Knowing and Growing - Romans 6:1-23

be talking about Romans 6, 1 through 23, which equals Romans 6. The passage we touched on a few weeks ago when I was teaching on the security of salvation, because we find ourselves baptized into Christ and we can't end up getting hope back out, and that's wonderful. We're going to be looking at what how that sits with respect to knowing and the freedom that that ends up giving us. Before we can really dive into Romans 6, though, we have to back up. This is the game of how far do you back up to get enough context to go forward, and do you need to back up to get context for the context.

I decided to stop that at Romans 5.18. So, I'll start with the first paragraph, and we're going to keep flipping back to this.

So then is, through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so, through one act of righteousness there resulted justification. man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Even so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. The law came in so that transgression would increase.

But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so, grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." So this transgression, this sin that entered in through one man, Adam, gets taken care of also by one man, Christ. And no matter what sort of sin abounds, God has grace to cover all of that. And so the first thing that people being taught this will think is, OK, wait. If I sin, then grace is going to cover that, and then more.

And I would like to really turn up the volume on grace because I love it. And so the solution clearly, I should sin a whole mess. Which is of course absurd, but that's why Paul jumps into Romans 6 with, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? See, he understands that line of reasoning.

And the next line, may it never be, which in the Greek is meganeto, which is the most emphatic way, really, that you could say no. That's not even a possibility. You can't consider that. So, okay, I learned that sin was awful and that grace superabounded and covered And I've also now learned that sin is not the way to go and make grace, that I can't even think about that. Why in the world can I not even think about that? Why is that such a silly line of thought?

And so that's the rest of this chapter which talks about our relationship to Christ and our relationship to Adam and where we sit in that and the freedom that we have as a result. Before we jump in too terribly much, I want to read 1 through 10 and then focus on knowing just a little bit. Because we're in a class right now not on Romans. We're in a class on knowing and growing. And the section that we're in right now is knowing. So we actually can know the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not an impersonal relationship. So I want to focus a little bit on knowing and what that means.

So as we go through this, may it never be, how shall we and the construction, the implication is, you do know. So, don't you know this, and I know you do, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death. Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is free from sin. Now if we've died with Christ, we believe that we shall live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

So we get knowing three times in that one short passage. And it's Gnosko, it's an intimate understanding It's not head knowledge, it's not book knowledge. We get to this place where we're to consider ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. And that consider is an accounting term. This is not, and we'll get to this in a little bit, but this is not faith instead of reason and thought.

This is very carefully considered. very carefully reason and understand the Word of God, and based on that, you're going to find out some stuff that's going to make you think, yep, that's true. So, the knowing. So we get to know with certainty, and so that's excellent. A lot of religions out there probably do control the for you in a very beneficial way for us. That's really clear over and over and over in scripture. We can actually know this. And we do know this.

Second, knowing impacts the way that we live. And so this is the difference between head knowledge, heart knowledge. A lot of people in seminaries are there. super excited about learning every last technical detail of doctrine that they can, but they miss the whole point of knowing and having a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ that's intimate and personal and life-changing. Knowledge isn't about being able to trot out the facts, hand them over to people. It's about impact that it makes in your life. Something really internalized will change, will shape the way that you act. The next one is around relationships, and we'll cover this as we go through the rest of the passage.

We had a relationship to Seth. We now have a relationship to Christ. And we do have this, in this passage, we'll see that we have this identification with Christ. We were identified with him at various stages in his death, in his burial, in his resurrection. We won't see ascension and seeding in this passage, but it's elsewhere. So we have this shared history. And the shared history is just absolutely amazing. and it talks about how intimately connected we are.

So, do you not know that you have been baptized into Christ? Baptism, just a little bit about that. It's not the simple act of taking somebody and dunking them in some water and saying, Great words and we're done. Baptism, in the Greek language, was about permanently changing something.

So I'll give you a couple examples. First one is the weapons myth. a big bucket of water. And that would materially change the nature of the metal, such that it became case-hardened steel. You couldn't reverse that process. When plunged that into the bucket, baptizo. It was baptizing the sword.

Another example, and one that we've used in the children's ministry, is about dyeing of clothes. So clothes were dyed using all manner of interesting ways, including squished up bugs and stuff. And so you take the squished up bugs and make a slurry of it and put the cloth in and pull it out. And what do you know? It is completely changed, and you're not getting that color back out of it.

One of the exercises that we did with the kids was we had them take a white handkerchief and had a cup of dye. Yes, we told the parents to have their kids come in less than church clothing for this exercise. They baptized the cloth into the dye. And they pulled it out. And I asked them, get the dye back out now. Do whatever you want. See what you can do to get that dye out. There's no ringing.

There's no anything around that that's going to change that baptism. And so we have been baptized into Christ. That's going to materially change us. And that change is not then going to be undone. Completely lost track. Turned it around on myself. OK. So that is baptized into. Let's talk about death. So we were baptized into his death. We're kind of walking around right now. So it's a little weird. I don't feel very dead.

So when we look through scripture in a methodical way, we find that over and over and over again, the subject of death comes up. And in all of those cases, death means separation from something. So we see in the case of a death causing a separation between man and wife, that she's now separated. from that. We see divorce talked about the same way, and there are several examples.

Second Corinthians, we're dead to ourselves, but alive to Christ. So we're separated from ourselves, we're made alive together with Christ. We died to the law. So we didn't keel over and now law is not applicable. We've been separated from the notion of law. We have a different reigning principle in our lives right now.

Died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, dead to sin, died with Christ to the world. Over and over, it's talking about separation. And so we who have been baptized into permanently changed, baptized into his death, are now separated from whatever it was that he separated from at that moment, because we share that identification. Let's talk about what it is that we've been separated from.

So we start out. We're born. We are in Adam. Our line goes all the way back to the garden and the sin that transpired there. Our nature is the same as Adam's nature. And so as such, as unbelievers, We are spiritually in Adam, tied to Adam, functioning as Adam. That's how life works. However, the believer ends up separated from that, and alive to God. And so, just so that we're super clear when I say believer, A lot of people believe in a lot of different things.

What's the important thing to know to actually make this transformation? That's a real question. Believing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, believing the gospel. And that gospel is that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Believing in those simple facts, we are transformed, we are baptized into Christ and into his death. So, where did we come from? This lovely picture on the bottom of page 3. We started in Adam, and so we have a physical body. And that physical body is glued to the sin nature, or the sin nature is glued to it.

You're not pulling those apart. I know a lot of folks talk about how people are generally good. People are not generally good. I think that we have all seen cases where somebody is just so overtly sinful. that it's really clear that there's something horrible, horrible going on there.

So the thing is, we all sit in that place when we are in Adam. And so we may not act unkindly in the moment, but we think unkindly. We wish constraints would be removed in our world such that we could act and get away with it, we all have this issue.

And so, here we are, in the old man, in Adam, and we have this sin nature that's tied to us, and then at the moment that we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again, we are transformed, we are cut off from that. Our body continues forward. We didn't physically die. But spiritually, we died to that sin nature. We're separated. It no longer has to call the shots. We're free to act differently. So then we find ourselves in this new nature in Christ, separated from law, separated from sin. It's still there. I think I've sinned at least once this last week. So probably that's the story. I don't sin. I'm very good. So Tristan's actually doing a great job demonstrating the sin of lying. Thank you very much for that.

All right, so looking at this differently, if you turn the page to four, you can see a timeline of what happens. So before the cross, before faith in the facts that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, the sin nature and the unbeliever are tied. They're on the exact same path, and they're cruising along on that top line. But then this magical thing happens. At the moment of the cross, at the moment of our belief in the finished work of Jesus Christ, our old man is put on the cross with Christ and crucified. And so now we are separated from that because we are dead to that. slide, where suddenly we're now in Christ. And the sin nature carries on, but it's over there. It's not here anymore. And so I'm free to act differently.

As we get on to verse 11, Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Christ cannot die again. And we are in Christ. So there's never a breaking, there's never a separation of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always available to us. The relationship of the sin nature to the unbeliever, it's over there.

And it's telling us to do things. But the freedom in this separation is that we don't have to listen. So practically walking along, we don't have to pay any mind. So actually, choose to jump there. So let's talk about the word obey that is going to be coming up. So we're three slides in on page five. The word that gets translated often as obey in the New Testament, it's actually written like that. It means to listen to and to under attach. So to place one under. I'm lost. We are on page 5 of 6, third slide. I skipped ahead. So it's important to see the distinction between obey, oh I need to do everything that's associated with that, versus listen to and put oneself underneath.

I don't have to listen. That's not something I have to do. And so when the sin nature over there is saying, do this thing, because I'm separated, I don't have to pay attention to that anymore. And the best way to stay away is not to listen in the first place.

So, when I'm on the plane, as I often am, I have these noise-canceling headphones because the drone of the engine is constant. It's non-stop. And it's irritating. And so, I don't spend my time trying to will myself to like that sound or to, I'm just going to ignore that sound. I put on these glorious noise cancelling headphones and I turn on something I do want to listen to. I don't hear the adrenaline. It's not there.

Similarly, we don't have to pay attention to the Zen nature. We don't have to listen to it. We don't have to pay it any mind. because we can put on our noise-canceling headphones and listen instead to the Word of God, because we're alive to Christ. So that's what ends up providing that freedom. So, I shall jump back to page 4 at the bottom, where we left off. So, we no longer have to pay any attention to the sin nature. That's great. So, we must consider ourselves. Where we are considering ourselves is to be dead to sin. but alive to God in Christ Jesus. And that consider word is an accounting term. It's a careful reckoning. It is a scrutiny. It is a digging in and understanding what this thing really means. It's not a blind acceptance of, OK, that's kind of weird. I don't understand it.

We'll just go with it. It is really coming to an intimate understanding of what it means to be dead to sin and to be alive to Christ. And thank God that he provided the Word of God for us, so that we can actually have this understanding. So this consideration, this reckoning, then leads us to understand how it's all laid out. And based on that understanding, we believe it. Because it makes sense. Because we sought that out. And that making sense, that's faith.

So, we are making fantastic progress. We're in the middle of page 5. less of the world, more of God. So we get to listen to one of two messages. We get to listen to the one that the Sin Nature is sending us from over a yonder corner, where we get to listen to what God would have.

And there's no grey area. There's no You know what, I'm going to listen to the sin nature 25%, but I'm going to listen to God the other 75%, and that's going to work out for me super well. It's an all or nothing thing. And that's made very clear through the rest of the chapter, where you're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness. There's no in between.

Present. So, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

So what is this presenting about? Is this waking up, wrapping yourself, putting a bow? So the word for present is to present as military assets. to show up as an effective foot soldier. And so you end up in either of the two camps, as don't present yourself to sin, but instead present yourself to righteousness.

You can be used in either way. And this is written to believers at this point. So this is not a positional abstract thing walking around in shoe leather today. You can be used as an instrument of unrighteousness, or you can be used as an instrument of righteousness. Which one you are depends upon which one you're listening to. And that's what that presentation is. So we learn that we never stand in some neutral place, simply deciding what to do or not to do. We're always in a place where we're completely dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ, or we're not. There's not an in-between in that.

And then, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? So we come back to that exact same question, different angle. Before, we were looking at grace abounds, when sin happens, so if we want to make more abundant grace, then we would make more abundant sin. Paul says, nope. It can't happen that way. Now we're coming back at it a different way. We've found out that we're not under law. We're under grace. It's a different reigning principle.

This isn't about being a good Christian by doing all the good things and none of the bad things and keeping a notebook and tallying up how you did. This is about personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing him. And in the course of that knowing him, losing interest in that thing that's over there in the corner. Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

Same exact answer. May never be. Make it up. Can't happen. Do you not know that, we're back to knowledge, that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves or obedience, you are slaves of the one who you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness.

So again, there's not an in-between, a slave to sin or a slave to 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. I'm 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.

So in other words, this could all still be a military myth, right? Oh, yes. He's presenting it. And so this is a continualization of the military analogies, which really means a lot to me. It does. Because when you're in the military, you can't do what the military says. It's actually the whole chapter of the military. The crucifixion part, who does that?

So when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So if you're dead to righteousness, you're separated. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. And I don't think any of us would disagree that the outcome of sin is death and destruction and hardship. For the outcome of those things is death.

But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive benefit, resulting in sanctification and the outcome of eternal life. And this last verse, there's so much in it. So, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Stan, that's also military. So the wages of sin is death.

That's what one gets paid for work done. There's a trade of currency for work. That's what wages are. These soldiers were paid a pittance. So if I work really hard day in, day out at sinning, I get debt. That's what's on the page. But the free gift of God. So these Roman soldiers didn't get... Yes?

Is the agate death, is that related? Would they have, or would the people of the time, would they have understood all sorts of death, the crucifixion, that sort of thing? I don't know, when you just said that the military, they were the ones in charge of crucifixion. The military was in charge of crucifixion. So as they were reading this, would it have come to mind that this death they're talking about, the wages of sin, is that sort of death? No, I don't agree with that. Okay, I'm sorry. See how I am? I'll just declare it. Okay, thank you. So let's reverse just a little bit.

What is sin? What is death? Separation. OK, so Paul has been using it consistently throughout this chapter, that death equals separation. Separation, got it. And all his other works. So what separation do we earn as a wage for constant sin? So we're talking about walking around day to day as we choose to sin. We earn something for that. And the thing that we earn is a barrier in our relationship with the Lord.

Now fortunately, 1 John 1.9 gives us an out for that. And so the Father wants nothing more than to be in this relationship with us and is quick to restore that. But in the moment when we are sinning, we're saying, I'm not interested in you. I'm paying attention to that thing that's over in the corner. So that's death. Thank you. You're welcome.

But the free gift of God. So the soldiers were paid this teeny tiny of 20 years, then they got a pretty decent reward. So it's like terrible day wages, but wonderful pension funds is what they're looking for. But a new Caesar coming into office would often want to win over the troops, and so would give them all a free gift. They didn't have to earn it. It's buying their favor. So we get this free gift, we didn't earn it. God is saying here, what is that free gift? It's eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's an absolutely amazing free gift.

That's it. And we are done quickly today. Comments, questions? I kind of wanted to explore, I didn't really read the passage at this time, but how do we know that that means separating? And what else can it mean? Okay, let us flip over. Let's start looking at the verses. I covered them really quickly. So we're at the bottom of page two. and we're going to have to get all scripture-y, which is a decent thing.

Starting with Ephesians, we can go to Ephesians 2.12. Remember at that time, Separate from Christ. Remember that you were, at that time, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, with no hope, and without Christ in the world. The word separate there means apart from. So that was our former condition. We were apart from. We were separated.

And then when we get to Ephesians 4.16, we find out... But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him, who is head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself. Dot, dot, dot.

So this I say and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. So you have this lack of faith, you have this lack of understanding, which equals ignorance, And because of that, they're excluded from the life of God. So we find out as unbelievers, we're separated from God. We find out as unbelievers, we're excluded from God.

And so that provides a good basis for understanding that death and separation, when it talks about we were dead, to righteousness? Well, what was our relationship to that from occasions, separated from, excluded from, until you see the repeated pattern? Is that enough? Yeah, I just wanted to explore it a little bit in the context of culture, too, because a lot of times they think that death is Annihilation or out dead. I think they do dead and they'll pull it down.

Or it doesn't mean separation. There's no relation. But it means... I believe in union. I believe. It causes a lot of confusion, I think. A lot of confusion of not understanding death doesn't mean separation. It's a popular view right now, but it doesn't recognize that the dun of weiwei, the word there is the same one that was used for a deposed king. Right? So we're going to throw this one out. Still goes on, but we don't have to pay attention to the orders anymore. Same thing. Yeah, the king is still very much alive. Yeah, just no longer a king. Any other questions?

Father, thank you so much for your love for us. just that You sent Your Son to die on the cross for our sins, so that we could be separated from all of this, so that we could be like You, that we would get to run and sit on Your lap, and the Holy of Holies would call You Daddy. That's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.