For teachers and Bible study leaders. Includes a suggested introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, discussion questions for your group, illustrations to share, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever seen a bumper sticker like this: “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”?
???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What do you think about the message conveyed in that bumper sticker?”
(There are a couple of ways to look at it:
1) It IS true that Christians are not perfect. We did not earn our salvation by our good works or deeds; we’re only forgiven through faith in Christ’s death on the cross. So that part of the message is true — we are not inherently “better” than other people, we’re only saved because we’re forgiven in Christ.
2) But on the other hand, if a person has really found forgiveness through faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit of God has come into their life, and He changes them. II Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” If we are really forgiven, people should be able to see some fruit of real salvation in us: a life that is changed and is continuing to change. So there should be more of a difference between a Christian and a non-Christian, than just that we’re living the same life they are, only OUR sins are forgiven!)
This week’s lesson in Romans 6 expands on this idea, showing us that we should not take sin lightly as Christians, and presume on the grace of God, but with the power of Christ who is in us, we can and should make the choice to turn away from sin.
CONTEXT:
We’ve seen in our study of Romans that everyone in the world needs the gospel of Christ, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (3:23) There is only one way that people can be saved, and that is through Christ’s sacrifice, which alone could make God “just and the justifier” of those who put their faith in Christ (3:26). And it is only by faith that we can be saved, not by our works — Chapter 4 showed us that Abraham was an example of that. And last time in Romans 5 we saw many of the benefits of salvation by faith, including peace with God, hope of the glory of God, being able to exult in our tribulations, and more. This brings us to Romans 6 this week, where Paul now answers a question that evidently many people had been asking him: If God’s grace is so great, then can’t we just continue to sin? The answer he gives in our focus passage in Romans 6:1-14 is one that many of us need to hear today!
OUTLINE:
I. Refuse to Presume on Grace (:1-2)
II. Consider Yourself Dead to Sin (:3-11)
III. Choose Not to Be a Slave to Sin (:12-14)
TEXT: Romans 6:1-14
I. Refuse to Presume on Grace (:1-2)
:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
“What shall we say then?” Paul opens. The “then” almost serves like a “therefore,” pointing back to what has come before. Because of all that he’s been talking about: salvation by grace through faith, that Christ came to redeem the humanity that Adam had cursed, and then right at the end of Chapter 5 he said in :20, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” As bad as our sin is, God’s grace is greater! That is such a comforting truth for the Christian — and it should be!
But no in light of all that, he asks what is not just a theoretical question, but one that he has undoubtedly heard from people as he has gone about preaching and teaching: “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?” In other words, they asking: “So if grace is greater than our sin, why don’t we just continue to sin, then grace will be even greater!”
This highlights an attitude that people have had in one form or another for the past 2000 years: “If salvation is all of grace and not works, then why don’t we just keep on sinning all we want to, and rely on God’s grace?”
ILLUSTRATION
F.F. Bruce tells the story of the evil monk Rasputin, who held a satanic influence over the Russian court in the early 1900s. “Rasputin … held that, as those who sin most require most forgiveness, a sinner who continues to sin with abandon enjoys, each time he repents, more of God’s forgiving grace than an ordinary sinner.” (Bruce, Romans, p. 127)
We’ve all known people with that attitude, right? Maybe we’ve even said it ourselves: “I know this is a sin, but God will forgive me, so I’m just going to do it anyway.”
The “25-cent” theological term for this is “antinomianism: “anti” means “against,” “nomos” is the Greek word for “Law;” so it’s “against-Law-ism”: feeling that you don’t have to keep God’s laws, since you have been saved by grace.
And this isn’t just theological speculation; this is an attitude that actually exists among many Christians — especially many Baptists, with our “once saved always saved” doctrine. People think: “I’m saved, covered by God’s grace; and it’s ‘once saved always saved,’ so I can do whatever I want.” This is exactly what Paul is talking about here in Romans 6: “Let’s just sin, and God’s grace will increase.”
ILLUSTRATION
(Jen Wilkin blog, March 4, 2014, “Has Failure Become a Virtue?”)
“Some have begun to articulate a skewed view of grace – one that discounts the necessity of obedience to the moral precepts of the Law. I call this view “celebratory failurism” – the idea that believers cannot obey the Law and will fail at every attempt. Furthermore, that our failure is ultimately cause to celebrate because it makes grace all the more beautiful.”
This is just what Paul is talking about here, isn’t it? Let’s just celebrate our sin, and magnify God’s grace! Is this a legitimate outlook for us to have?
Paul responds very strongly in :2, “May it never be!” That 4-word-phrase in English is actually 2 words in Greek: “me ginomai” — me (pronounced “may”) is a negative, meaning “no/not”; and ginomai means to become. So, “NOT let it become”! It is a very strong expression of negation, kind of like our saying “No way!”
Paul uses it in
— Galatians 2:17: “Is Christ then a minister of sin?” (an obvious and powerful NO!)
— Galatians 3:21 “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God?” (No!)
—I Corinthians 6:15: “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” (Absolutely NOT!)
You see how radical each of these cases is? The clear, obvious answer to all of these questions is NO! A strong, radical NO (with multiple exclamation points!) That shows us just how strongly the answer to this question of whether we should keep sinning so that God’s grace would increase, is. There is NO WAY that we should do that!
Well, WHY does this call for such a radical “no” answer? Paul addresses that. He doesn’t just tell them no; he tells them WHY. He says in the rest of :2, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
What’s he talking about here? It goes back to the very nature of salvation. When we get saved, we admit that we are sinners, who have been going the wrong direction, away from God. Then we repent of our sin — which means we admit it was wrong — and put our faith in Christ, who died on the cross to pay for our sins. As we’ve seen before, to “repent” means to “make a U-turn.” It’s “a change of heart that leads to a change in life.” So you’re not just going to “keep on sinning” and asking God to forgive you. If you are a Christian, you have supposedly “changed your mind” about sin. It’s not “Ok, now we get to sin all we want to!” No, if we are truly saved, we have “changed our mind” about sin.
And once we are saved, we get baptized, which is a picture of how we have “died” to our old way of live, and come up from the waters to live a brand new life for Christ. We’re not just going to keep on committing the same sins. NO! We have a new life in Christ. (In fact, many people are baptized with an expression that comes right out of Romans 6: “Buried in Christ in baptism, and raised to walk a new life in Him.”) It’s a NEW LIFE — not just the “same old life” with the same old sins, only now they’re forgiven! That’s a big difference! No Christian who understands his or her salvation is just going to continue to sin “that grace might increase.”
A statement in the Teacher’s Guide puts it well: “Grace covers sin, but grace never provides a license to sin.” As genuine Christians, let’s make sure we don’t presume on the grace of God.
II. Consider Yourself Dead to Sin (:3-11)
:3 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? :4 “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. 5 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, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
“Therefore” of course points back to what’s just been said. In this case it’s therefore, since we’ve been baptized into Christ’s death. Because of that baptism, and more importantly, what it symbolizes, we should consider ourselves to be dead to sin.
:6 says “our old self was crucified Him” and as a result, “we would no longer be slaves to sin.” This reminds us of Galatians 2:20 where Paul wrote: “I am crucified with Christ.” We were not “literally” crucified with Christ, of course, but it’s a spiritual thing, by faith. Now he lives a new life by faith in Christ.
An important concept is found there in :6 uses the expression “slaves” to sin. This is an important idea. Too many people have the satanic idea that “sin is fun.” But Paul says, no, sin is “slavery.” More of us need to have this mindset.
???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What are some ways that people are ‘slaves’ to sin?”
(Satan always promises us great things if we will just sin against God’s word. He started that in Eden, promising Adam & Eve they’d be like gods if they ate that fruit and disobeyed. He still does this: he promises great pleasure if you will commit that immorality, look at that pornography, or take that drug — but then what he offers you, ends up enslaving you. You can think of so many examples of this. Rightly does Paul use this term, “slaves” to sin. Sin enslaves people, in countless ways.)
But he says now in Christ, “you are no longer slaves to sin.” Christ has freed us from it. How? Because we have died with Christ. He says in :7 “He who has died is freed from sin.” That just makes sense. If you waved a beautiful woman, or a million dollars, or a jug of whiskey, in front a dead man in a casket, how likely would he be to give in to that temptation. Not at all, right? HE’S DEAD! He’s not tempted with that.
Paul says in :8, that in the same way, we have died with Christ. He says in :9-10 that Christ has died to sin and lives to God.
Since we were crucified with Christ (The “if” in :8, “IF you have died with Christ, in Greek grammar is a “first class condition,” which can and should be translated “since.” “SINCE” you have died with Christ.)
So “SINCE” we were crucified with Christ, verse 11 says “CONSIDER yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The word “consider” is perhaps the key word in this section: “Even so CONSIDER yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
The word “consider” is the Greek “logizomai,” which means “to take an inventory, account.” The word was used in Romans 4, where it says that Abraham’s faith “was reckoned/credited/accounted” to him as righteousness. He wasn’t “really” righteous enough to enter God’s perfect heaven, but God “accounted/credited” him so, through faith.
In the same way, Romans 6 says, we should “consider/reckon/account” ourselves as “dead” to sin. Just like Abraham wasn’t “really” that righteous, we are not “really” dead to sin — we have the physical capacity of committing sin — but we are to “consider/account/reckon” ourselves as dead to sin, by faith. By faith we are to treat sin as if we were dead to it.
ILLUSTRATION
Caramel coffee creamer has for a few years been one of my very favorite things in the world. But I got some blood test results early in the summer which indicated that I was pre-diabetic. Time to get serious! I knew what I had to do: I had to stop using that creamer. I’ve been off of it for almost 4 months now, and I don’t need it, I don’t want it, I don’t have to have it — I used to love it, but now I know I just cannot have it. I’m dead to it.
Some of us need to do that with some other (more important) things in our lives as well: we just need to “consider”/reckon that we are dead to these things. The thing is, Romans 6 says we CAN do that in Christ. We DO have power over sin. We are not slaves any longer. We have died and risen with Christ. We need to live by faith in what Jesus did for us. With His power we can overcome any sin. The devil has convinced many of us that we don’t have that power; that we just “have” to give in to sin — but we don’t! We have Christ’s power in us!
ILLUSTRATION
In 1967, psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven F. Maier did a study on dogs, who were conditioned to expect an electric shock in a crate. In a later phase of the study, the crate was divided down the middle by a low fence, which the dog could easily jump over. The floor on just his side of the fence was electrified. Instead of jumping the fence, the dog would just lie down. Why? Because he’d learned earlier that there was nothing he could do to avoid the shocks, so he gave up. Psychologists call this condition “learned helplessness.” The past has taught them that they can’t improve their situation.
Sadly, this could describe many Christians are today. We have been saved, set free from sin in Christ. Yet the devil has “trained” us to think we don’t have any power over sin. But in Christ we do! Many of us need to realize the power that is available, exercise our faith and ask the Lord to help us, and He will. Sometimes He sets us free instantly; other times in a slow process of faith, prayer, and commitment, and Christian accountability. But in Christ, we CAN do it. There IS power in Christ. He can give us power over sin.
All through this section, in :4, :6, :10, and so on, it talks about how Jesus rose from the dead; He is alive! Since He is alive, we can call on Him to help us — and often we do ask Him to help us with various things — but we especially need to call on Him to help us in our fight against SIN! Hebrews 2:18 says: “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”
Think about this: When you are tempted to sin, do you actively and purposefully call on Jesus to help you? You SHOULD! Jesus is alive. And He specifically says there in Hebrews 2:18 that He will come and help you when you are tempted. So call upon Him! Ask Him to help you, and He will.
The bottom line is: You do not have to live in continual defeat to sin. Consider yourself dead to sin, and ask Jesus to help you defeat it. This leads to our last point:
III. Chose Not to Be a Slave to Sin (:12-14)
“12 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 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. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
“Therefore”: because of all this he’s been saying here about our battle with sin.
He then says: “Do not LET sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.” Here is an important point: he’s saying that as a Christian, you have a CHOICE as to whether you will let sin rule your body. As a lost person, you have no help, you have no hope against sin. It totally has power over you. But as a Christian, you now have the Holy Spirit of God inside of you. You have the resurrection power of the Risen Christ in you. You have the power of God Almighty working on your side. YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO RESIST SIN! (God wouldn’t have commanded you to “not let sin reign” if that were impossible for you to do!) You have a choice. You are not helpless against sin any longer. Sin will only reign in your body if you allow it to do so. So he says, don’t do it! “Don’t LET sin reign” in you!
ILLUSTRATION
A few years ago, Max Barnett, long-time BSU leader at the University of Oklahoma, had a college student come up to him. He told him that he was wrestling with pornography, and he asked Max what he should do about it. Max told him: “Stop it.” The guy was confused; he was waiting for Max to give him some “great wisdom” to help him, but he just told him to stop. Max explained, you are a Christian, and if you are in Christ you are not a slave to sin any longer, and when we say we can’t keep from doing something, we’re letting our flesh have too much influence. So he told him: “Just stop!”
Now, that may sound simplistic to some us, but there’s a lot of truth in that. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit of God inside you, and in Him have the power not to sin:
— Romans 6:14 here says “Sin shall not be master over you”!
— I Corinthians 10:13 says God “will provide the means of escape, that you may be able to endure” your temptations.
— Galatians 5:16 says “Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.”
— James 4:7 says “Resist the devil and he will flee from you”!
All these scriptures reinforce this: “do not LET sin reign.” Do not ALLOW it to have control over you. I think many of us as Christians have sold ourselves short on this. We’ve bought Satan’s lie that we talked about in the last point, that we “just can’t help” sinning and there’s nothing we can do about it. But there is! We have the Holy Spirit; we have the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in us; we have the power of God, to be able to choose not to sin. So in Max’s famous words, “Stop!” “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.”
:13 adds “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.”
Here Paul says you are either “presenting” the members of your body to sin, to do unrighteous things, or to God to serve Him.
But again the point is, YOU HAVE A CHOICE here! He wouldn’t tell you to “stop presenting your members to sin” if you couldn’t do it! In Christ can either choose to give your body to God, or to sin. What are you going to do?
He sums it up in :14, “For sin shall not be master over you …” because you are under the grace of God.
So three times in this section Paul emphatically rejects the rule of sin in our life. He says:
— “DO NOT LET SIN REIGN”!
— “DO NOT GO ON presenting your body to sin”
— “SIN SHALL NOT BE MASTER OVER YOU”
As Jen Wilkins concluded in that blog article, “Has Failure Become a Virtue?”: “We do not start our days planning to fail, nor do we celebrate failure. Rather, we set our faces like flint and resolve by the power of the Spirit to obey.”
By God’s grace, with the power of His Spirit in us, we CAN obey! Christians CAN say “No!” to sin!
CONCLUSION:
This brings our focus passage around full circle. It started with :1, “Since God’s grace is so great, shall we just go on sinning?” — but now it ends: DO NOT LET SIN REIGN! DO NOT LET SIN BE MASTER OVER YOU!
To answer the question we opened the lesson with, there IS more difference between a lost person and a Christian than just “the Christian is forgiven.” Yes, there’s no difference in our being worthy of salvation and a lost person’s being worthy of salvation — we’re all sinners and we all need the same grace. But there is a big difference: the lost person is enslaved to sin and has no power over it, but a genuine Christian has the power of Christ and His Holy Spirit in them, and they have the ability to defeat sin in their life. So our lives should look much differently that the lives of those who are lost. No, we’ll never be “perfect” in this life (I John 1:8) — but we can and should be making real progress against sin. “Sin shall not be master over us.”
A couple of good questions for us all to think about here at the end:
— “IS my life different in holiness than the lives of lost people around me?”
— “And if not, why not?” Have I not really been saved and changed by Christ? Or with God’s help, do I need to get serious about not letting sin reign in my life today?
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