Shall We Continue

Breaking the Power of Cancelled Sin

Shall We Continue to Live Under Sin’s Dominion?

Manuscript Notes   Outline Notes

Leader’s Study Guide   Participant Study Guide

Text: Romans 6:1-14

As we come to the first segment of these three chapters, where Paul teaches us how to break the power of canceled sin, we immediately observe two things built into the structure of this section (6:1 – 7:6). 

God wants us to walk in the newness of life (καινότητι ζωῆς) He granted to us through Christ – an extraordinary kind of life, lived out in a radically different way from how we used to live. (6:4). 

God wants us to serve him in a completely new kind of way from the one we formerly served, and has enabled us to do this by a new kind of power we did not possess before that comes from the Holy Spirit (καινότητι πνεύματος) (7:6).  

These two statements frame up a section for us in Romans that is designed to get us to ask and answer three important questions:

1. Are we to continue to live under sin in our old way of life? (6:1-14)
2. Are we allowed to make a quiet peace with certain sins that are so deeply entrenched in us that we can’t seem to overcome them no matter how hard we try? (6:15-23)
3. Why can’t I look to the Law for help in this struggle? (7:1-6)

I. The ____________ Paul Answers (6:1-2)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

• This question arises out of something Paul has said in 5:20-21 – “where sin increased, grace increased even more.”
• So, if that is true, Paul – why go through the immense trouble and pay the incredible price that will be demanded of me to totally change my life, reorient my loyalties, and readjust my priorities in life?  Can I continue living in my old way of life? Since grace has abounded over all my past sinning, won’t it continue to abound if I keep on in that same way of life?

Question – What Christian would actually ask a question like this?

• Paul’s answer – Absolutely not! How can someone who has died (past tense) to that way of life (sin) continue to live and operate in the sinful mindset and in the manifestations of that old life? 

II. The ____________ Paul Gives (6:3-10)

Paul now explains why this is impossible for the believer and offensive to God – by pointing out three things that every believer instinctively knows but must fully understand.  

1. We know we have an entirely new ____________ in Christ (6:3-5)
   Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
   

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2. We know that Christ has dealt with sin decisively for us at the Cross by ____________ its power over us (6:6-8)
   We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free [justified] from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
   

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3. We know that Christ has raised us to live for a new ____________ in life – the pleasure and purposes of a new Master (6:9-10)
   We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
   

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   • When Paul says we died with Christ, there is a real sense in which you and I were co-crucified with Christ, even though it happened 2000 years ago. The effects of our co-crucifixion continue to be experienced by us 2000 years later.  As a result, we no longer live to serve our old master. Instead, we are alive to God – and we are to live for His pleasure and for His purposes! (Rom 12:1-2)
   • So – why do we keep living under the old regime, answering to our old master, and in bondage to our old way of life?

III. The ____________ Paul Demands (6:11)
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

• Note the Urgency of this verdict . . . you must
• Note the nature of this verdict. What does it mean to consider (reckon, render a decisive verdict)? This is more than understanding and thinking the right things about God, salvation, justification, and the implications of being born again. It means believing them enough to ground your whole life in them.

• At some point, you must render a personal verdict on whether you are convinced to the point that you will entrust the shaping of your life to these truths.
• So what does that look like when we get up on Monday morning in our old body and head out to our old job in the old world that is still very much under the sway and control of sin?

IV. The ____________ Paul Commands (6:12-13)

1. What are we to do?  (Take a definitive step: Stop allowing something that is going on)
   12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
   

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2. How are we to do it? (Make a fundamental change in your approach to your body – your mind, emotions, and will)
   1. Stop presenting it (formal term) to Sin for unrighteousness.
      13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, 
   2. Dedicate yourself entirely to God (a formal, intentional dedication, cf. 12:1-2) and determine to use your body as an instrument of righteousness for Him.
      but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
      

V. The Assurance Paul Gives (6:14)
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace

Here is God’s promise to you if you will render this decisive verdict and act on it: Sin will not rule over you!  Grace will! (6:14)

Conclusion

• Have you obeyed what Paul commands in 6:13 when he said, “Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members as instruments of righteousness?”
• Have you come to the point in your life when you have looked at your body (your entire life) and decided that from this moment on it will never be used for the things you used to live for – but instead – from this day forward, you are going to use your life and your body in ways that please God and accomplish His purposes for your life?
• If you do so, God’s promise to you is that sin will not reign over you! (6:14)