Paul’s letter to the Romans is a significant overview and dive into the

faith.

Up through Romans 5 we’ve learned that Christ’s death on the cross paid the price for our sins – he died our death on the cross to rid us of the

for sin, which is death.

There’s a problem – what will keep me from

again?

…where sin increased, grace abounded all the more —Romans 5:20 (ESV)

Paul wants to do away with the idea that Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “

grace.”

Paul wants us to understand and see that if Christ has truly come into our lives, we are not just forgiven but also

, different people.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? —Romans 6:1 (ESV)

Should I sin

in order to help God offer even

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of His grace?

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? —Romans 6:2 (ESV)

Paul begins to show us that just as God has a plan to free us from the penalty of sin, from the weight of our past, He also has a plan to free us from the

of sin, how we move forward today on into the future.

Paul wants us to understand that through our faith in Christ, we don’t have to be the same persons anymore – we can actually

.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. 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. —Romans 6:3-5 (ESV)

Water baptism is an act of faith and a

of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.

[Baptism] is a literal living participation in the real, physical, and embodied deliverance of Jesus Christ from sin and death into life and love which is freedom. —J.D. Walt

Through baptism we have not simply agreed with what Jesus did – we’ve claimed it now by faith as

own story,

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own death and burial of sin, and the beginnings of Christ’s resurrection so “we too might walk in newness of life.”

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.—2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

This transformation doesn’t mean we can’t sin, but it means that with Christ’s Spirit living in us, we no longer have a

to always sin.

For now, here on earth, we only see the first

of the resurrection, but even that is enough to enable us through Christ to no longer be enslaved to sin.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. —1 John 3:2 (ESV)
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. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. —Romans 6:6-10 (ESV)

Since believers died with Christ as they come to true faith in him, then we, too, died to

through Christ.

Paul is telling us that when we are in Christ, when we live for him as our Savior and Lord, the outcomes of our lives are

.

In the same moment that we are justified, God also begins His work in us to

us, as we believe and cooperate.

… the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. —2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT)

Paul wants us to stand in this truth through being

.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. —Romans 6:11-14 (ESV)

Paul wants us to “consider” or “count” the truth that in committing our lives to Christ, we are

“dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul tells us that in Christ, in truly committing our lives to him, and not just mouthing the words or playing at Christianity when it’s convenient, we will discover that “sin will have no

over you.”

Jesus: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. —John 15:4-5 (ESV)

Apart from Christ we can never overcome sin and death, but when our lives are intertwined with Christ, when we are

Christ and

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in him, we seek to follow him day after day.

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. —Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

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Next Week: Romans 6:15-23

• Trunk or Treat: Saturday, October 28 5-7PM, More Trunks Needed!
• Candypalooza: Sunday, October 29 9:30 & 11AM