Romans 6:9-11
by:
Dan Hill, PhD
Pastor, Southwood Bible Church
7655 South Sheridan Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74113
E-Mail: hill918@aol.com
Romans 6:9
Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die
again; death no longer is master over Him.
KNOWING is OIDA which looks at the perception of an evident truth. This
truth has been stated in the previous verse, Christ died and rose again
and we are identified with Him in His death and new life.
HAVING BEEN RAISED: An aorist, passive, participle.
The passive voice indicates that the Father raised him from the dead, this
was done to the Lord Jesus by the power of the Father.
John 10:17-18 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down
My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but
I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and
I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My
Father."
Jesus Christ had the power, the authority, to lay down his life in death
and to bring it back in resurrection.
But He did not use this power or authority. He trusted in the Father to
raise Him from the dead.
Romans 6:4, "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism
into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."
Galatians 1:1, "Paul, an apostle (not {sent} from men, nor through
the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised
Him from the dead)."
HERE IS THE POINT OF THIS: The Father raised Jesus to His new life . . .
who is going to raise us out of sin and give us a new life. Us? Are we going
to do this? NO, it is done by God.
The great truth of this passage is not that we live in a struggle against
sin, fighting sin, focused upon sin, but that we live unto God by His will
and His power and we focus our attention not on sin but on the Saviour.
Along about 787 at the Council of Nicea the idea that Christ had to die
again and again to cleanse the believer from sin was first introduced. While
a few spoke against this error, by 1215 at the Lateran Council the idea
was fully adopted.
Transubstantiation is the idea that the Christian must not only confess
His sins but again receive Christ, literally receive Him again in the form
of the Lord's Supper. The bread and the cup actually become the body and
blood of Christ.
No longer a memorial to the life and death of Christ, the Lord's Supper
became an act of absolution from sins, crucifying the Lord again and again
and again.
After the Reformation and in reaction to the reformers teaching, the Roman
church, at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) establish their doctrine of
the Eurcharist. The first of its canons state:
"If anyone deny that the body and blood together with the soul and
divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . are truly and really and substantially
contained in the sacrament, and shall say that He is only in it as a sign
or in a figure, let him be accursed."
Little did the writer of Hebrews know that what he wrote about believers
going back to the Temple to sacrifice in the first century could be so well
applied to the heresies of the 16th century.
Hebrews 6:4-6 "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened
and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the
Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the
age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again
to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and
put Him to open shame."
BUT THERE IS NO re-salvation. You have no need to be saved over and over.
The word MASTER is the verb form of LORD, death, which is the result of
the fall, which is the result of sin, no longer keeps on Lording it over
Him . . . nor us!
Topic: DEATH
Romans 6:10
For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all;
Death to sin is a done deal!
But the Life He lives, and His life we share, goes on and on:
But the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Jesus Christ died once and for all:
Hebrews 7:26-27, For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest,
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the
heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices,
first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this
He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
Hebrews 9:28, So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins
of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin,
to those who eagerly await Him.
Hebrews 10:10, By this will we have been sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
I Peter 3:18, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the
unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death
in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
SO WHERE IS OUR ATTENTION DRAWN, WHERE IS OUR FOCUS. Death is a done deal,
our attention is given to His life.
Remember Romans 5:21, As sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign
through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:4, "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism
into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."
v 10 Continued: Jesus Christ now lives and he lives to God:
This is a present tense verb and a dative of advantage, for Jesus Christ
in His resurrected life to live to God keeps on being an advantage to Him.
Throughout the NT we see that this is the emphasis, living with Him:
Acts 17:28, for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your
own poets have said, 'For we also are His offspring.
II Corinthians 13:4, For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet
He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we
shall live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.
II Timothy 2:11, It is a trustworthy statement: #For if we died with Him,
we shall also live with Him;
I John 4:9, By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent
His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
Romans 6:11
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin.
If our focus in the Christian life is to be on the resurrected Christ, what
about sin? I mean, after all, a lot of believers spend a lot of time and
a lot of Pastors give a lot of sermons about sin and a lot of believes do
a lot of judging of others regarding sins . . . what about sin?
The word CONSIDER is the same word used in Romans 4 for IMPUTED . . . As
God has imputed us with His +R we are to now see ourselves, consider ourselves,
think of ourselves, as dead to sin.
We are dead to it, not by what we do, not by our self discipline, not by
our resolve, not by our strength, not by our morality, but by what God has
done.
Christian, where is you focus, where are you? Are you struggling to stay
dead, rather foolish, or are you alive unto God?
REMEMBER IN ROMANS 3, we had a choice: Man could try to be justified by
a system of Law/Works or be justified by Grace/Faith.
The choice now continue in the Sanctification?
Will you try to grow by Law/Works or by Grace/Faith
AN APPLICATION COMES FROM THIS: How you relate to others will be determined
by the choice you make for yourself. If you chose Law/Works you will relate
to others by Law and by their Works.
If you chose Grace/Faith you relate to others by Grace (including Spiritual
Love) and by their Faith.
Some points of application:
1. Look at verse 14, For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not
under law, but under grace."
SIN is singular and looks at the Old Sin Nature (OSN); the verb is future
tense indicating an assured outcome.
This is not something we wish for, it is something that is assured by the
work of Christ. The reason it is assured is that we are not under the Law
but under Grace.
2. In the OT Law there was a lot of grace, a lot of compassion, a lot of
fairness, a lot of love. For it revealed the person of God and His righteousness.
3. But when the Law was given to the people they took out the grace and
received it as merely God's demands on His subjects.
Exodus 24:7 Then he [Moses] took the book of the covenant and read it in
the hearing of the people; and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we
will do, and we will be obedient!
4. In the NT we have laws also, lists of standards God presents.
LET'S ASK A HARD QUESTION: WHY???
Answer: To teach us how to maintain two very important relationships . .
. First with God (avoid idolatry) and secondly with others.
PRINCIPLE: God desires that we have a good relationship with Him and that
means to avoid at all cost those things that deal with idolatry. And God
also desires us to have good relationships with others and that means we
avoid the sins that hurt others (gossip, stealing, murder).
5. In the Gospels (like the Sermon on the Mound), Jesus taught where these
things began, in the mind.
Mark 7:21, For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts,
fornication's, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness,
as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All
these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.
In the epistles we must therefore harness our thoughts by setting our mind
on Christ:
Philippians 4:8, Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of
good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,
let your mind dwell on these things.
Romans 8:5-6, For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on
the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the
things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind
set on the Spirit is life and peace.
And our passage Romans 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
6. Within every list of sins in the NT God the Holy Spirit included sins
that would be considered mild by human standards:
Example: Galatians 5:19-21 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which
are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just
as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit
the kingdom of God.
Outbursts of anger (one of those choleric things), disputes, envy, carousing;
can anyone say that they will never do these things?
7. With that we then see that the response of the CA believer differs little
from the response of the Israel 2500 years ago at the foot of Mt. Sinai.
But we add to it: Not only We will do it all, we will be obedient, but now
We will demand others obey them also.
So we set up the grace of God that shows us that we are sinners, weak, dependent
upon the Lord, as a LAW system. And then try to force it on others.
8. It was not by accident that the OT Law and the Sermon on the Mount was
given on a mountain. This was a picture of the Law of God coming from God
to man.
It is God centered and not man centered. In order to understand the Word,
to live the Word, to be RIGHT according to the Word we must begin with God
and end with God. How does God think is paramount in our lives.
God tells us to consider, to think, to use the minds he gave us with the
Doctrine His Spirit teaches us to come to His V/pt . . . not to come to
a rational for the reason we are taking this or that action.
9. When we approach God with a Law/Works system we will project into God
what we think will impress Him.
When we approach God with a Grace/Faith system we will allow God to project
into us His thinking.
THUS THE ISSUE: Do we dwell on sin, on our weaknesses, on our faults, all
of which God is very aware of. Or do we dwell upon Him and consider ourselves
alive to God in Jesus Christ?
10. God policy towards us is grace, His action is love, His method is forgiveness,
the relationship we have with Him is one of acceptance.
At justification He accepted you when you were in the sewer of sin, in the
pit of depravity, in dungeon of deception, in the prison of perversity,
in the enclave of evil, in stench of self service . . . and He love you.
That is GRACE, that is LOVE, that is His FORGIVENESS, that is ACCPTANCE
in His beloved Son Jesus Christ.
11. We are not given in the NT extensive policy for our function as believers
individually nor corporately (the believer or the church). Some of these
are found but do not in anyway cover every situation.
HOWEVER we are given principles that are to be our attitude:
Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 18: Peter denies the Lord three times.
There is no greater SIN!!
Less than 40 days later: John 21:15-17 The Lord makes not merely His acceptance
of Peter but Peter's ministry and service a single issue . . . Do you Love
Me?
What is the issue we make: Do you love the Lord.
WE MAY WONDER HOW IS THE WORLD GOING to see us, what testimony will we have
in the World:
John 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this
all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
When a brother sins what are we to do? Galatians 6:1 ff tells us: Brethren,
even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore
such a one in a spirit of gentleness; {each one} looking to yourself, lest
you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law
of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives
himself.
How do we deal with the sins of others?
Proverbs 10:12, Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all multitude of
sins.
12. We are to have the mind and the attitude of our Saviour Jesus Christ:
Philippians 2:3-5, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with
humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than
himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also
for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was
also in Christ Jesus,
13. Whenever we get involved with the Law/Work approach we are abandoning
the freedom we have in Christ and the Grace God has for us:
Colossians 2:20-3:2
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world,
why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees,
such as,
Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!
(which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)-- in accordance
with the commandments and teachings of men?
These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made
religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, {but are}
of no value against fleshly indulgence.
If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
14. Here is a principle then if we are to think like God: You will never
go wrong if you take you stand with grace, love, and forgiveness because
that is where God stands.
In the next lesson, at verse 12, we begin a paragraph that is only three
verses long. In this paragraph Paul establishes a principle that he will
then deal with through Romans 7: To what will you yield? To the sin nature
or to God?
End of Lesson 24
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