Grosey's Messages

ROMANS 6      THE POWER OF A NEW IDENTITY

In working through the Heidelberg Catechism, we come soon to consider the relationship of the believer to the ten commandments of God.

But before we can deal with the Ten Commandments, we need to work out some things in the believers' lives.

We as believers have an unusual relationship with the Ten Commandments. It is like a mother in law. You can't live with them nor without them.

You and I must figure out our relationship with them. How do we do that? We know from our weekly law/grace readings that the law cannot save us. It shows us our sin and our need of a saviour. We know from our previous studies that no matter how much we try, we cannot save ourselves, and in fact the whole nature of grace is to bring us to rely totally upon the grace of God revealed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ and brought to us by Him alone!

Later,  in Romans 7 the apostle Paul also instructs about the Law of God.

The duty towards the law, The death of the law,

The deliverance from the law and the destiny to bear fruit that the law approves.

But now we have to consider verse 1 of chapter 6.

In response to the grace of God, does that mean we can go on in sin?

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?

Now some folks look at this and immediately conclude one of two things and both are wrong:

They conclude either that sin doesn't matter to God anymore and a Christian can live however he likes, or

A Christian is now so free from sin he will never have a problem with sin again!

Both are wrong.

I remember one young guy at a bible study announced that he had become sinlessly perfect and he would never ever sin again!   And he had proved it by not sinning for the last 2 weeks. I asked his wife if that was so. Her story was a bit different.

We will read these words from chapter 7 next week.

Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

In chapter 7 the Apostle Paul gets very vulnerable and transparent.  He gives an honest confession of his own struggle against sin and its temptation, and admits that often he failed to do the things he really wanted to do, while at the same time he did things he really did not want to do.

Our new identity in Christ does not keep us from being tempted and drawn to sin.

Sin is still alluring and sometimes looks very appealing to the Christian.

Sin has lost its power over us… But it has not lost its appeal to us.

Temptation is still very real to us, even though we are totally identified with Jesus Christ… It is very important that we do not try to interpret Romans 6 apart from chapter 7.  If we were to stop reading at chapter 6 we would think that I have a new nature and a new life, and therefore, I should never again have any pull toward sin.  In fact, I should never again expect to be tempted by temptation. In fact, I have read some "deeper life" people who subtly teach exactly that.  They try to ignore chapter 7 of Romans and say "You need to stop living in Romans chapter 7 and start living in Romans chapter 8."   Hey… You never will stop living in Romans chapter 7 until you get to heaven.  Paul was living in Romans chapter 7 and chapter 8 simultaneously… all the time. If you think you are going to live in either Romans 6 or Romans 8 without simultaneously living 7, you will be greatly disappointed. And the people who try to teach Romans 6 or Romans 8, while ignoring Romans 7 are out of balance… And can even begin to teach a false doctrine.
So what does chapter 6 teach us about or becoming godly?

1. RECOGNISE YOUR IDENTIFICATION IN UNION WITH CHRIST

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?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.

We who have been born again, have literally become One With Jesus.  He is in us and we are in Him. WE are no longer connected to Adam or his kind of life… WE are now eternally connected to Jesus and His kind of life.   THIS IS OUR NEW IDENTITY.  We have literally become  NEW PERSONS in Jesus Christ… 2 Cor 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

This Identity is in Union With His Death.

When Jesus died, He died on our behalf, in our name.  It was as though we were actually dying with Him.

1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

Isa 53:4Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

THINK ABOUT THIS… He became the Son of Man that we might become the sons of God. He took our sins that we might take his righteousness. He became guilty that we might be declared innocent

He became a servant that we might become saints.

"He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2Cor.5:21) His identification with us was complete, that our identification with Him might be complete. Everything He did, He did in our names, on our behalf. It is just as if you and I were doing it in Him. In God's eyes, our deaths and crucifixions could not have been more real if there had been 10 million crosses on that hill, and each one of us hanging on that cross along side Jesus. When He died… we died with Him.

We understand that "Christ died for our sins" as something the Lord Jesus did for us once for all at the cross to bring us freedom from the penalty of our sins. He died in our place so we would never have to face the judgment of God.

But now Paul is saying something more. When Christ died at the cross to separate you from Adam's sins and your sins, and take your judgment He also did something about your old sin Adamic sin nature too. He died to separate you from the power of your sin nature. Somehow or other when He died in your place, He also crucified your old Adamic sin nature to take you out of Adam and place you in Christ.

You are no longer in union with Adam and His failure and your failure by sin, you are now in Christ, an that means something has happened to your old sin nature. That sin nature itself was crucified with the Lord Jesus at the cross to make a way for you to live in a new way.

Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Gal 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Col 3:2-3Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

He is saying that in your Union with Christ, that old sin nature is dead! It died with Him there at the cross, and your new identity is in Christ.

Now immediately you should be saying.. but how come I still sin? And how come it is so slow going to become Christlike in my nature.

Our translations come in handy here.

Paul in chapters 6, 7 and 8 is saying that our sin nature has died, but sin still remains in our flesh, as  long as we are in this mortal body.

The Christian lives between D day and VE day.

D Day signalled the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Germany was beaten at the D Day invasion on June 6^th 1944. But it wasn't complete until VE Day some 11 months later on May 8^th 1945. Until then the allied forces had to engage in mopping up operations over each area of resistance still existing. 

You live between D Day and VE Day in your Christian living right now. D Day happened the moment you believed in the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. You were born again! You became a new creature in Christ Jesus. Your sin natire was crucified with the Lord Jesus 200 years ago. But you are still fighting the resistance where sin still lives in your fleshly body today. One day all the resistance will be done (when you die or when the Lord Jesus returns and transforms our fleshly bodies to be like His glorious body! Sinless and perfect then!

But until then we are engaged in mopping up the resistance.

This Identity is in Union With His Burial.

The burial, As DMLJ says, is the final proof of His death for us. It is saying He truly died for us. And more that somehow not only did He die for us to free us from the penalty of our sins, He also died for us to free us from the power of our sin nature.

We have died to our old sin nature and our old sin nature is buried!

There is an end to you having to give up on being godly because you sin nature is too strong. You need to remind yourself that God has made a change! Christ died to bury your old sin nature in that grave He went into.

Your Union with Christ is now such that the Lord Jesus by His death for you and burial for you has put an end to the power of your sin nature over you. Your union with Christ in His death and burial is symbolized in water baptism. The primary message of this passage relates to our supernatural, spiritual baptism into Jesus Christ….  BUT…  In this you can see why the symbolism of water baptism is so very important. It is about a burial of the old way of life. Baptism itself doesn't bury the old way of life, it is a symbolic burial in the ground.  Symbolising that the old life is dead and buried. For new believers that is why baptism should be soon after conversion.

John Stott writes "These verses probably refer to the pictorial symbolism of baptism. When baptisms took place in the open air, in some stream, the candidate would go down into the water and—if I may add in a whisper and in a parenthesis, whether he was only partially or totally immersed, really does not matter a bit I The point is that, as he went down into the Water, whether partially or totally, he would seem to be buried and then to rise again. His baptism would dramatise his death, his burial, and his resurrection to a new life.

"In other words," writes C. T. Vaughan in his commentary, "our baptism is a sort of funeral." Have you ever thought of your baptism like that? A sort of funeral; yes, and a resurrection from the grave as well.

This Identity is in Union With His Resurrection.

In His death, Jesus gave His life to us.  And in His resurrection, He gives His life to us…

Rom 5:10  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Now listen, you can not die with Christ, be buried with Him and raise again… And remain the same person you were before.

The old person you were in Adam died and was buried with Christ… Now you have been also raised with Christ Jesus a brand new person.

1Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

He has ut the power of a new life in you. You are no longer who you were.

The devil is going to tempt you and he will come alongside you to say, "you are just like you were before. There is no difference! Just give up on this Christianity thing, you are the failure!"

But there is a difference! Your in nature died with Christ at the cross. It is buried with Him. And the Lord Jesus being raised from physical death has infused spiritual life into you. And you now live by the power of this new life.

You see, since we have "died with Christ" our old man is dead.  This means our relationship to the law and to sin has changed dramatically.

While we were in Adam, we were legally under the dominion of the law and a slave to sin. There was only one way out of this relationship of bondage to the law and sin… And that was to die. So we died (In Christ) therefore, we are no longer bound by the law and sin.  The old person who was bound has died.  We are a new person, freed from the bondage of law and sin.

In chapter 7 of Romans, Paul uses the institution of marriage to illustrate this truth…

Rom 7:1-6

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another-- to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

But now you have died with Christ… And sin no longer has any legal rights over you.   Sin no longer can control you.   Sin can no longer exercise dominion over you.   You are free… Legally free.   Now married to another, Jesus Christ (You are now His bride).

But for it to work you must:

2. RECKON ON IT, TO APPROPRIATE YOUR UNION WITH CHRIST

¹¹ Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

It is very important that you understand this truth.  Sin is not dead, it is very much alive and real, and you are going to combat sin until the day God takes you home to live with Him

But the good news is Those of us who are in Christ have died to sin.

You are no longer under sin's power. You are no longer a slave to sin

You are no longer under sin's dominion. You now have the freedom to obey God, and live a righteous life. You now have the power to choose not to sin (something you never had outside of Jesus) You are a brand new person in Jesus Christ, and sin's death grip on your life has been broken

Again, I say it is important that you understand who or what really died with Jesus.  Because a lot of believers struggle with this truth.  They ask, "If I have died to sin, then…

Why does sin still bother me so much?   Why am I so beleaguered by temptation? 

Why is it I still stumble and fall so often?   Why do I still catch myself sinning?

The answer to that question is, "You have died to sin, which means  Sin's controlling power on your life has been broken.   But sin has not died.  Sin and temptation are still very real,  And every day of your life you are going to have to determine and declare your rightful victory over sin."

When the Allied forces liberated France from Hitler's army, Hitler's dominion and rule over France was immediately broken.   But then the United States had to send in "Occupying Forces" to hold the ground that had been liberated, and to prevent the enslaving enemy from coming back.

The moment you came to life in Jesus, you were set free from the tyranny of sin's dominion in your life.  But you must now be diligent to occupy and guard this new liberty.  Because sin is still very much alive, and sin will make repeated attempts to invade your life and take control wherever you allow it to do so.  Just understand this, you never ever have to let sin back in, or ever again give sin a foothold in your life.

You must identify that this has happened! You are no longer who you thought you were! Slaves in Texas after the emancipation annunciation were still held in slavery because they thought they were still slaves. But they were already free: they just hadn't claimed it yet!

Augustine after his conversion was pursued one day by a harlot he had spent a  lot of time and money with.  She ran after him calling out "Augustine it is I!" And he kept running calling out "Yes But it's no longer I!"

George Muller: "There was a day when I died; died to self, my opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God."

Leading The Way's Michael Youseeff wrote "Until you learn to die to self, you will live your Christian life in defeat. Until you learn to die to sin, you will live in bondage. Until you learn to die to pride, you will live in slavery and servitude. If any believer feels defeated, it is because he has bought into the lie of believing that Satan has invincible power over him. As a child of God, you do not need to be in bondage. James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

When James says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," it does not mean that you are standing in the battle arena and being beaten. Rather, it is a picture of a general who has defeated his enemy and calls out to his officers to clean house. Your commanding general rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is at the Father's right hand "with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to Him" (1 Peter 3:22). When you are joined with Christ, you have the same authority. You can break out of bondage. You can give up a sinful habit. You can be freed from any addiction—by the power of Christ."

Reckon on it. You say you do not understand it. Bless your heart, whoever asked you to understand it. That is not the point. Believe it! Reckon on it. I do not understand—God says, reckon, reckon. We are talking about something supernatural: do not trouble the waters here. Dare to step out in faith with God. What does it mean to reckon? It means to believe. I put down in black and white exactly what God says, and I put my Amen to it. I reckon on it, whether I understand it or not; whether I realise all the implications of it or not, I reckon on it—that is faith. You don't have to say "YES" to sin ever again.  You are responsible to say "NO"…

This spiritual and vital union which connects us with our Lord guarantees our standing before God to be as perfect as His. And moreover, in this union is to be found the source for spiritual living. Now, how does this become real and practical in our living? Which means that you must:

3. RELINQUISH IN SUBMISSION TO CHRIST

Look at verse 13, "Present yourselves unto God." Present . . . yield. . yourselves unto God.—surrender, faith.

Why should I surrender? If I am not surrendered, if there is some pocket of resistance in my life, and I am rebellious and defiant, and I say, Why should I surrender? what is the answer to that question?

Surrender To A Person

13  but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ²² But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

It is our union with Christ that allows all of this to happen.. Without Him you can do nothing.

John Stott said "To rebel against the will of God is not only to flout His authority, and to doubt His love and wisdom, but to forfeit our own highest benefit, I find I need to keep saying to myself: (i) It is right to obey God, because He is my Lord, my Creator, my Redeemer. (ii) It is reasonable, because He is my Father; He will never 'exploit my surrender. (iii) It is refreshing, it is my meat and drink." Colossians 1:27, "To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Galatians 2: 20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." Put them together—"Christ in you," "Christ liveth in me." The Lord Jesus Christ is so identified with His people, that not only are they in Him, but He is in them: the union is complete. Christ lives in the believer.

You have a choice:  "of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness" 

²¹ Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.²² But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Surrender For A Purpose

For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

What is the basic reason for yielding ourselves to God, and not to sin? The answer is that we died to sin,' and we have risen to God, so we cannot yield ourselves to sin; we yield ourselves to God.

If we are one with Christ—and we are—then with Christ we died to sin, and we live to God. If we are enslaved to God—which we are —then ipso facto we are committed to obedience. It is inconceivable that we should wilfully persist in sin, presuming on the grace of God. The very thought is intolerable. And we need constantly to be talking to ourselves about these truths.  To talk to yourself is not the first sign of madness; it is the first sign of maturity in the Christian life! It depends what you are talking to yourself about!

You and I need to be talking to our-selves, and saying, "But don't you know that you are one with Christ; that you have died to sin, and risen to God. Don't you know that you are a slave to God, and committed therefore to obedience. Don't you know these things." And go on asking yourself that question until you reply to yourself, "Yes, I do know. And by the grace of God I shall live accordingly."

QUESTIONS FOR BIBLE STUDY GROUPS.

How is Baptism an illustration like marriage (Romans 7:1-6).

What does union with Christ mean?

What does it mean for you?

How does this help in our struggle against sin?

How is Surrender to Christ both a decisive moment and an ongoing experience?

In this context, what then does Romans 6:23 mean?