Alive To God In Christ Jesus - Romans 6:11-14
INTRODUCTION:
For the past two weeks we have been looking at Paul’s answer to a question that he gave at the beginning of chapter six, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” (Romans 6:1, NASB95)[1] Paul knew that this question would be raised after saying at the end of chapter five that where sin increases, grace abounds all the more. Paul in making this statement was magnifying God’s grace saying that no single sin is too great for God to forgive, and that even the collective sins of all mankind for all of history, past, present and future are more than sufficiently covered by the immeasurable abundance of God’s grace that was made possible by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Paul in the first ten verses of this chapter answers this question by showing us that salvation is not only the act of justification when we are declared righteous before God in Christ Jesus, but it is also sanctification, a process that begins at the moment of salvation when God produces in us a life of holiness in Christ which we will grow in the rest of our life and which will characterize our life. This is why we cannot live a life characterized by sin any longer because we have died to sin. Even though we have died to sin in Christ and been raised in newness of life in Christ and are no longer in bondage to sin or under its power, we still live in an unredeemed body with all it old sinful desires and Satan desires to draw us back into our old way of life and we are in a constant battle with sin and Satan and Paul addresses this battle in our passage of Scripture this morning. In this passage Paul answers some questions that plague us as Christians: If we are freed from sin by the death of Christ and our death in Christ, why is sin still such a problem? If we have been declared righteous before God, why do we still do unrighteous acts, have unrighteous thoughts, say unrighteous words? Paul addresses these questions in three ways in this passage. First, we must know that we are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ. Second, we must consider that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Third, we must submit to God in Christ. Let’s pray and then get into our passage.
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans 6:11-14. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Romans 6:11-14,
“Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 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 yourselves 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.” (Romans 6:11–14, NASB95)[2]
KNOW THAT YOU ARE DEAD TO SIN BUT ALIVE TO GOD IN CHRIST (Romans 6:11a)
Paul begins this passage with the words “Even so” a phrase that in Greek can mean “likewise” or “in this manner” and it refers back to what Paul had just spoken of in the prior ten verses of this chapter. What is implied by this phrase is that we are to know and fully believe what Paul has just written. If you do not understand and fully believe that you are spiritually dead to sin and that you are spiritually alive in Christ, then you will not understand what Paul is about to speak about in this passage. Paul’s words in the first ten verses are not something our minds can somehow verify, what he wrote was God breathed revelation that is the essential and elementary truths behind Christian living, that if we do not know and fully believe them we can never hope to live the righteous life that God has for us in Christ. Paul used forms of “know” and “believe” four times in verses 1-10 because he knew that these truths that he was teaching were so very important.
In the previous verses we learned that we who have come in repentant faith to Jesus Christ for salvation and at the moment of salvation we are united with Christ in His death, the death that had paid the penalty for our sin. But we are not only united with Him in death, but we are also united with Him in His resurrection, we have risen with Him to walk in newness of life. Because Christ will never die again to sin, He died to sin once for all, this truth means that we having died with Him and having been raised with Him will never die again to sin. Knowing this, we must fully believe that we are now a new creation in Christ. We are not a remodeled sinner; we are a newly created saint. In Christ we have died to the penalty of sin and to the power of sin. Sin’s penalty which is death has been paid in full through the atoning death of the perfect, sinless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin is no longer our master, we belong to a new Master, the Lord Jesus. We must know and truly believe that we have a new identity in Christ, we must know and believe that in Christ we are not what we used to be. This is essential if we want to live the holy life that God calls us to, we must have this knowledge of who we are in Christ or it will be impossible to live out our righteousness in Christ. Paul often prayed that those who in faith had come to Jesus Christ for salvation would have wisdom and knowledge from God to know without doubt who they were in Christ. Read Paul’s prayers for the saints in Ephesus in Ephesians 1:15-23 and 3:14-21 for examples. We must know who we are in Christ if we hope to live the holy life that is ours in Christ.
CONSIDER THAT YOU ARE DEAD TO SIN AND ALIVE TO GOD (Romans 6:11)
Paul gives the next way we are to live the holy life given to us by God in Christ. Paul says that we are to consider, as knowledge has to do with the mind, this considering is more a matter of the heart. The Greek word translated “consider” is a word that means “to count” or “to number” or “to calculate” and was used metaphorically it means to fully affirm a truth, you had reasoned it out, you had calculated the facts and came to a conclusion that it is true. It is a truth that is settled in the heart.
Paul calls on us to, “… consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11b, NASB95)[3] In other words, Paul is saying that we know, and affirm in our hearts as true that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus because God’s Word declares this fact, and if it is God’s Word then it is true and I can believe by faith that it is fact. It is coming to grips with this truth and believing and accepting this truth that Christ has broken the power over sin in your life, when you come to believe and affirm this in your heart, then and only then will you be able to live the victorious life of holiness that God calls you to through Christ. You cannot live this victorious life if in your innermost being you do not believe it is possible, you do not believe the truth of God’s Word that Christ has broken the power of sin in your life through His atoning death on the cross.
Because we are justified in Christ we understand and believe that we are forever in God’s eternal purpose, His eternal plan, His presence and His power because His Word assures us that we are. Paul in Ephesians 1 spoke of the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ. Paul assured the believers in Ephesus with these words from Ephesians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” (Ephesians 1:3–4, NASB95)[4] Just think of that, before the foundation of the world was laid, before anything was created, God chose you in Christ to be holy and blameless before Him. God loved you and chose you even before the first man and woman were created. Paul speaking to the believers in Philippi wrote in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, NASB95)[5] He goes on to say to them in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13, NASB95)[6] How do we work out our salvation? Paul says that it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. This working out your salvation is sanctification, God working His righteousness in us conforming us to the image of His Son.
When we affirm in our hearts that we are dead to sin, but alive to Christ Jesus there are many practical and important results. First, when we are being tempted to sin, because we know that sin’s power has been broken in Christ and because of this truth we can successfully resist the temptation in God’s power that power that is at work within us. Paul told the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NASB95)[7]
Second, we know and rest in the assurance that we cannot sin our way out of God’s grace. In other words, we cannot lose or forfeit our salvation. Just as we were saved by God’s power alone, we are kept by God’s power alone. Jesus said concerning those who would believe in Him by faith in John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27–29, NASB95)[8]
Third, because we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, we are confident in the face of death. It is no longer a thing to fear, it is for the believer simply a doorway into the presence of God. Again, Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” (John 11:25–26, NASB95)[9]
A fourth truth is that we know that whatever may happen to us in this life, that God will use it not only for His glory but also for our blessing, even those things that seem horrible. Later in Romans Paul will write in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NASB95)[10] I have known people who have had accidents or battled cancer and other diseases, things that seem truly terrible from man’s point of view, but in the midst of that those people got the blessing of sharing Christ with people they might never have had contact with had it not been for the circumstances that God brought into their lives.
This is just a small sampling of the blessings that we have because we are alive to God in Christ Jesus. God truly has “…blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3b, NASB95)[11]
SUBMIT TO GOD IN CHRIST (Romans 6:12-14)
Paul’s third answer to the questions plaguing us concerning our struggle with sin and not walking in the holiness of God is to submit or surrender or to yield to God in Christ. Because of the truth of God’s Word and we have taken these truths and affirmed them in our hearts we are able to exercise our will with God’s power and by surrendering our will to Him we can fight successfully against sin. By God’s power we can overcome sin and not allow it to reign in our mortal bodies any longer by obeying its lusts.
For the person who has put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, who has died to sin in Christ and has been raised to newness of life, for this person sin will always be a powerful force that must be dealt with. We know that sin is no longer our master, we know that sin’s power has been broken and in Christ we can and must resist it. Paul pictures sin as a dethroned king who is seething over being dethroned and though dethroned still powerful and determined to reign in the life of the believer again, just as it did before salvation. So Paul exhorts the believers in the church in Rome and he exhorts us to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, it has no right to reign there, it has no power to control or rule over a believer unless that person chooses to obey its lusts instead of resisting them.
We are no longer a part of Satan’s kingdom of sin and death, we by faith in Jesus Christ have been transferred to His kingdom of light. We are a new creation at the moment of salvation, we are alive in Christ forever, we have a new spiritual nature that is immortal and it is forever beyond the reach of sin. The only remaining place where sin can attack a believer is in his mortal body. One day this mortal body will be changed and glorified and we will be forever freed from sin’s presence, but while we still possess this mortal body, mortal in that it is still susceptible to corruption and death, it still has sinful lusts, because our brain is a part of our mortal body, Satan uses those lusts to lure us back into sin in whatever way he can. Through Christ we can resist and be victorious over sin’s temptations. We must hold on to the promises that we will one day be freed from the presence of sin and will no longer have to resist sin. At that point our sanctification will be complete. Paul described it this way to the church in Philippi in Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20–21, NASB95)[12] From our Scripture reading this morning, Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:51–53, NASB95)[13]
But until that time when we will receive our imperishable, immortal bodies we are still subject to sin in our mortal bodies. Paul writes, “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness;” (Romans 6:13a, NASB95)[14] For the Christian sin cannot reign in our souls or our spirits, those are newly created and free from the power of sin, sin can only reign in the mortal body of the Christian. The members of our body are our legs, arms, hands, eyes, mouth, brain, ears and Paul says that when we present them to sin, they become instruments (tools or weapons) of unrighteousness. We must resist by Christ’s power the desires of our flesh to take us places that we should not go, to do with our hands the deeds we should not carry out, for our eyes to sin by looking at what we should not be looking at and so on, because when we do this those parts of our bodies become tools or weapons that is the literal meaning of the Greek word translated instruments that lead us into sin, they cause us to be defeated. Paul goes on in this verse to admonish us instead to “present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:13b, NASB95)[15] We know from experience that sin can reign in our bodies, but it does not have to. What Paul admonishes us to do in the second half of the verse has to do with our will. For sin to reign in the Christian’s life, that sin must first pass through the person’s will. But when we surrender or present or submit our will to God, then God’s will becomes our will and our members become tools or weapons of righteousness to God. Listen again to Paul’s words to the church in Philippi in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13, NASB95)[16] God’s will can be active in our lives only as we submit or surrender our wills to Him. It is in our surrender through obedience as one who is alive from the dead, because that is who we are and the members of our body can be used by God for righteousness as He conforms us to the image of His Son.
Paul ends this passage by assuring us with these words, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14, NASB95)[17] Sin shall not be our master because grace has freed us from its power. One day grace will complete its work and free us from its presence. We are no longer condemned by the Law because it was fulfilled in Christ. The Law could not free us from the penalty of sin or from the power of sin. The Law was given to show us that we are sinners in need of grace, the Law could only rebuke us, restrain us, and condemn us. But because the Christian is justified, because he is declared righteous, he is no longer under the condemnation of the Law, if you by faith have come to Christ for salvation you are under the redeeming power of God’s grace. It is in this power of God’s grace in which you have been created new and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and by the power of God’s grace you can live the victorious, righteous life that God has called you to.
CONCLUSION:
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we do not have let sin reign in our mortal bodies, we do not have to present the members of our bodies to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, we by the power of grace can resist sin’s temptation and live in obedience to God. Sin is no longer your master; you have been freed from sin. Do you know and fully believe that you have died to sin and are alive to God in Christ Jesus? Have you settled this truth in your heart, affirming that it is true because God’s Word states that we have died to sin in Christ in His death and we have been raised to new life in Christ by His resurrection from the dead? When we know and fully believe this and affirm it in our hearts, then it only makes sense to surrender our will and the members of our body to God so that they may be used by Him as instruments of righteousness. Sin will continue to battle us, seek to hold us in its power, and as we resist it more and more, and are victorious over it, the battle will become more intense as sin begins to lose it grip. We will fail at times, we will give into the temptation, but at those times we must remember Paul’s words that sin is not our master, because of the power of God’s grace that has freed us from sin’s power, then we must confess our sin to the Lord and He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and we start over resisting sin’s temptations. But do not give up because sin cannot touch your immortal spirit and soul, the part of you that is a new creation, and do not give up because of the hope that we have of one day being freed from this mortal body and being freed from the presence of sin forever. The apostle John writes to us in 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3, NASB95)[18] Do you have this hope? Let this hope spur you on to present or surrender yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness, allowing God to purify you as Jesus Christ is pure.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[16]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[17]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[18]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.