I know it. but I'm learning it experientially, coming to know this. I know I'm finding out that everybody in Adam is condemned, without exception, and so was I, and so were you.

I'm coming to understand more and more that I was co-crucified with Christ, which makes it possible to be delivered from the power of the old man. Anybody who's been a Christian for very long wants freedom from the power of that old man. I'm learning that the resurrected life and the Holy Spirit is the thing and the person that frees me practically from my sin. And I no longer have to live as a slave to the first Adam. How long does it take the Spirit of God to convince a believer that he's a slave or was a slave to Adam? That every time the bell rang, you responded like Pavlov's dog, a slave to sin. It takes a while to learn that.

But I also learn at the same time I'm free. I am totally free. Knowing experientially that our old man was crucified, once and for all with him in order that the physical body dominated by the sin nature might be rendered inoperative. So here's how it works.

You have a sin nature. It triggers your soul, and your soul acts out the sin in your body. And you know what? You don't have any control over that if you're not a believer. The bell rings, you sin. And your body is the thing that does the sinning. So, being dominated by the sin nature, what is co-crucifixion with Christ? One of the benefits from it? is that my body can be rendered out of business to the sin nature, inoperative, or as Hal Malloy used to say, taken offline. I don't have to respond. A non-believer has no choice. He's a slave to sin. We do. We can trust God about what He tells us. Positional co-crucifixion with Him When did it happen? At the time and place that he was crucified.

This passage follows the statement of the individual's transfer of federal headship from Adam, the first Adam, to the last Adam, who is Christ. Interesting, Adam began a son in his own likeness, just like him. This son of Adam and all since him were just like Adam. Possessed of this, possessed of his own nature, his own thoughts in his mind, his own feelings, his tastes, his desires, his wisdom, his will, all of it apart from God. And oh, by the way, condemned by God. The first Adam, as perpetrated in the believer, was judged in the crucifixion of the cross.

The old man, The fallen nature, that which we were in Adam, which we received from Adam, was crucified with him. This co-crucifixion is really, really important to us. And it's also incredibly important on God's side of the ledger. That makes it possible for true deliverance from the power of the old man. If this wasn't true, there's no deliverance.

Paul knew two things about himself. First thing was, he knew he was justified from all guilt by the blood of Christ. He also knew that he was also justified or cleared from the thing sin itself. And therefore, though walking in as yet unredeemed body, he was wholly heavenly in his standing, his life, and his relationship to God. He knew that.

We're learning that. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified, old self, I should have put man in there, crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer... We've got three problems in this verse. We've got to know who the old man is, which we've spent a lot of time in the last few weeks talking about it. It's used here referring to the individual. There are two words that can be used in Scripture. Anthropos, referring to individual man or woman. Paleos and old, which means old in point of views.

So, the whole body of sin, what is that? It's the human body. The word sin is in the genitive case here. The genitive case of possession refers to the believer's physical body before he was saved, possessed by and dominated and controlled by the sin nature.

That's what when you talk about the old man was crucified. Now, the third thing is, is that What's involved in the word translated destroyed? And this is a key point. When I said destroyed or put out of business or rendered inoperative in that respect, namely that of being controlled by the sinful nature in order that we should no longer we are rendering we render a slave's habitual obedience to sin.

I don't have to sin. Back to what I said when we first started. The great thing is, is that my body, your body, can be put out of the sin business. You can shut the door to sin. And it's because you were co-crucified with Christ. So finally, I took a quote from Miles Stanford. I thought this was appropriate. He says, until I see clearly that I have been cut off from the Adamic life in my death to sin at the cross, I will not fully enough realize that I am now a new creation in Christ risen. I got to see it. I got to own it.

As a new creation in the Lord Jesus, I am no longer responsible for the presence of indwelling sin. But I am very much responsible, however, to reject and not to yield to the demands of the sinful, indwelling Adamic life. I can't be responsible because I died with Christ to the fact that I still have a sin nature indwelling me. But I am responsible now to reject that life.

I am responsible to rely on God's Word when He said, knowing this, that my old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be put out of business, that my body now could be used to serve the Lord, and not to sin, I no longer have to be a slave to sin. Let's close.

Father, how we thank you for your cross, and we thank you for your Son, and we know and we're learning it takes a while to grasp ahold of and apprehend and own our co-crucifixion with your Son, the Lord Jesus. But as we all grow in the knowledge and grace of your Son and his word, that we might be persuaded without any compromise, that we were buried, we were crucified, we were buried, we were risen, and now seated with you in the heavenlies. And as long as we're here on the earth, we do not have to serve sin anymore. And we thank you for that, Father. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.