Good morning. Thanks.
Let’s just begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we do very simply want to commit this time into Your hands. Lord, we confess that in ourselves, we have not the ability to go where only Your Holy Spirit can go in illuminating the Word and making it real to us.
So we trust now that Your Holy Spirit will do so. We trust now that this time will have value to it, not because of anything I say, but because of the Holy Spirit and His desire to glorify the Lord Jesus.
We do commit this time into Your hands. In Jesus’ name, amen.
If you could all open your Bibles to Romans, the book of Romans, we’re going to read a fairly large section of Scripture before we get going. I feel we need to do this to kind of pave the way of what we want to share this morning.
So if you can open up to Romans 5:20, I’ll be reading out of the NASB version. We’re going to start in about the middle of verse 20.
But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
May it never be!
How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
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.
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.
Knowing this, that our old self—some of your versions may say “old man”—was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?
May it never be!
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. 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.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Or do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, were at work in the members of your body to bear fruit for death.
But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Let me take a breath.
Did you notice a phrase that came up in our time of reading? It came up three times in our text. Did you happen to pick up what it was? And, Jack, you can’t answer that.
I tried to emphasize it as I was reading. It is, “Do you not know?”
That was kind of funny when Jack came up to me and asked me, “What’s the title to your message?” I said, “Do you not know?” He says, “No, I don’t know.”
You did well, Jack. You did well. I had to go back and tell him I wasn’t trying to play with him, really.
But it came up three times. You may have noticed in Romans 6:3, it says:
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
It came up the second time in Romans 6:16:
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
And lastly, in Romans 7:1, it says:
Or do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
So we see in this section of Scripture there’s something that Paul wants to set forth. There’s something that Paul wants the believers to know. It’s a very important matter. It’s a very important spiritual matter that he wants them to know.
And it’s this matter of sanctification.
Now, don’t get scared at this word sanctification. It’s one of the big words in the Bible that we see, such as propitiation. Mac knows what I mean by that.
But the word simply means to be set apart for its proper use—to be set apart for its proper use. That’s sanctification.
Even as a shoe, if it’s on your foot, it’s set apart for its proper use. Now, man was created to be set apart for God, for His use. And if we fail in this purpose, then we fail our reason for living.
Now, spiritual growth is closely related to spiritual knowledge. And in this section, we find that Paul wants to set forth some spiritual truths which we find in Christ Jesus.
So we want to look at these three occurrences where we find this “do you not know?” in hopes that, by the Lord’s grace, the Lord will give us light and understanding.
And I don’t just mean mental understanding. Yes, we need to understand things mentally, but it needs to go beyond that. We need to have spiritual understanding. We need to see, if you will. We need to have revelation.
Because without revelation, there will be no faith. And simply put, we cannot go into this area if there’s no faith. This will mean nothing. These truths will mean nothing to us.
Now, as we mentioned, the first “do you not know?” is here in Romans 6:3:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
This “do you not know?” is really in response to a question we find in Romans 6:1:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
Now, Paul previously in this letter had just set forth the truth of justification by faith as a gift, by God’s grace. And he even stated in Romans 5:20 this amazing truth:
Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
Now, Paul knew in stating this that there would be some who would pervert this truth. They would misuse free grace in an attempt to continue in sin.
But the free gift of justification is intended to lead us to sanctification.
How can one who has been completely forgiven and declared righteous in Christ turn their back, as it were, on the One who has set them free from sin and guilt, and continue in a life of sin?
Paul’s answer to that is horrifying. He says, “May it never be!”
Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Paul here is saying that the believer has a new relationship to sin. He has died to it. He shouldn’t, and need not, continue in sin.
But you may say, or ask, “How is this accomplished?” Look at our verse here in Romans 6:3:
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
What does this mean? What is the apostle referring to here? Does this word baptism here refer to water baptism?
I don’t believe it directly does. You know, I like the way Wuest translates this verse. Wuest says:
Do you not know that all we who were placed in Christ Jesus were placed in His death?
You know, something marvelous has happened. We’ve been placed in Christ. In fact, we find in 1 Corinthians 1:30 that it is God—it’s by God’s doing—that we’ve been placed in Christ.
And having been placed in Christ, we have also been united with Him in His death. And that death took us out of Adam.
So we no longer are associated with Adam, through whom we were made sinners. We find that in Romans 5:19.
When Christ died on the cross, He not only bore your sins in His body, but He also crucified us with Him on that cross.
The latter part of this verse sets forth this wonderful fact: all who were placed in Christ Jesus were placed into His death.
Now, maybe we can translate this word another way to help us a little further. Maybe if we translate this word baptized as identified.
Consider this in the case of John the Baptist. Could it not be accurate to call him John the Identifier? Was John not to be the one to identify the Christ?
So if we insert identified instead of baptized into our verse, it says:
Do you not know that all who have been identified into Christ Jesus have been identified into His death?
You know, we believers have a new identity. Do you know that you have a new source, which is Christ Himself?
We no longer have the identity with Adam, but now we have a relationship with Christ, which includes His death. And because of this, our relationship to Adam and sin has been broken.
Look at Romans 6:6, a very famous verse:
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.
This verse says that our old self was crucified with Him. Did you catch the tense? This is the Greek aorist tense. It speaks of something completed in the past with a present result.
We have been crucified with Him, and the result of that is our body of sin, that we inherited from Adam, has been done away with. Or we could translate it more accurately: our body of sin has been put out of business.
Now, the Adamic nature still does reside within us, but it’s put out of business. Its sting has been removed. Thus, we no longer have to give in to it any longer. We no longer need to give in to it.
But beyond this, we also find that we’re identified with Christ in His burial and His resurrection. We saw that in Romans 6:4-5.
So, having been identified in His burial puts the stamp on our old self being dealt with, and it sets forth now that we are separated from all that would hinder our relationship to God.
But in addition, God didn’t stop there. It says we also share in His life, having been identified, or united, with Him in His resurrection.
You know, this word united in Romans 6:5 is an interesting one.
You know, in California, there’s a certain type of redwood tree that grows up hundreds of feet into the air. I’m sure Jim has seen a few of these.
And sometimes, as they are growing upward, they become entangled and united with one another. And they continue to grow up together, as it were, even as one. They appear to be one tree.
Do you know we have become united with Him in His resurrection? And now Christ is our life. Now we are able to walk in newness of life.
Now, if we look down a little further to Romans 6:10-11, we see these truths are reiterated:
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Now, verse 10 simply states that Christ has died to sin, and now He is alive to God. So what do we do with that? What good is that to us?
Then again, because we are identified with Christ, we are to consider, our verse says. Now, the King James Version says reckon. We reckon. That’s a good Southern word, isn’t it? Reckon?
We are to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. Now, what does this mean?
The word reckon, or consider, is actually a mathematical term, and it means to count on something. Thus, we are by faith to count on, or regard as fact, the truth of our identification with Christ in this matter of His death and resurrection—this matter of our death to sin and being alive to God.
Now, this is not wishful thinking. It is counting, or believing, on spiritual facts.
You know, one brother has said, “Spiritual truths are true because they are true, not because you have believed them to be true.” You see the difference there?
I think the key is the last three words in verse 11: in Christ Jesus.
You’re not going to find these truths real in yourself if you look inside yourself. But this is true of you in Christ Jesus.
You know, I don’t know if any of you have discovered this or not, but you can’t fly. I’ve attempted it, and all I did was fall.
You cannot fly, but an airplane can fly. Put you in the airplane, and you can fly.
It is Christ who died to sin. It is Christ who is alive to God. And it’s true of you because you are in Christ.
Now let me read something from two brothers on these verses. You’ll probably get more out of this than anything that I share.
This first part that I read is from a brother named Newell, William R. Newell. He wrote a wonderful book on Romans, verse by verse, and I recommend it to everyone.
You know, in fact, when I came here many, many years ago, there was one brother that told me there were three books every Christian ought to read, and this was one of them. I’m sure glad I listened to him.
Newell says:
To those who refuse or neglect to reckon themselves dead to sin as God commands, we press the question: How are you able to believe that Christ really bore the guilt of your sins and that you will not meet them at the judgment day?
It is only God’s Word that tells you that Christ bore your sins in His body on the tree. And it is that same Word that tells you that you, as connected with Adam, died with Christ; that your old man was crucified; that since you are in Christ you shared His death unto sin, and are thus to reckon your present relation to sin in Christ as one who is dead to it and alive to God.
If we claim that this is too difficult because we feel the consciousness of sin dwelling in us, then reflect that it is only by faith that we know that our sin’s guilt was borne by Christ. And it is by faith alone that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin.
Let us beware then, lest we be found making a secret truce with indwelling sin while yet hoping to be saved from the guilt of the sins we have committed by Christ’s shed blood.
Again, we repeat: If we are in Christ, we are in a Christ who was made to be sin on the cross and died unto it. This, therefore, is our relationship to it. And God expects all of us to assert by simple, obedient faith this revealed fact: to reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
And the other brother, a brother named Donald Grey Barnhouse, wrote—he said:
This is the allegory of the sea captain who, in mid-ocean, is charged with a capital offense. He is put in chains and replaced by another.
As the ship sails on, the chained one seeks to assert his old authority over the crew. Some of them might be foolish enough to respond, but there is no need to, for he has been judicially disposed.
It is now simply a matter of acknowledging the new captain and refusing the threats and orders of the condemned one. The death sentence is not yet carried out beyond his being held in the place of death, his power broken; but he will be executed when the ship reaches port.
In the meantime, he causes a lot of trouble.
Is this not a picture of the Adamic source, held in the place of death, replaced by the new source at the helm of the ship?
Our attitude toward the old man is to be this: “I reckon on the crucifixion of the cross as your undoing, and therefore refuse your reign over me. I count the Lord Jesus Christ as the captain of my life.”
When we reach the heavenly port, the conflict will be over. In the meantime, we rest in Him.
So, question: Do you not know you have been placed, or identified, in Christ? We have been identified in His death, burial, and resurrection. And as such, we’ve been freed from the old man—that nature we inherited from Adam, which is corrupted and can only produce sin.
Have we seen this? Do you believe it and consider it true? If you do, what’s your response?
The Scripture says to present yourselves and the members of your bodies to God. Remember, it is a presenting as ones alive to God from the dead.
What do we mean by that? We mean we present that new life in us back to God for His glory and His use.
Now let’s move on to the second one, the second “do you not know?” We mentioned earlier we found that in Romans 6:16:
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
The second “do you not know?” is very similar to the first one, in that it is a response to a former question, which we read in verse 15:
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
Now let me stop for a moment here and say that, on the surface, this question in Romans 6:15 seems to be the same as the question in verse 1, which we addressed:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
But actually, they are two different and distinct questions. The one in verse 1 has to do with continuing in a state of sin. The second, in verse 15, has to do with sinning in a state of grace or liberty.
One brother has said, “The first question could be translated, ‘Shall we sin in order to obtain grace?’ The second question could be translated, ‘Shall we sin because we are in grace?’”
I think we know the answer to that.
The apostle here, in this “do you not know?”, wants the readers to be very clear that they must present or yield themselves to something—or, we may more accurately say, Someone.
Or we could put it another way: we must be a servant to someone.
Now, there are really only two choices that are set before us, and that’s either to serve God or ourselves.
If we choose to present ourselves to God, it will lead to sanctification, and that outcome will be eternal life. If we choose to serve ourselves, it will lead to sin and its consequence, which is what? Death.
But we find the grace of God encourages us and enables us to present ourselves to God. By His grace, He’s put us in Christ, and we share His overcoming life.
You know, grace apprehended correctly does not encourage sin. It opposes it.
I want to say that again: grace apprehended correctly does not encourage sin, but opposes it.
To live under the law principle provokes and increases sin. It shows what we ought to be. It shows us what we ought to do, but it does not give us the strength or capacity to do it.
We lack the capacity and strength in ourselves to walk pleasing to God. Our brother shared on that very eloquently this morning.
We’re unable to resist sin, and we can only come under bondage to it. But by becoming obedient from the heart to that form of teaching that was committed to us, which it says back in Romans 6:17—or we could put it another way—by believing the teaching that declares our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, thereafter presenting ourselves to God, we will find the enabling grace to be free from sin, so that it’s no longer master over us.
Now remember that objective and subjective truth have to go hand in hand together.
The objective truth is all that God has already done and provided for us in walking pleasing to Him. The subjective truth is the outworking of the objective truth by God into our lives.
The connection to these two is what? It’s presenting, or yielding, to Him.
If we disregard the objective truth, what we’re going to find out is we’re actually attempting to live the Christian life according to our own strength. We’ll place ourselves under a law principle, and from there we’ll only produce wood, hay, and stubble.
If we shirk the subjective side of truth, we may know the way of life, but we will have lives that are barren and fruitless.
May we be those knowing the objective truth of our identification with Him, presenting ourselves to Him, and then we’ll find He will work out sanctification in us.
Now, coming to the last “do you not know?”, we find that one again in Romans 7:1:
Or do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
Now, this word or here is actually connecting us back to Romans 6:14, which read:
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Now, did you notice something here? It did not say, “You are not under the law, but under grace.” You may ask, “What is the difference?”
The difference is that the law references the Law of Moses. Here, though, it says law in the sense of a principle.
Now, what do we mean by that? We mean law here in the sense of trying to live by certain do’s and don’ts. It’s the attempt out of our own strength to live pleasing to God.
Now, we mentioned previously that if we place ourselves under the law principle to perform, we’re going to fail. There’s not that ability in us to perform righteousness according to God’s standards.
You know, Paul discovered this. He said that nothing good dwelt in him—that is, in his flesh. And look at his conclusion of this matter in Romans 7:24:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Now, this truth is not unique to Paul, but is true to all of us.
And I want to note also that the issue is not with the law itself, but it’s with us who cannot perform it.
Now, as a side note, may I mention that there is ever the tendency to want to put ourselves under this law principle in an attempt to please the Lord.
I think one of the reasons for this is because it doesn’t require faith. We don’t have to trust or rely on the Lord, which is our natural inclination.
You know, our old self desires independence, does it not?
But what we’ll find, if we place ourselves under this law principle, is it’ll either lead to self-righteous and judgmental attitudes, or a feeling of being defeated and discouraged.
Take your pick if you want to go under the law principle.
So what is the answer?
Paul wants us to know that we’re no longer under law, but under grace. So how does this come about? You know, he uses an illustration here of marriage to show us.
He basically says, in effect, there is a woman who is married, and she’s married to a man who is very just and good, but very demanding. She feels like she can never please him, and she wishes to get out of that marriage.
But as long as he’s alive, she’s bound to him. She cannot. She’s stuck, as it were.
She can only be freed if he died, and then she could remarry legally.
Paul says, in effect, this is what has happened to us. The difference being that the husband, who represents the law, he hasn’t died, has he? He’s still there. The difference is, we died.
It says we were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that we might be joined to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Our being identified with Christ in His death has freed us from the law. And our being joined to Him and sharing in His resurrection enables us to produce fruit—spiritual fruit to God.
Now, allow me for a second to clarify something. Because we’re not under the law any longer does not mean we are lawless, that we are free to do whatever we want to do.
No, on the contrary, we find that being joined to Christ, we are under a different law. And do you know what that law is?
It’s the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
And what does this mean? What is this law? It means we’re governed, we’re led, by the life of Christ in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
It’s no longer an outward performance. It’s an inward obedience.
Let me repeat that: it’s no longer an outward performance. It’s an inward obedience.
We no longer attempt in our own strength to please God through outward rules, but we allow the Holy Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body and to give us life.
Then we’ll find we’ll fulfill the requirements of the law.
So, in closing, and summing up these three “do you not know?” statements:
Do you not know that the old life gives place to the new life? There is now a change in relationship.
Do you not know that the old slavery to sin gives place to the new Master, Christ?
Do you not know that the old marriage to the law is dissolved, and that you are now united to the new Husband, Christ?
So we find we are to live and serve in newness of life, and that’s the life of Christ, and that’s to the glory of God.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we do want to just commit these simple words back to You.
We pray that, Lord, if there is anything not of You, Lord, You will cause it to be dissolved.
And that which is of You, Lord, we pray You’ll water it and cause it to grow.
We just ask this in Your name. Amen.