Romans 6:1-4 "A New Life"

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• Audio file
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The text:

The Believer’s Freedom from Sin’s Domination

(NET) Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.¹

Notes:

¹ tn Grk “may walk in newness of life,” in which ζωῆς (zōēs) functions as an attributed genitive (see ExSyn 89–90, where this verse is given as a prime example).


Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.

Sermon Notes: From the last message

Romans 5:20 Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Q: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
A: “By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

• Why has the believer “died to sin”? God's purpose is to
  
  • glorify His Son Jesus Christ by (through Him) bringing about a “new humanity.”
  • not only forgive our sin and to cleanse us from the guilt of sin; but also to remove us from the “reign” of “sin.”
  
  
• “Grace” also has a “reign.”: The believer must “die to” the “reign of sin” — in order to be brought into the “reign of grace”!
  
• In what sense has the believer “died to sin”?
• It is a very real “death.” “we died to sin”
• It is not dependent upon us to fully understand it.
• It is not dependent upon our feelings or our senses.
• It is that the believer has “died to sin” – in union with Christ. (Romans 6:3,5-8,10-11)
• We must “know” that, in being united with Christ, we also “died” to “the reign of sin” in our lives. (6:3,6,9-10)
• In union with Him, we have:
• forgiveness from the penalty of sin and
• freedom from the power of sin.
  
  
• We died to sin—through our union with Christ—being baptized into Him and His death. Is Paul talking about water baptism?
  

  “Baptism is the placing of something (or someone) into a new environment or union with something else—so as to alter its condition or its relationship to a previous condition.”
  

• What then does it mean to be “baptized into Christ”
  
  1. It is being joined to Christ in an essential union with Him.
  2. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.
     

     1 Corinthians 12:12 For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body – though many – are one body, so too is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not a single member, but many.
     

  3. It means we now live a new life.
  
  

Going Deeper into the Word:

1. Why does Paul think it so important to persuade the believer they are no longer “under” the “reign of sin”?
2. Do we sometimes choose to do something we know is sinful - depending on the grace of God to forgive?
3. How can Paul say that believers are “baptized into His death”? (6:3)
4. Do you think most Christians think of themselves as being “united with Christ”? Why or why not?
5. What does Romans 6 teach us about the “new life” God intends for us?

Next: 6:5-7 -- "No Longer Slaves to Sin"