Bible Passage: Romans 6:11-23
Memory Verse: Romans 6:13
Objectives:
Memory Verse: Romans 6:13
Objectives:
- To know that deliverance from the power of sin comes by counting one’s self dead to sin and presenting one’s self as alive to God
- To have a continuing desire to be delivered from the power of sin
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In our study of Romans 6 we have seen how the problem of sin in our lives is not just wrong action. Our problem is our wrong nature. Just as the fruit of a tree is determined by the root, so our wrong actions come from our wrong nature.
God has provided us the way of deliverance from our evil nature through Jesus Christ. When Jesus was crucified, we were put to death with Him. Our old sinful nature was put on the cross in order that we might be freed from its power over us to commit sin.
Then when Jesus rose from the dead, we were also united with Him. Through His life in us, we can receive power to live lives pleasing to God. We need to continue meditating and praying concerning these facts until God makes them real to us.
Therefore, to live a holy life we need to know about our death and resurrection with Christ. We need to know we are united with Christ by the Holy Spirit living in us.
Then the next question is this: How do these facts become our personal experience? How does our knowledge of our death and resurrection with Christ bring power into our lives? The next two steps we need to take are also given in Romans 6.
I. COUNTING (Romans 6:9-11)
When we realize the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and are therefore dead to sin and alive with Christ, we must take a definite stand on this truth. Paul says that we are to count or consider that these facts are true for ourselves.
A. Dead to Sin (6:11)
The Greek verb used here is one used in keeping accounts. In accounting a person writes in a book the facts concerning the actual amounts of money which have been gained or spent. For example, in your business if you earned $5,000 in one day, you must put $5,000 down as your income. You cannot estimate it at $4,000 or $5,500. Accounting must be done according to the facts.
So in our spiritual experience, God tells us that we are to count ourselves dead to sin because this is a fact. It is not wishing or pretending that which is not true. It is a fact that Christ has died to sin (6:10). It is a fact that we were united with Him in His death (6:6). Therefore, it is a fact that we also have died to sin. The count is to accept by faith that these facts are true for us.
But what if we don’t feel dead to sin? What if we can still feel the desire for certain sins in our lives? Going back to our illustration of accounting, suppose in your business you don’t think you earned that $5,000 in one day. It just seems to be too much for what you usually experience. But the facts are there. The $5,000 actually came in.
So we need to remember when Satan tempts us to doubt, that we are actually dead to sin because God has said so. Satan cannot change the fact by his lies; but he does try to make us believe him rather than God. This is the test of our faith. We must choose what we are going to believe—our experience and feelings, or God’s Word. If we refuse to listen to doubt, gradually these truths will become our actual experience. If we hold on to them by faith, they will become real for us.
Faith in our spiritual lives may be compared with the five senses in our natural bodies. By our senses of hearing, smell, sight, feeling, and taste, things in the world of nature come into our consciousness so we can appreciate them. By our sense of sight, colors are real to us. By our sense of hearing, we can appreciate music. Because of taste, we can enjoy flavors.
But suppose a man is blind. He cannot distinguish colors. Does this mean that colors don’t exist because he can’t see them? No, colors are real whether he can see them or not. Blindness does not change the REALITY of colors. But it can affect a person’s EXPERIENCE of colors.
We who have trusted Christ know that forgiveness of sin is a fact. Those who accept it by faith receive forgiveness in their personal experience. Those who do not believe, do not experience forgiveness even though it is available to them.
In the same way, our union with Christ in His death to sin is also a fact. This fact becomes real to us by our faith. It is true whether we believe it or not. For those who believe, it becomes true in their experience. Those who do not believe that they have died to sin cause this fact to remain outside of their experience by their unbelief. They are spiritually blind in this part of their Christian experience. But their unbelief cannot change the actual reality of the fact which God has said is true.
B. Alive to God (6:9-11)
The purpose of our death to sin is in order that we might live to please God. Therefore, after we have counted ourselves to be dead to sin, we are to count that we are alive to God through the resurrection of Christ (6:11).
We have already seen how God has planned for His Son to live His life in us. Our part is to count, to believe that He is doing what He has promised. We are to count on the fact that we can please God each day through the presence of Christ Who is living in us.
Notice also in verses 9 and 10 the relationship between the death and resurrection of Christ. He died to sin once, but lives forever. Death can no longer touch Him. This is God’s purpose for us in our identification with Christ. We are not to live in death, trying to crucify ourselves over and over. Instead, after recognizing once and for all that we are dead with Christ to sin, then we are to keep living in the joy of His life in us.
This principle can be illustrated by the electric light. Suppose you are in a room which is dark. You want light so you can read. There is a lamp on the table. What do you do? Do you look intently at the lamp to see if it will come on? Do you try to polish the bulb to make it shine? No, you go to the switch and turn the electricity on. You go to the source of power. When you have done what is needed there, there light comes on with no more effort.
In our walk with the Lord, our attention is to be fixed on Him, the source of our power for holiness. Our thoughts are to be concentrated on his life in us. We are not to keep looking at ourselves. We are never to think of ourselves as being separated from Him. As we look to Him for everything, gradually our life will become more and more like His because He is being allowed to do His work in us (2 Corinthians 3:18).
II. PRESENTING OURSELVES TO GOD (Romans 6:12-23)
We have seen so far that the steps to deliverance from sin are:
1. To know that we have died to sin with Christ (6:2-6)
2. To count ourselves to be dead to sin—to believe this is true in our lives (6:11)
Now we come to the third step which is presenting ourselves to God.
A. Our Redeemed Bodies (6:13-19)
Question: In verse 13 what are we told to do with the members of our bodies?
Notice that we are to present ourselves to God as “those who have been brought from death to life.” This shows that giving ourselves to serve God must come AFTER we have dealt with our sinful nature.
Some Christians are having difficulty because they have not taken these steps in their proper order. They have tried to give themselves to serve God while they are still serving some personal desires. God cannot use this kind of person even if he is in the ministry, because he is still serving himself. He is not wholly God’s. Before we can give ourselves to God for His service, we must know and count ourselves to be dead to sin.
1. As Instruments of Righteousness (6:13-14)
Question: Why are we to present ourselves to God? What is His purpose in us? (6:13)
Paul’s first illustration comes from war. The word “instrument” means “weapon.” We know that Satan is the one behind all sin. HE is the one who wants our bodies to serve in his war against righteousness. But now that we belong to God, we are to keep yielding our bodies to be used as His weapons against sin. We are to be so wholly God’s possession so that all our time, our money, our thoughts are only used for Him.
In a war can you imagine a soldier first fighting on one side and then on the other? This is not possible. So with our Christian experience, God cannot use us as an instrument of righteousness until we are wholly on His side, no longer dominated by sin (6:14).
2. Paul’s second illustration comes from slavery which was common in his time. A slave was owned by a master whom he had to obey completely. But if he was purchased by another master, he became free from having to obey his former master.
Question: In our Christian experience what are the two possible masters? (6:16, 20, 22) How do we know which one is our master? (6:16)
It doesn’t matter which we SAY is our master. The truth is seen in what we are doing and in whom we are obeying.
Question: We know that Jesus Christ died to redeem us from our slavery to sin. Then how do we transfer personally from Satan’s ownership to Christ’s? (6:17-19)
Jesus paid the price for us. Our part is to yield ourselves to Him as our new Master to serve Him in righteousness. He will not force us to leave our service to sin, but waits for us to do it because we love Him.
B. The Result—Eternal Life (6:20-23)
Paul concludes his argument by comparing the results which come from serving sin and serving God.
Question: What is the end result of serving sin? (6:20-23)
Sin always brings death because it is rebellion against God who is the source of all life.
Question: What is the end result of serving God? (6:22, 23)
When we choose to serve God, He frees us from the power of sin so that we can be wholly His. This is eternal life which is His free gift to us through Jesus Christ.
God has provided us the way of deliverance from our evil nature through Jesus Christ. When Jesus was crucified, we were put to death with Him. Our old sinful nature was put on the cross in order that we might be freed from its power over us to commit sin.
Then when Jesus rose from the dead, we were also united with Him. Through His life in us, we can receive power to live lives pleasing to God. We need to continue meditating and praying concerning these facts until God makes them real to us.
Therefore, to live a holy life we need to know about our death and resurrection with Christ. We need to know we are united with Christ by the Holy Spirit living in us.
Then the next question is this: How do these facts become our personal experience? How does our knowledge of our death and resurrection with Christ bring power into our lives? The next two steps we need to take are also given in Romans 6.
I. COUNTING (Romans 6:9-11)
When we realize the fact that we have been crucified with Christ and are therefore dead to sin and alive with Christ, we must take a definite stand on this truth. Paul says that we are to count or consider that these facts are true for ourselves.
A. Dead to Sin (6:11)
The Greek verb used here is one used in keeping accounts. In accounting a person writes in a book the facts concerning the actual amounts of money which have been gained or spent. For example, in your business if you earned $5,000 in one day, you must put $5,000 down as your income. You cannot estimate it at $4,000 or $5,500. Accounting must be done according to the facts.
So in our spiritual experience, God tells us that we are to count ourselves dead to sin because this is a fact. It is not wishing or pretending that which is not true. It is a fact that Christ has died to sin (6:10). It is a fact that we were united with Him in His death (6:6). Therefore, it is a fact that we also have died to sin. The count is to accept by faith that these facts are true for us.
But what if we don’t feel dead to sin? What if we can still feel the desire for certain sins in our lives? Going back to our illustration of accounting, suppose in your business you don’t think you earned that $5,000 in one day. It just seems to be too much for what you usually experience. But the facts are there. The $5,000 actually came in.
So we need to remember when Satan tempts us to doubt, that we are actually dead to sin because God has said so. Satan cannot change the fact by his lies; but he does try to make us believe him rather than God. This is the test of our faith. We must choose what we are going to believe—our experience and feelings, or God’s Word. If we refuse to listen to doubt, gradually these truths will become our actual experience. If we hold on to them by faith, they will become real for us.
Faith in our spiritual lives may be compared with the five senses in our natural bodies. By our senses of hearing, smell, sight, feeling, and taste, things in the world of nature come into our consciousness so we can appreciate them. By our sense of sight, colors are real to us. By our sense of hearing, we can appreciate music. Because of taste, we can enjoy flavors.
But suppose a man is blind. He cannot distinguish colors. Does this mean that colors don’t exist because he can’t see them? No, colors are real whether he can see them or not. Blindness does not change the REALITY of colors. But it can affect a person’s EXPERIENCE of colors.
We who have trusted Christ know that forgiveness of sin is a fact. Those who accept it by faith receive forgiveness in their personal experience. Those who do not believe, do not experience forgiveness even though it is available to them.
In the same way, our union with Christ in His death to sin is also a fact. This fact becomes real to us by our faith. It is true whether we believe it or not. For those who believe, it becomes true in their experience. Those who do not believe that they have died to sin cause this fact to remain outside of their experience by their unbelief. They are spiritually blind in this part of their Christian experience. But their unbelief cannot change the actual reality of the fact which God has said is true.
B. Alive to God (6:9-11)
The purpose of our death to sin is in order that we might live to please God. Therefore, after we have counted ourselves to be dead to sin, we are to count that we are alive to God through the resurrection of Christ (6:11).
We have already seen how God has planned for His Son to live His life in us. Our part is to count, to believe that He is doing what He has promised. We are to count on the fact that we can please God each day through the presence of Christ Who is living in us.
Notice also in verses 9 and 10 the relationship between the death and resurrection of Christ. He died to sin once, but lives forever. Death can no longer touch Him. This is God’s purpose for us in our identification with Christ. We are not to live in death, trying to crucify ourselves over and over. Instead, after recognizing once and for all that we are dead with Christ to sin, then we are to keep living in the joy of His life in us.
This principle can be illustrated by the electric light. Suppose you are in a room which is dark. You want light so you can read. There is a lamp on the table. What do you do? Do you look intently at the lamp to see if it will come on? Do you try to polish the bulb to make it shine? No, you go to the switch and turn the electricity on. You go to the source of power. When you have done what is needed there, there light comes on with no more effort.
In our walk with the Lord, our attention is to be fixed on Him, the source of our power for holiness. Our thoughts are to be concentrated on his life in us. We are not to keep looking at ourselves. We are never to think of ourselves as being separated from Him. As we look to Him for everything, gradually our life will become more and more like His because He is being allowed to do His work in us (2 Corinthians 3:18).
II. PRESENTING OURSELVES TO GOD (Romans 6:12-23)
We have seen so far that the steps to deliverance from sin are:
1. To know that we have died to sin with Christ (6:2-6)
2. To count ourselves to be dead to sin—to believe this is true in our lives (6:11)
Now we come to the third step which is presenting ourselves to God.
A. Our Redeemed Bodies (6:13-19)
Question: In verse 13 what are we told to do with the members of our bodies?
Notice that we are to present ourselves to God as “those who have been brought from death to life.” This shows that giving ourselves to serve God must come AFTER we have dealt with our sinful nature.
Some Christians are having difficulty because they have not taken these steps in their proper order. They have tried to give themselves to serve God while they are still serving some personal desires. God cannot use this kind of person even if he is in the ministry, because he is still serving himself. He is not wholly God’s. Before we can give ourselves to God for His service, we must know and count ourselves to be dead to sin.
1. As Instruments of Righteousness (6:13-14)
Question: Why are we to present ourselves to God? What is His purpose in us? (6:13)
Paul’s first illustration comes from war. The word “instrument” means “weapon.” We know that Satan is the one behind all sin. HE is the one who wants our bodies to serve in his war against righteousness. But now that we belong to God, we are to keep yielding our bodies to be used as His weapons against sin. We are to be so wholly God’s possession so that all our time, our money, our thoughts are only used for Him.
In a war can you imagine a soldier first fighting on one side and then on the other? This is not possible. So with our Christian experience, God cannot use us as an instrument of righteousness until we are wholly on His side, no longer dominated by sin (6:14).
2. Paul’s second illustration comes from slavery which was common in his time. A slave was owned by a master whom he had to obey completely. But if he was purchased by another master, he became free from having to obey his former master.
Question: In our Christian experience what are the two possible masters? (6:16, 20, 22) How do we know which one is our master? (6:16)
It doesn’t matter which we SAY is our master. The truth is seen in what we are doing and in whom we are obeying.
Question: We know that Jesus Christ died to redeem us from our slavery to sin. Then how do we transfer personally from Satan’s ownership to Christ’s? (6:17-19)
Jesus paid the price for us. Our part is to yield ourselves to Him as our new Master to serve Him in righteousness. He will not force us to leave our service to sin, but waits for us to do it because we love Him.
B. The Result—Eternal Life (6:20-23)
Paul concludes his argument by comparing the results which come from serving sin and serving God.
Question: What is the end result of serving sin? (6:20-23)
Sin always brings death because it is rebellion against God who is the source of all life.
Question: What is the end result of serving God? (6:22, 23)
When we choose to serve God, He frees us from the power of sin so that we can be wholly His. This is eternal life which is His free gift to us through Jesus Christ.
*******
MEDITATION
God has planned for all His children to have deliverance form the power of sin in their lives. He has provided the way through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We can become holy in our experience through recognizing that our old nature has died with Christ and then yielding our bodies to Christ who is now living in us.
God has planned for all His children to have deliverance form the power of sin in their lives. He has provided the way through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We can become holy in our experience through recognizing that our old nature has died with Christ and then yielding our bodies to Christ who is now living in us.
- If you are a Christian, have you accepted the death of your old self with Christ? Have you been freed through this death of wanting to go your own way and do things which are displeasing to God?
- After taking this step of death to sin, are you daily yielding yourself to Christ who is now living in you by the Holy Spirit? Are you allowing only god to use your body as His weapon against sin? This must be our continual attitude of heart and mind if we want to be free from sin. The Holy Spirit will do the work in us as we yield to Him.
Source:
Foundations of Faith (Romans 1-7)
PCEP Adult Bible Studies 2
Foundations of Faith (Romans 1-7)
PCEP Adult Bible Studies 2