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Romans 6:1-12
6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.
5 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. 6 We know that our old self1 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. 7 For one who has died has been set free2 from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 6 as we are continuing our study through the book of Romans. Romans chapter 6 is also there in your worship guide. As most of you all know, Lauren and I, we began dating in high school, and I tell people all the time that, she is the only person that I have ever dated. But technically that's not true. There there was another girl before before you Lauren.
Joel Brooks:We didn't date long but her name was June Boyd, which I can only hope she's listening to this, and it was 4th grade. So in 4th grade I had a note passed to me by Blair King, and I opened the note and it was from June and it said, will you go out with me? This was back in the time when people used to ask one another out, so you have to you know think back to then. But it said, will you go out with me? And it had the 3 boxes, you know, the yes, the no and the maybe.
Joel Brooks:And so I got to the note and I had no idea what that meant. And so I asked Chris Spranka, who was sitting next to me, which it's amazing the details you remember from like 4th grade. So Chris was sitting next to me and he was wiser in the ways of the world, and so I I asked him, what what does this mean? Where do we go? Like where when she says, do you want to go out?
Joel Brooks:Where do we go? He goes, you don't have to go anywhere. You just have to like maybe at recess, like say hey or something like that. Oh, you know, alright. And so I checked yes.
Joel Brooks:Handed it back to Blair who handed it back to June. We kind of looked at one another and that was it. And apart from some giggling that happened during recess, with her and her her friends, nothing changed about our relationship. 2 weeks later, I was surprised. I got another note passed to me saying that June was breaking up with me.
Joel Brooks:And so then I then asked out Blair King, his or her best friend. And so we went out together for a little bit. But I think of those stories, often when I think of what it means for us to like choose to follow Jesus. To check the box. And yet does anything really change in the relationship?
Joel Brooks:What does conversion look like? Is conversion, you know, does it happen when you walk the aisle? Does it happen when you go through a confirmation class? You know, when you passed? And and you know, congratulations.
Joel Brooks:You're a convert. In my church, we actually had growing up, we had the envelopes that literally had a box you could check. Anybody else with those? So it was like check if you want to become a Christian and then you turned it in. But does anything change when you make that decision?
Joel Brooks:What does conversion look like? That's what Paul is going to be addressing, through really chapter 6, 7 and 8. It's what we're going to be looking at for the next few weeks is what does conversion look like and why are we converted. And so, to get us started in this we're gonna look at the first 11 verses. Actually I'm probably only going to preach through the first five but we'll read the first 11 verses of chapter 6.
Joel Brooks:What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into the, into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Joel Brooks: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. 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.
Joel Brooks: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 that he died, he died to sin, once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God.
Joel Brooks:So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Father, we pray that through your spirit, you would not just open our minds to understand this word, but you'd open our hearts to receive it. Lord, where there needs to be conviction, bring conviction.
Joel Brooks:Where there needs to be healing, bring healing. May the spirit of God have your way in our midst. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So last week, we got to finish chapter 5. And, and it was a doozy. There was a lot of stuff there. We got to see how Adam, he was our representative, created to be our representative for all of humanity.
Joel Brooks:And so when Adam sinned, we actually all sinned with him. We were so united with Adam that when he sinned, we sinned with Him. And then God sent Jesus. And Jesus was the new representative for humanity. And by faith, if we choose Him to be our representative, then when He obeys, we obeyed with Him.
Joel Brooks:And when he died and rose again, we died and we rose again with him. This is what Paul's main point is gonna be here as he, as he unpacks chapter 6. He's continuing the same themes from chapter 5 that Christ is our representative. That we are to be found in him. We looked at last week how Jesus, his favorite title that he used to describe himself was that he was the son of man or the son of Adam, meaning I'm the true human.
Joel Brooks:I'm the new representative for humanity. Humanity rises and falls with me. And we get to choose him and when we choose him we choose life. If if you missed last week I encourage you to go listen to the podcast because really what we're gonna be unpacking over these next few weeks really flows from that. It's about what does it mean to be human.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus rose from the dead, he did something very similar to what God did at, the creation of Adam. God created Adam from the dust of the ground and says he breathed into him and Adam became alive. He became man. Jesus, after he rose from the dead, he gathered his disciples together and we read, he breathed upon them. And he was creating a new humanity.
Joel Brooks:And now Paul is gonna begin to unpack, what does a new humanity look like? How are we supposed to live? So now we're in this section of Romans as as Paul is beginning to unpack this. The place he decides to begin is by talking about the resurrection of Jesus. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now enters into us and it raises us up to a new life.
Joel Brooks:That's what Paul's entire argument is over these 11 verses verses that we were dead but the spirit of God has come and he's raised us up into new life. We are a new creation. All because of the resurrection. But before we dive into the details of that, the particulars of that, I really, I want to take a step back and I want to just talk about the resurrection itself because we actually haven't done this as we've gone through the book of Romans yet. And we are 2000 years removed, from the empty tomb.
Joel Brooks:And I know that in a group this size, we likely have a number of people who are really skeptical as to whether Jesus rose from the dead or not. Actually I know we have people in here because I've had lunch with you. We've talked through these doubts that you have. And I'm so glad that you are here. And I want you to know that this is a safe place for you to bring those doubts.
Joel Brooks:What I'm hoping though is that you will begin to doubt your doubts. That at least you will be open to doubting the very doubts that you bring in to this room. One of my favorite verses in scripture is actually Matthew 28 17. This is after Jesus has been risen from the dead. For 40 days He's been walking around, He's been talking with the disciples, eating with them, teaching them, saying touch my body.
Joel Brooks:I mean He has been very much alive and after 40 days he gathers everyone around and he gives them the great commission, which is now go tell everybody about me. And then he begins to ascend to heaven and you read in verse 17 that they worshiped him but some doubted. I mean that is astonishing. 40 days with the resurrected Jesus. He is literally ascending before them and yet some doubted.
Joel Brooks:It shows the power of doubt. Most of our doubts are not rational, but they're deeply embedded in us. And if you're one who who has a lot of doubt, I want you to know this is a safe place for you here. But I want you to be open to doubting your doubts, letting Jesus remove them. Now we haven't really talked about this as we've gone through Romans yet.
Joel Brooks:Perhaps because this point is a little too obvious but I want to make it anyway. Paul assumes all of his readers believe in the resurrection. He just assumes they not only believe in the resurrection, they believe Jesus to be the Messiah. He's the son of God. He's the Lord.
Joel Brooks:He's Yahweh himself and that he died and he rose, from the grave. That is Paul's baseline assumption of every person who reads his letters. And this is remarkable you know, a legend or a myth that over time becomes fact. The early church at the beginning has always believed Jesus is the Lord. Jesus rose from the dead.
Joel Brooks:You find that in the earliest moments of Christian history. Now Paul, he once had his doubts. These were doubts that had to be overcome. He actually did more than doubt. We know that he actually persecuted Christians.
Joel Brooks:He thought Christianity was harmful. But then he met the resurrected Jesus, and it all changed. I was trying to think of an illustration that could co communicate just the drastic change that happened in Paul. And, I struggled. So I'm gonna give you one.
Joel Brooks:It's kind of silly. It's also a little bit political, so I'm gonna get all these emails. Already know it. Imagine Donald Trump. Alright.
Joel Brooks:So the emails already come in. Alright. But just like Just imagine if Donald Trump, he decided to get away for a weekend by himself, And he came back. And when he came back, you know, Monday morning, he makes an announcement. He says, I'd like to make an announcement.
Joel Brooks:I just want you to know, I've seen the error of my ways, and I am now gonna become a democrat. And not only that, but I am now endorsing Hillary Clinton for the next presidency. Can you imagine a scenario like that? Like, no. I mean, there's there's no way.
Joel Brooks:I mean it's a silly example because it would never ever happen. If it happened. And I want you to just like pretend it happened. What are all of you thinking? What happened to Donald Trump over the weekend?
Joel Brooks:Who got to him? Somebody got to him to have such a drastic change. That change would be nothing compared to what actually happened to Paul, who literally went around killing Christians after Christian after Christian and in a moment his entire life has changed. Even the disciples were skeptical at first. They were like, I don't know.
Joel Brooks:Does God's grace really change him? But he met the living Jesus and everything changed. And Paul is not the only one in having such a drastic conversion. Person after person, all the disciples, the people around Jesus, all those in the 1st decade afterwards who were staunchly against Christianity changed overnight. I think of James, the half brother of Jesus, half brother, not not the full brother, but the half brother of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:You read through the gospels and he initially thought his half brother, Jesus, was insane. James changed overnight and began calling Jesus the resurrected Lord. Any of you have a brother? Any of you? What would it take to convince you your brother is God?
Joel Brooks:Like, I mean, I know like convincing you your brother, Satan, might not be as hard. But like, for me to try to convince you your brother is God, you'd have to have undeniable proof. James in a moment, he changed. Most of these early Christians were horribly persecuted for their faith. All but one of the disciples were brutally killed.
Joel Brooks:Now history is gonna show you that some people will come up with a lie and they'll keep to this lie if they could gain some power, if they could gain some wealth, but no one keeps up a lie for decades, all in order to be despised, tortured, thrown in prison, killed. And not just you but your family. And no one suffered more than Paul. I mean after a lifetime of beatings and imprisonments, he was eventually beheaded. Believing in Jesus, he he didn't benefit at all.
Joel Brooks:It only cost him. But he held to it. And all these early Christians, they endured because they knew they knew and they knew they knew Jesus to be raised from the dead. Now, the section that we're looking at here in Romans, Paul wants you to know that when he met Jesus, Jesus didn't just change his mind. Oh, wow.
Joel Brooks:But you were dead. You're alive. No. Jesus didn't just change his mind. Jesus changed his life.
Joel Brooks:He became an entirely new person when he met the resurrected Jesus. Resurrection power entered into his life and made him into a new creation. That's what Paul's gonna argue right here. That's what happens to us at conversion. Resurrection power enters into us and makes us a new creation.
Joel Brooks:Now I know that when we often think of the resurrection, we don't think of it in those terms. We think of, well, we get to see what awaits us someday in the future. Or we get to see that, okay, Jesus he rose from the dead in order to prove he was who he was, to prove he did what he said he was gonna do. Paul says, yes, those things are true. But he rose from the dead in order to unleash power into our lives.
Joel Brooks:The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is what converts us, gives us new life. The resurrection does not just give us new hope, for a life after we die, gives us a new life now. And now this is how Paul is gonna get there. Here's how he's gonna get to talking about this. In verse 1, he first raises an objection or a question that the Romans are having.
Joel Brooks:So we read, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? So for months now, we've been hearing Paul preach grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. You're saved by faith, not by your good works. Like, I mean, he's just pounding grace.
Joel Brooks:The Romans, they've been hearing this in this letter over and over and over. And finally, some of them are going, I mean you preach grace so much. Like if you're truly saved by grace, why do you do anything good? I mean, why not? Why not just sin?
Joel Brooks:Keep on sinning if you're saved by grace. There's no incentive to do good works. That's their argument. Matter of fact, they go a step further and they say, you know what? If actually our sins just brings more grace, Shouldn't we just keep on sinning?
Joel Brooks:Because it keeps bringing him more and more grace. And Paul says, that is the dumbest argument. I shared this a a few, probably 2 years ago. But my oldest daughter, Caroline, she's a she's a typical firstborn, which means she struggled with grace. Performance based righteousness.
Joel Brooks:I mean, firstborns are the easiest children to raise often because they discipline themselves. They're so eager to please. I mean, Caroline would do something wrong and she'd come up to us and she'd spank herself. Like I didn't even have to spank her. She would just just did it herself.
Joel Brooks:And so, one time she did something, if you remember I shared this, she did something really wrong. And so I said, alright, you sit right there. I'll be right back. And I went to Walmart, bought a bar Barbie doll, came back and I gave it to her. She's looking at me.
Joel Brooks:She said, why'd you give this to me? I said, because you did something really wrong. It's not computing in her at all because there's no category for grace. She's like, but I I I deserve punishments. Like, oh, you do.
Joel Brooks:So I'm gonna give you this Barbie. And she just, she's really wrestling with it. But I wanted her to to understand God's free gift to us. He doesn't punish us. Jesus took the punishment.
Joel Brooks:Instead he he gives us salvation. Now it's a dangerous thing to teach that. And I didn't teach it with my other girls because they would have just kept on sinning that they could keep get more Barbie dolls. You mean if I keep doing bad, Barbies abound? I mean, that's the argument here.
Joel Brooks:And Paul says, by no means. It's as strong of a no as you could get. He is saying, heck no. Don't be stupid. He's essentially beating his head against the wall saying, how could you possibly think that?
Joel Brooks:Not at all. He says, don't you know don't you know that you've died to this? You you would think there are this argument, would go away because it's such a stupid argument that you keep sinning more that grace might abound. But it's one actually that's, pretty strong today. I run into this all the time.
Joel Brooks:I know many professed believers who willingly sin, willingly walk into sin with such a casual, casualness to it, just thinking, well, God will forgive me. I'm saved by grace. And so they they can willingly look at something, you know watch something, maybe on Netflix or whatever, that they know they shouldn't be watching. No business watching, you shouldn't be putting that filth in their mind. They're like, I mean, God will forgive me.
Joel Brooks:Saved by grace. Or they might move in with their boyfriend. Yeah. It's okay. You know, God's a God of it's not like he's gonna throw me in hell for doing this.
Joel Brooks:I've had people in my office, couples who are getting a divorce for the most unbiblical reasons you can imagine. They know it's wrong. Yet the question they keep asking me over and over is this, but God will forgive us. Right? I mean if we do do this, I know it's we know it's wrong.
Joel Brooks:We know it's where it's perfect, it's probably not God's plan, we know that. But this is like a hurdle we could get over. Right? He'll forgive us. And Paul's beating his head against the wall.
Joel Brooks:He's beating it against the wall. He's saying, don't you know? Don't you know that you've died to that? You've died to your old self. You have died to that sin.
Joel Brooks:When we baptize people at Redeemer, we ask 2 questions. 1st, we ask them what they believe. Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God, he died and he rose again for your forgiveness. Do you believe that? I said yes.
Joel Brooks:Second question we ask is is it your wholehearted desire to follow him as your lord all of your days? Because there is no just accepting Jesus as a savior in your heart. He's savior and Lord. It's who he is. And when we ask that question, what we were saying is will you turn away from your sin, and will you repent and will you follow the lord all your days?
Joel Brooks:That's what conversion looks like. Turning away from your sin and you're following the Lord all of your days. Now Paul is actually gonna use this language of baptism here when he talks about conversion. Look at verse 3. Says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
Joel Brooks:We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. Now, don't think Paul is actually talking about your water baptism and how it saves you. He doesn't even mention water here. But I do think he's describing what baptism represents, the symbol of what it represents. The word baptize, it means to dip or it means to immerse.
Joel Brooks:When you put your faith in Jesus, you are immersed in him. It's kind of unusual language but we still use that language today. You know, if somebody is a workaholic and they're always at work, we might say that, he or she is immersed in their work. Meaning like work is their life. They can't get away from work.
Joel Brooks:All they do is work. They're inseparable from their work. They're immersed in it. And when you were converted, you became inseparable from Christ. Your life became fused with his.
Joel Brooks:So think back to last week again. Just as you were so united with Adam that when Adam sinned, you sinned with him. Now you are so fused together or united with Christ that when he died, you died with him. When he rose from the dead, you rose with him. And that's what baptism here is representing.
Joel Brooks:Listen, Jesus didn't need to die and rise again for himself. He died and rose again for you, representing you so that you would die with him and that you would rise with him. And so that's what baptism represents. It's the visual representation of the death and the resurrection of of Jesus. Now to put it simply, the resurrection of Jesus was not simply his resurrection.
Joel Brooks:It was your resurrection as well. Resurrection power was unleashed to you. Resurrection is not just a fact about the past, it is a power for the present. So we were raised to new life. So I wanna be crystal clear about this, Christianity is not you turning over a new leaf.
Joel Brooks:Christianity is not adopting a new, you know, moral code. Christianity, it's not just you just deciding I really want to become a better person in this moment. It's not going through a confirmation class. It's being resurrected. It's where you were spiritually dead but now you've become alive.
Joel Brooks:Which is why Paul says this in 2nd Corinthians 5. He says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away or died and the new has come. For 3 days, Jesus' lifeless cold body, lay on a stone slab. And then the spirit of God came and breath entered in his body and he was raised to a new life.
Joel Brooks:And when that happened, Paul is saying, it happened to you. That's what conversion looks like. The spirit of God comes and just as the spirit raised Jesus, the spirit has raised you. So, why do we not want to just keep on sinning so that grace might increase? Well Paul answers and said, because the person that used to enjoy sinning is dead.
Joel Brooks:That person died and the spirit of God has raised up a new person to life. One with new desires. And so the question is, is that what happened at your conversion? Am am I describing what you see is happening at your conversion? Or did you just check a box?
Joel Brooks:Did you just go to a confirmation class? Did you just walk an aisle? Or were you raised a new life? I'm not saying here that Paul says when you become a Christian, you cease to struggle with sin. Because our next 2 or 3 weeks, that's what we're gonna be unpacking, is how we struggle with sin.
Joel Brooks:But he is gonna say that sin does not define you anymore. It no longer has the same strength in your life. It no longer controls you. I like to use the language a new song has been put in your heart. Any of you ever have a really bad song just stuck in your in your head, can't get it out?
Joel Brooks:Taylor Swift, shake it out. Shake it off. Gotta shake it off. Just and it's just there. And, like, you you you can't you can't get it out of your head.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it doesn't help that every time you turn on the radio, it's there, you know, too. But so you you just you just wanna get it out. Well, I had the song Shares, do you believe in life after love stuck in my head. You know the first auto tune song and it's just how do you get it out? I mean you could you could try just saying like I'm gonna stop.
Joel Brooks:I've gotta get it out. But you can't. It's just there and it's torture for you and everyone else around you because you're humming, do you believe in my Like you're just What do you do? You can't just stop or get it out. You have to have a new song put in.
Joel Brooks:You've got to listen to a new and more glorious song that that wipes out the old one. There's got to be a new song of your heart. You've got to listen to like a Britney Spears, Toxic or something, you know, which you all know if that's on the radio, you don't turn it off. You're listening to some YouTube, something good. Alright?
Joel Brooks:To wipe away the shares of your life. Over and over, you read through the Bible. You're gonna keep finding the Lord's put a new song in my mouth. He's put a new song in my heart. Sing to the Lord a new song.
Joel Brooks:What are the biblical authors saying? Conversion. You've had a heart change. You're no longer repeating the same sins over and over and over. And each time you repeat it, you're like, I just gotta get rid of this.
Joel Brooks:I keep having this sinful soundtrack play in my mind. This time I'm gonna change. This time I'm gonna stop. And you can't. Because you can't just stop.
Joel Brooks:What you need is a new song. A new song is put in you and you begin singing this glorious new tune. You become a new creation. Is that how you would describe your conversion? Is that what happened in your life?
Joel Brooks:Have you been given a new song, a new heart, a new life, or have you been born again? Has resurrection power entered into you? If not, that opportunity is there today. And I plead with you, that opportunity is here today for you to call out to Jesus and have resurrection power enter enter into your life. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, we believe that you are creating a glorious new humanity. You're showing us how to truly be human. And, lord, in order to be human, we need your spirit to come and to change us. So, spirit of god, come. Do your work.
Joel Brooks:By faith, Jesus, we choose you as our representative. We bind our lives with you. Your obedience becomes our obedience. Your righteousness becomes our righteousness. Your death and your resurrection become our death and resurrection.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus, you make us new people. Thank you. We pray this in the name of Christ our Lord and our savior. Amen.