Term 2 – Week 08
Big Idea – In Christ, believers are free from the power of sin and are now called to live for Him.
Romans 6:1-14
Outcomes
- To know that through faith in Jesus, we are united to Him (we are in Christ)
- To understand that through the death of Jesus we are free from the power of sin. Therefore, sin is no longer our master.
- To appreciate that believers can & must live a transformed life because we are dead to sin and alive to Him.
Implications
- Belief (Head / Heart) – If sin is no longer our master because of our faith in Jesus, then our life can and must be transformed to a life of righteous.
- It’s good and right to be different to those around us.
- We should willingly offer ourselves to the service of God.
- Behaviour (Hands) – Ask: How can we live like Jesus this week, in service to God?
- Break it down: The tongue, the eyes, the hands, the mind, our body.
Introduction
So far in Romans 5-8, we’ve learned that faith in Jesus gives sinners peace with God and the hope of glory in eternity (5:1-11) because (5:12-21) the death of Jesus on the cross completely overcame the effects of Adam’s sin. But what has this got to with life now? If we are now in Christ and not in Adam, then our relationship to sin has changed. Not only does Christ’s death set us free from the penalty of sin (future) but it also sets us free from the power of sin (now). Our lives should be transformed as we wait for the hope of glory in eternity.
In Romans 6, Paul answers the question: Does God’s grace in Christ condone sin?[1]
He gives his answer in two parts, each beginning with a rhetorical question (vv.1-14 & vv.15-23). This lesson just focuses on the first part.
Romans 6:1-14
Question: ‘What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?’ (v.1) Can believers keep sinning, so that God can show us more kindness and forgive us more? If God will forgive us anyway, does that mean we can live how we want to live now?
Answer: By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (v.2) Definitely not says Paul!! When a person becomes a Christian, there is a distinct separation from sin. Sin no longer ‘rules’ the believer as it does the unbeliever. Christians are no longer under the lordship of sin therefore sin can no longer be the characteristic pattern of one’s life. We have been set free from the power of sin, so stop obeying sin as master!
Paul’s Expansion of Verse 2: (vv.3-10)
- We died with Christ (vv.3-7)
- We were baptised into His death (vv.3-4)[2]
- And because we share in His death, we also share in his resurrection (v.5)
- Therefore, we have freedom from sin because we are united to him. We who were in Adam, are now in Christ and have been set free from the power of sin (vv.6-7)
- Christ died to sin (vv.8-10)
- If we died with Christ, then we will have new life in Him, both now and in eternity (v.8)
- Because Christ died and was raised to life, he defeated sin and death once for all (vv.9-10)
Summary: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (v.11) If we are united to Christ, then we are dead to sin and alive to God. Through faith, believers have been transformed from death to life, and have new life united with Christ.
Implications:
Therefore, believers are to live a life of righteousness.
- Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness[3] (vv.12-13a)
Don’t let sin reign in your body, don’t let it be your master. And don’t use your body for wickedness – your mouth, your thoughts, your hands, your whole body. Do not live and act like those around you who don’t know Christ.
- But rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.[4] (v.13b)
Instead, offer your body to God and use it for righteousness – your mouth, your thoughts, your hands and your whole body because you been brought from death to life.
Why? (v.14) If we understand God’s grace properly as revealed in the death & resurrection of Jesus, then there is no way a believer can dabble with sin. Sin will not reign over us. Life under grace is the life ‘in Christ’, that leads to us to use our bodies in service to the Lord.
[1] See Romans 5:20b for the immediate context, ‘But where sin increased, grace increased all the more’.
[2] Note: By baptism we mean conversion – repentance & faith. When we became a Christian. Baptism is the sign and seal of an inward reality.
[3] A more literal translation = ‘And do not present your members to sin as weapons of unrighteousness’ (v.13a).
[4] In Romans 8:1-39, Paul will teach his readers that it’s the Spirit who enables believers them to live the righteous life.
Memory Verse
Romans 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’
Leaders PDF
This has been put together using purchased external material and therefore this resource may only be used by Dundonald Church. For more information please contact kids@dundonald.org
More about the author :
