Is Grace Permission to Sin?

Okay, very good. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. I'm going to invite your brother and dear sister and dear friend with us to open up your Bibles to the Book of Romans, Romans chapter 6. We are going to continue with our exposition of the Word of the Lord.

We come to the time of our service in which we preach the Word of the Lord. and we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word of the Lord. So we pray and we hope that the Spirit of God will open our hearts, our ears to receive the Word of the Lord. It's through the Word of the Lord that we can know the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we are going to be moving on to Chapter 6 of the Book of Romans.

Today we're going to be addressing the first 14 verses of the sixth chapter of the Book of Romans. And I want us to ask a question, which is the question that the Apostle Paul asked there in verse one and verse two. And that question is, does grace give me permission to sin? Is the grace that God has given me allowing me to continue in the sin that grace rescued me from? Does grace give me permission to sin?

That is basically what the Apostle is asking in verse 1 and verse 2. And I hope that by the grace of the Lord and with the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to speak about Christ and the gospel of the Lord and how we are saved only by grace through faith. I'm going to invite you to pray first with me, and then we're going to be reading together from chapter 5, verse 18. We're going to be going all the way through chapter 6, verse 14. We're asking ourselves this question today.

Does grace give me permission to sin? So let us come before the Lord and let us pray together. Father, we're coming before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Once again, Lord, we give you thanks for your mercy, for your grace that is abundant, Lord, that has not only given us life on this day, but also brought us together here to worship you in spirit and in truth. I give you thanks, Lord, for the life of each one of my brothers and sisters here present and for the work that you do in their lives, not only on this day, but in every day for the virtue and the merits of Jesus Christ.

As we come to the scriptures, Lord, I ask that your presence, your Holy Spirit, will be among us and with us, that you will empower us to speak with clarity and with truth, and that you will also empower the listener to receive the word with faith, by faith, by grace, that we will not only be doers of your, or hearers of your word, but also be doers of your word. Please bless us, Lord. We are so feeble and weak and needy, and we need the strength and the power of your Holy Spirit. We want to understand these matters, not because we want to feed our brains and our intellect with theology or concepts or truths, but rather we want to fill our hearts with the presence of Christ Jesus, who is truth, and we want to live for him and unto him. If you're not among us, Lord, then these are going to be void and empty words that fall into a ground that is not going to give fruit.

But if your presence is among us, We trust and know that you will build up your church through the proclamation of your word. We want to know, Lord, about your grace. We want to understand the operations of your grace. We want to know and comprehend fully what biblical grace is and how biblical true grace is manifested in the life of those who profess to be in Christ. For that we ask, Lord, that you will bless us, not only as we read the scriptures, but also as we proclaim the scriptures and as we receive the word of God.

Bless us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Very good. As I said, we're going to be reading Romans chapter 5 from verse 18 all the way through chapter 6, verse 14. We're going to be asking ourselves this question, does grace give me permission to sin?

Does grace allow me to continue to live my life in sin? So verse 18 in chapter 5, let us read together. This is the word of the Lord. Therefore, as when trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but we're seeing increased grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also may reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in seeing 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 Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 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 may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like this. 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 or justified from sin. 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 he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Why? Verse 14, for sin will have no dominion over you.

Why? Since you are not under law, but under grace. And this is the reading of God's Word. As I said, today I want to ask ourselves this question of, does grace give me permission to continue in my sin? And the reason why I want us to ask that question is precisely because that is the question that the Apostle asks in verse 1.

A very important practical question for the life of the person who professes to be in Christ. If this grace of God that is abundant, if this grace of God that comes from above, if this favor of the Lord is given to me and there's no requirement Because salvation is by grace through faith alone. If there's nothing that is expected of me, there's no works that can justify me, there's no works that can give me salvation. If this grace of God does not require anything of me, does that mean that I can continue to live my life in sin? My works are not contributing to my justification.

My works are not contributing to me being right before the Lord. So that means, someone might ask, that I can continue to live my life in the same way that I was living before? As I said, this is a very important practical question for the life of the Christian because you're going to find people that are going to tell you that effectively, yes, because of the grace of the Lord, it's so abundant and it's so free and it's so given from the Lord that the person can live the life in the way that they desire. The grace of God is not permeating, it's not transforming, it's not changing, but you can live your life in the way that you desire. These people disconnect better the grace of the Lord and the life of the Christian.

They just become Christians of church or Christians of religious things, but the gospel that they profess does not permeate every aspect of their lives. Hence, their work, their study, their families, their marriages, the things that they do, they have not been permeated by Christ Jesus. And Christ Jesus is not Lord of their lives. Christ Jesus is only Lord of their own religion. So they say, grace does allow me to live a life that is not transformed, that is not changed.

But there's also going to be another group of people that are going to tell us, yes, even though the grace of the Lord is abundant and is sufficient, we must keep the law. We must keep the requirements of the law. We should pay attention to the written commandments of the law. And many times these people make those written commandments and the righteousness of the law the source of their peace and their satisfaction. If there is separation in the first group, that the life of the person is not permeated by the grace of the gospel, in this second group of people, the life of the Christian and the grace of the Lord is permeated by self-righteousness.

Because they no longer are resting in the righteousness of Christ or in the grace of the Lord, but they are resting in their works and in their performance. And the religious things that they do is the source of their peace and their satisfaction. Both of these two groups of people are wrong. And that is not the answer, and that is not the biblical gospel. Actually, the apostle is going to address these two groups of people in chapter 6 and in chapter 7.

Chapter 6, the Apostle is going to address those who say that because they have received the grace of the Lord, now they can continue to live their lives as they were before. It does not matter that I live a life loving the things of the world, as long as I receive the grace of the Lord, I'm all good, I'm all safe, and I can continue to live my life like this. Chapter 6, the Apostle will address that. And then in chapter 7, the Apostle will address this other group of people that do not understand the biblical role of the law in the gospel and how the law is supposed to operate in the life of the person and of the Christian by the grace of the Lord. There's a problem understanding biblical grace and a problem understanding the biblical law.

And the Apostle is going to address that in the first 14 verses of chapter 6 and then from verse 15 on to chapter 7. If you pay attention to verse 1 of chapter 6, there we have the first issue with this grace. It says in verse 1, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? And the answer to that is by no means.

This is a problem that the church in Rome had, or at least that the apostle is anticipating that some people may say, because of the grace, I can live my life the way that I want. He's going to address that in those 14 verses. And then from verse 15 and to chapter 7, he's going to address another problem. And that is the problem that he anticipates that people may not understand the law of the Lord. So if you pay attention there to verse 15, the question that he's going to address is, what then, of chapter 6 verse 15, what then are we to sin because we're not under law but under grace?

In the first 14 verses he addresses a misunderstanding about biblical grace, and then from verse 15 and onwards he's going to address a problem understanding the law of the Lord. I want us to address today the first 14 verses of this chapter by asking ourselves this question of does grace give us permission to sin? And the answer to that question is very clear given to us there in verse 2. By no means. By no means.

How can we who die to sin still live in it? The answer is very clear. Grace is not an allowance for us to continue to live our lives in sin. Biblical, real grace is not a permit that I have in order to continue to live the life that I was living in the flesh. The Apostle is very clear.

That the grace that saves is not a grace that allows the person to continue to live that in the sin. Why? Because we're supposed to be dead to sin and we're not supposed to be living in the sin that we have died through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the question is, why? Why grace does not give me permission to sin?

Why biblical grace is not compatible with the life of a sinner? Why biblical given grace, the one that comes from above, why is that grace not compatible with the life of a person who continued to live in the sin from which they were rescued? And that's what I want us to consider today from these 14 verses. I want to give you four reasons that we have in this chapter 6 of why biblical grace does not give us permission to continue to live in a life of sin. If we manage by God's grace through his spirit to understand these reasons, we will have an insight into the biblical gospel of Christ.

The one that saves, the one that transforms, the one that changes the person that was dead. and gives them life, the ones that brings a person who was under the dominating power of Satan and the flesh to bring it to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will have an insight into that, and I hope that by having that insight into biblical grace, we will be able to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and to rest in Him. I'm going to give you four reasons, as I said, of why Biblical grace does not give us permission to sin. The first one that I'm going to point your attention to is found there in the first two verses, actually coming from the context. Let me just say it to you and then we will read it here.

Biblical grace does not give us permission to continue in sin because biblical grace is not only a favor that I receive from the Lord, but biblical grace is also power that comes from God. Biblical grace is not only something that God does for us in a favor that we do not receive and we don't deserve, but biblical grace is the power of God operating in and among us. It is not something that happens, but something that happens, more importantly, in us. The Apostle has presented this in the context of chapter 5. If you remember, in chapter 5 he told us that with the disobedience of Adam, sin entered into the world, and with the sin of Adam, something else entered into the world.

Do you remember what that was? Death. And death is spread to all people because all people sin. Something that I said to you last week and the week before is that death is not only the cessation of life, but death is a power. Something that is operating and permeating the world.

Something that is permeating the heart of people, something that permeates and goes into the mind, into the eyes, into the heart of people. Death is a power. Even the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 15 is going to present death as the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and almost this cosmic battle that exists between Christ and death. And the point of the Apostle is that in the dispensation of Adam, death is that which is reigning, but in the dispensation of Christ, or in the kingdom of Christ, grace is that which reigns. And just as death is a power that operates in the cosmos and in everyone, so grace is also a power that reigns and is supposed to operate in those who receive it.

If you pay attention to verse 17 of chapter 5, there the Apostle presents the contrast between the power of death that reigns and the power of grace that reigns in those who receive that grace. Pay attention to verse 17. For if because of one man's trespass, death reign through... I'm speaking about verse 8, chapter 5, 5, 17. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Death has the power to reign through Adam. Grace has the power to reign through Jesus Christ. That comparison, that contrast is presented more clearly in verse 21. So that, he says in verse 21 of chapter 5, Grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Just as death has reigned in people to make them sinners, grace, the grace of Christ, reigns in the church or reigns in the Christian to lead them to righteousness and to eternal life.

Grace is not only an unmerited favor that describes what God has done for us. Grace is a spiritual power that is bestowed, that is infused, if you want, that is given to the Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you come with me to Titus chapter 2, there the apostle is Perhaps the only one or two times in which he is going to describe grace as this operating power. Come to Titus chapter 2, please. And there in Titus chapter 2, the apostle is going to teach us that grace is not something that describes what God does, but grace is a power that is meant to operate and that is meant to do something.

Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2 verse 11. Pay attention to Titus 2, verse 11. It says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Now, in verse 12, Paul is going to tell us what the grace of God does. Very interestingly, the word that he's going to use in verse 12 is going to be training or teaching or preparing or transforming.

He says here in the ESV, bringing salvation for all people. How does grace operate? Grace operates by training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, that is to die to the world, and positively to live self-control, upright, ungodly lives in the present age. What do we do as we leave this self-control, a bright and godly life in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ? Grace is not something that describes what God has done.

What God has done for us is gracious, and it's an undeserved favor that we receive from the Lord. But when the grace of the Lord is given to the Christian, this is a spiritual power that is given to the heart of the Christian, and I'm going to submit to you through the Holy Spirit of the Son, Jesus Christ, that comes to that person, and that grace is not something other than a transformative grace. A grace that leads us away from the unrighteous things of the world and that leads us to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as we renounce to the things of the world and as we become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. The person who has received the grace of Christ has received power. That means that Christianity is not a mental ascent in which I confirm with my mind that I believe in a person, Jesus Christ, who lived 2,000 years ago.

It's not just an exercise of the mind in which I confirm and I agree with it. Genuine biblical Christianity. It is the transformation of the person by the grace of God that is given through the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ only because Jesus Christ died upon the cross. So grace is equal to transformation. Grace is equal to this power that comes from above.

And if the person says that I have received that grace, then that means that I'm saying that I have been transformed. If you want to know how to grow in that grace, then you can go to 2 Peter 3, verse 18. And there the apostle Peter is going to tell us that this grace of God is the same knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and that we are to grow in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ. And the more that we grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more that we bear fruits. 2 Peter 1, verse 5 through 10, that what we add to our faith virtue and knowledge and self-control and love to the brothers and sisters and the pinnacle of it being love.

So by having all of these virtues we are not forgetting that we have been cleansed from our former sins but we become fruitful in the knowledge and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because grace is a spiritual power. So the question that we need to ask ourselves is in our professional faith Have I received the grace of the Lord that transforms and changes? Is the grace of God been bestowed upon me in that way?

Not in a mental agreement, not in a confirmation of my senses to the things of Christ and to the things of Christianity, but has the grace of God come to me to transform and operate, training me, as Paul says in Titus chapter 2, training me, teaching me to renounce all ungodliness. and to walk towards the things of the Lord. Can I describe the grace that I profess to have in me, like the grace that Paul mentions in Titus 2, verses 11-15? A grace that is taking me away from the things of the world, and that is taking me to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the grace that Paul refers about in Romans 6.

Second, if you come with me to the text, I'm going to give you the second reason. Biblical grace is not only a grace that is not only a favor that comes from above, but it's also a spiritual power. But secondly, this biblical grace, this spiritual power, more importantly than anything, unites us to Jesus Christ. Biblical grace brings union with Christ. Pay attention to verse 3 of Romans chapter 6.

The apostle is going to use these very careful and very interesting expressions to speak about the life of the Christian. In verse 3, pay attention, it says, that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. Pay attention to that terminology there. Baptized into Christ Jesus. Of course, here there is a figure, there is a shadow of baptism going into the water and coming out of the water, but the apostle is not necessarily telling us about water precisely.

He's telling us about a more important spiritual reality, and he says that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus. that just as the person who is baptized goes into the water and comes out of the water, he describes our Christianity as us being baptized into Christ Jesus. The apostle explains that with simpler words in verse 5. Pay attention, in verse 5 it says, united with Him in a death like this. He shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like this.

It says that we have been united with Christ. Biblical grace, real, spiritual, powerful grace is the grace that brings a person and unites that person to the Lord Jesus Christ. And being united to the Lord Jesus Christ is equal to be a Christian. Paul, in his 13 letters, is never going to use the term Christian, but every time that he's referring to Christians, he's going to define them as those who are united to Jesus Christ. According to the Apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit, to be a Christian is to be in Christ, or to be united with Jesus Christ, or to be baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ, or to be one with Jesus Christ.

To be united with the Lord is equal to genuine salvation. To be united with Christ is equal to have received that powerful grace that transforms the life of the sinner who has been redeemed. And what is it? What does the Apostle mean when there is this union with Christ? Well, it means, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, that when the person has faith by the grace of the Lord, then that person becomes one with Christ.

When we are saved, brother and sister, we are not receiving just certain information that is put into our brain and that we accept, and now I'm going to call myself a Christian for the rest of my life. Christianity and eternal life is to receive Christ Jesus himself. It is to be one with Him in spirit, 1 Corinthians 6. It is to receive the Spirit of the Lord by whom we cry, Abba Father, Galatians 4. It is to be one, never to be separated with Him, Romans 8.

It is to be inserted into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 12. It is to be one with Jesus Christ. It is no longer I who lives, the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2, verse 20. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. Genuine Christianity is to have the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts.

So it is no longer us who we were before, but it's Jesus Christ that is living and moving and operating in us. And how is this union with Christ manifested and operated? How can I know if I have received the Spirit of the Lord and if I'm one with the Lord Jesus Christ? Once again, transformation. A change of heart.

The person who is a genuine son of God or daughter of God is the one whose heart has been transformed from stone to flesh. He's the one who has received a spiritual life. The Holy Spirit has come not only to inform the mind of that person, but has come to transform the heart of that person. That person was a lover of the things of this world, a lover of the things of the flesh, and now by virtue of the power of the Holy Spirit that comes to unite the person to Christ, Now the heart of this person is inclined towards the things of the Lord. Not because this person is good and has been morally transformed, but because this person has been given a new life.

The person has received a new heart. The life of the Spirit has been bestowed upon this person. Nothing that the person can do to receive that, only by the grace of the Lord. And when the heart of that person is transformed, a new mind. a new mind that is given to the person.

Before the transformation of the heart, then that person was enslaved to the things of this world and the understanding of that person was joy and joy and joy with the things of the flesh and with the things of the world. But when that person receives a heart that is transformed, new understanding and illumination is given to that person to understand one sin, and the consequences of sin, and what sin is going to produce for the person, and second, that the only one who can solve the problem of sin is Jesus Christ, nor my works or deeds. The one who has been united to Christ receives a new heart and a new mind by which we see sin as it is and the consequences of it, and there is this new mind that points us to Christ as the only Lord and Savior, the one who can rescue us. Genuine repentance and genuine faith is the result of a heart that has been transformed. We cannot have repentance in and of ourselves.

We cannot have faith in and of ourselves. What we need is the Spirit of God that comes and changes our hearts and gives us life. And only the heart that has received the life from the Spirit is the one that can respond in repentance and in faith. And these two are the ones that make us the child of God. And once this union has taken place with the Lord, the life is changed and transformed.

Not because of our own works and deeds, but because now the life that we have in us is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Biblical powerful grace is not only an unmerited favor that we receive from above, but it's a spiritual power that is given to the heart of the person. And the most important thing that biblical grace does is union with Christ. Of this union, Paul speaks in Ephesians 1. If you please come with me and read from Ephesians 1, verses 13-14, there I'm going to show you the eternal power of this union that we have with Christ and how to be a genuine Christian it is to be united with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1, if ever you want to know and understand this doctrine of union with Christ, then Ephesians 1, verses 3-14 is what tells us the most about it. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, pay attention to this doctrine of union with Christ, in Christ, or with Christ. Verse 3 of Ephesians chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, and here we have Paul's terminology to speak about Christians, who has blessed us in Christ, that is, in union with Christ, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Verse 4, even as he chose us, how did he choose us?

in Him, union with Christ. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him or in front of Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He blessed us, how He blessed us, in the Beloved. And the Beloved is Christ Jesus. We were blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

We were chosen before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus, and we have been blessed in Jesus Christ. Verse 7, in him we have received redemption. It is in union with Christ that we have received redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purposes which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time. Now pay attention.

To unite all things. Where? In him. To unite all things in Christ. Things in heaven and things on earth.

Verse 11. In him. That is, in union with Christ. We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were at first to hope in Christ may be to the praise of His glory. Verse 13.

In Him, that is Christ Jesus, in Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with a promise, the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory." To be a Christian, it is to be united with Jesus Christ. To be a Christian, it is to be one with the Son of God, to be one with Him before the foundation of the world, and to be one with Him in redemption. The one that is a Christian receives Christ. Christianity is not about religion.

Christianity is not about a set of principles. Christianity is not about doing external things. Christianity is about having Christ inside of us by the power of the Holy Spirit. So then that means that genuine biblical salvation is not praying a prayer. Do I need to pray a prayer by the Holy Spirit in order to be saved?

Yes, the Lord will lead me to confess with my mouth that I'm in Jesus Christ. But to be a Christian is much more than having prayed a prayer five or 10 or 15 years ago. Is salvation then perhaps a spiritual experience? It is much more than that. It is true that the Holy Spirit will come to rescue us and to give us life.

But to be a Christian, it is to be united with the Lord Jesus Christ. To be a Christian is not to attend church. It's not only to be a pastor. It's not to do certain things. It is to have Christ in your heart.

There is going to be many people who have had prayed a prayer. There are many people who have had experiences. There's going to be many people who have spent years in the church. There's going to be many people who have had ministries and done many things that on that day they will hear, I never knew you. Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?

Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out demons in your name? Lord, Lord, didn't we do all of these mighty works in your name? Christianity is not about the external matter. Christianity is about that which happens in the heart, so that that which is outside or in the external corresponds to an internal reality. I get baptized because I have been baptized in Christ.

I partake of the table because I have partaken of Christ. I do the things that the Bible calls me to do because Christ is dwelling in me. Biblical grace is not only an unmerited favor that I receive from the Lord, but it's a power that operates in my heart. The most important thing that it does is that it unites me to Christ Jesus. If it's Christ, the one who lives in me, do you think that Christ is going to bring me to the things from when He took me?

You think that Christ is going to make me a slave of the sins and the passions of the world from which he rescued me? You think that if it's Christ, the one that has been united to me, is the one that is going to joyfully bring me to Egypt or to Babylon? Christ is going to take me by the hand to heavenly Zion, to heavenly Jerusalem, because Christ is the one who dwells in the genuine believer. Third, let us return to our passage. The reason why grace does not give us permission to sin is not only because biblical grace is not only a favor that comes from the Lord, but it's a spiritual power that secondly, that's the most important thing that is to unite us to Christ.

But thirdly, and also very importantly, as we are united to Christ, we are united to his death. Being united to the Lord Jesus Christ is thirdly being united to his death. The reason why biblical grace does not give me permission to sin is because biblical grace unites me to Christ and unites me to his death. Pay attention to what he says in verse three. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, then he says something very strange there, We're baptized into his death?

Baptized into his death? That just as the person is baptized into water and comes out of the water when the person is baptized, we are baptized in Christ and outside of Christ. We have Christ in us, but also the apostle tells us that we are baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4. We were buried, therefore, with Him.

You see union with Christ there? We died, in other words, with Him by baptism into death. Pay attention to verse 5 once again. For if we have been united with Him in a death like this, pay attention to verse 8. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

The genuine Christian that receives biblical grace is the one that has been united with Jesus Christ and has been united with his death. But what is the meaning? of being united, of being baptized, of being immersed, of being inserted into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In simple terms, what it means to be baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is that the body that we had that was vulnerable to the power of death, that is sin, is death, and no longer the power of death has dominating power over us, just as Christ defeated death by his death. Pay attention to this, brothers and sisters, and dear friends.

The Lord Jesus Christ had, in a sense, two realities before and after His death and after His resurrection. Before the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was vulnerable to death. Actually, we know that because He died. He died upon the cross. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ was vulnerable to death.

And the victory of death happens when death kills a person. And in a sense, death was temporarily victorious over the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross. But the victory of death is not only in killing a person, but in leaving that person forever in the realm of death. Because if that person comes victorious out of the realm of death, then the victory of death was only temporal, and it was not a complete victory. And that is what happened with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even though the power of death was over the Lord Jesus Christ, and he died temporarily, The resurrected Jesus Christ was victorious over that death, and hence the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was the means by which he died to the power of death that is sin. So those who are united to the Lord Jesus Christ are also united in the victory of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We die to the old self, And power, the power of death, no longer has any power to make us sin. The apostle explained this in verse 5, 6, and 7. If you read it there, perhaps it is easier to understand, because I know that that is a complicated even just to put it into our terms.

He says in verse 5, for if we have been united with him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like this. Verse 6, we know that our old self, pay attention to 6 and 7, We know that our old self was crucified with Christ, 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 or justified from sin. We have been united with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ so that the old person will no longer have power through death to dominate us and to enslave us to the sins that we were a slave to. Dominating power has been removed by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in his death, we also receive this power to put to death the sins that has certain power over us or dominating power over us. If a person was enslaved to lie, If a person was enslaved to always try just to deceive another person through the mouth and through the things that the person was saying to others, then the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes, puts that old person to self, to die even better. And then the power of the Holy Spirit enables this person now not to be dominating to the enslaving power of lies. Does that mean that this person is going to be perfect from one moment to another? No.

It means now that the Holy Spirit empowers that person no longer to be enslaved to sin. Apart from the grace of the Lord, we are a slave to our own passions and to our own desires. Apart from the grace of the Lord, the affections of our hearts will always want to please ourselves. Apart from the grace of the Lord, we're always going to be in pursuit of that which makes us feel better. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we're always going to be thinking in ways and forms and manifestations of, how can I be in a better place?

When the grace of the Lord comes, we die to those affections. We die to that mind, and even though we are not perfect, then we have different affections towards the Lord, and our mind is corrected and directed to the things of the Lord. We are not perfect, but now we have understanding of the consequences of sin. And when the Christian sins because of the same Holy Spirit, then we know that we are to come to the Lord Jesus Christ to repent of our sins, because He is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Victory over sin is not that you live a perfect life and that you never sin again.

Victory over sin is that when you actually sin, the Holy Spirit leads you to the Lord to confess and to repent of your sin by the Holy Spirit that is in us, and he gives you faith to receive the forgiveness that you can find only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because victory over sin is not accomplished by the works of the flesh or by just simply having a program, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 steps for me to overcome pornography, or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for me to overcome lust, or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for me to overcome lust, or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, how am I going to overcome greed? But rather, the problem to sin is a defeat of Christ. That when I sin, I come to him, I confess my sin, I repent before the Lord, knowing that he's the only one that can empower me to overcome pornography, to overcome lust, to overcome greed, to overcome evil thoughts, to overcome a lying mouth. Jesus Christ is the only one who provides that power to the Christian when the Christian confesses comes before the Lord by faith, knowing that he's just and faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Freedom from sin is that sin does no longer have a dominating power to leave us in the jail of guilt, telling us the things that we ought to do and giving us pleasure as we do those things. Freedom from sin is that even though we may sin, we run to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has loved us and gave himself for for us, and that in Him we find that which is necessary for us to overcome all inequity and all unrighteousness. The one who has received the saving grace of God has not only received an unmerited favor, but has received a spiritual power, a spiritual power that first and foremost unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this union with Christ means that we receive a spiritual power. And this union with Christ is manifested first in that we die to sin.

The old man is left behind. And now we become a new creature, a new creature, a new creation. All things have been made anew. We have the power of the spirit that is now dwelling in us. And brothers and sisters, freedom from sin will not be sufficient, will not be enough without the fourth.

And the fourth is that biblical grace does not only unite us to Christ, and also puts us in a position in which we are dead to sin, but more importantly, unite us to the life of Christ. Fourth, biblical grace is the type of grace that gives us unity to the life of Christ, or the life of Christ is given to us. Now let us read once again the text, and I will finish with this. It says in verse four, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, union with Christ in his death. In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

Just as Christ was resurrected, so we are united to his resurrected life. Verse five, For if we have been united with him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like this. Go to verse 9. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Jesus.

For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. The most powerful manifestation, a spiritual manifestation for a Christian, is that now we have the victorious life of the Lord Jesus Christ indwelling us and in our hearts. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ is not only a life that has been tested by death, but it's a life that has accomplished the greatest victory over the grave. You remember Lazarus.

Lazarus died and he was resurrected, but in his resurrection he died again because the life that he received was a temporal human life, but the life of the resurrected Jesus Christ. It is the life of the Son of God that defeated death and death cannot have any victory over that life. The Christian receives the life of the victorious Jesus Christ, and if we receive the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, then it is equally possible that he will die, that we may die. And because he knows that he will not die, then the Christian will never die. the certainty and the assurance of the transformative power of the gospel in the life of the Christian, it is that the life of the Christian is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Pay attention there to verse 7, please. It says, for one who has died from sin, For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. I love that because the Apostle Paul is now appealing to the mind of the Christian. We believe that we will live with him.

The reason why there is a tomorrow, it is not because you're going to be able to keep yourself righteous and holy and perfect. The reason why eternal life is eternal, it is because he's alive and he will never die. And as long as Jesus Christ remains alive, then those who are genuinely in Christ Jesus will have victory over sin and will endure the struggles and the difficulties of this world and will inherit eternal life. Let me finish in these five minutes telling you how because the apostle is going to give us here the how are we going to live for God in victory over sin, knowing that biblical grace does not give us permission to sin. The reason why biblical grace does not give us permission to sin is because biblical grace is a spiritual power that unites us to Christ, unites us to his death, and unites us to his life.

And if we have the life of Christ, then we're going to become like the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not going to become like the world. We're not going to become like who we were, but we're going to walk towards him and be transforming the likeness of the Savior. But how are we to How are we going to live for the Lord? The apostle is going to leave us with this exhortation in verse 11, 12, and 13, and 14.

Let me briefly mention them to you. Verse 11, with a mind that is focused on the gospel and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pay attention to verse 11. This is going to be the first time in which the Apostle gives us an exhortation, an imperative. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In this chapter 6, this is the first time that the Apostle is now going to tell us what we ought to do. And the Apostle is going to point, first of all, to our mind. You see that verse there in verse 11? So you also must consider yourselves. It is appealing to the mind of the Christian.

The Christian is to think, to meditate, to consider themselves. Dead to sin and alive to God. How? In union with Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the grace of Christ into our minds that which empower us to die to sin and to live unto righteousness.

When we sin, when we say something that we were not supposed to say, when we look at something that we were not supposed to look, when we went to a place that we were not supposed to be there, when we have broken God's commandments, when we have sinned, that which removes us from the place of sin and guilt is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is considering that we are dead to that sin that we have just committed and alive to God because of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that we find the victory that we need in order to overcome the sin that sometimes is going to, not only sometimes, but it's going to fight against us and that sometimes is going to defeat us. When we are defeated in our sin, we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. How?

In the person of Jesus Christ. We are to fill our mind with the gospel. We are to be illuminated by the scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit in the beauties and in the grace that we find only in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, we are to fight. Pay attention to verse 12.

It says, "...let no sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions." We are to fight against the intentions of death that wants to have power in our lives. It says in verse 12, "...let no sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body."

Not that we have a strengthening of ourselves, but we have the grace that is the one that reigns in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you remember that in verse 21, the apostle compared the reigning of death in this world with the reigning of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. The way that we do not allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies, it is by appealing to the weapons that we have of grace. Because grace is this spiritual power that is given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ as we commune with the Lord, as we spend time with the Lord in our minds and in our hearts through the scriptures and in the context of the local church with the people of God, then we are strengthened so that we can fight against the sin that is attempting to snare us and to capture us and we are more strengthened and empowered in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, verse 13, we are to be servants of God.

Pay attention, action, to be servants of God. Verse 13, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and pay attention to this, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Do not give yourself as a servant of sin, but give yourself as a servant of God, a servant of righteousness. Do not give your members what the Lord has given you to serve the passions of the flesh, but make the instruments that God has given you, the members that God has given you, the power that God has given you to be a servant of righteousness, a servant of the Lord. The more that we keep busy in the things of God, the less that we're going to be busy in the things of the flesh, brethren.

The more lazy that we are in our thoughts, and the more lazy that we are in our time, and the more lazy that we are in our flesh, the more that the things of the world are going to tempt us and are going to lead us into unrighteousness. But we are to be servants of God. servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, in our families, in our church, and in the community in which we are. We are to use what the Lord has given us as members unto righteousness, to do the things that God has called us to do, because the more that we set our minds on things above, and the things of Christ, the less that our mind is going to be set on the things of this flesh and the temptations of this world. It is a battle of the mind.

It is a battle of the affections. And it's a battle and a spiritual battle that is only possible to win when we are focused and abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, in verse 14, the apostle is going to give us this glorious promise. And the glorious promise is that sin will have no dominion over the Christian since you're not under the law but you are under grace. If we now understand that to be under grace is not only to be under a passive realm but rather is to be in a spiritual kingdom in which grace operates in those who have received grace.

Now we know that this grace, to be under grace, it is to have the operations of the Spirit in us. And now these operations of the Spirit that unite us to Christ, unite us to his death, unite us to his life, that gives us the power to rule over sin or to come to Christ, if we are under this realm of grace, Then we have the certainty that sin will have no dominion over us because the one who rules in the kingdom of grace is Christ Jesus. While even though the law that is good and that is holy has become the power of sin and sin is the sting of death, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this law that was good because of our sin and because of our unrighteousness is no longer able or capable to give us the righteousness that we want and that The Lord requires of us, it is only Christ the one who gives us that. Why? Because the law that is holy and good has become the power of sin.

And this sin is the sting of death. This is the kingdom of death in which sin operates. And the law now has become the power of this sin because he makes us sin and appoints us to our guilt. But those who have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Savior, we're in the kingdom of grace. and in that kingdom of grace we have the spirit of God that leads us unto righteousness and that gives us the victory that we cannot obtain.

Thus, grace gives me permission to sin, No, by no means, because those who receive biblical grace receive much more than a status. They receive a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. Everything that we have said now demands that we ask the question, have we been recipients of this biblical grace? Have we been recipients of the biblical grace that changes a person from death to life? Have we been recipients of this message of Christ?

Are we recipients of the life of Jesus Christ? Or are we just simply intellectually affirming certain things with our minds while our hearts remain unchanged and untransformed? Am I satisfied with the things of religion, with coming to church or going here or there? Am I satisfied with putting onto my name the label of Christian and doing certain Christian things? While I do not have the power of Christ and of his grace within me, because brothers and sisters, even though the eye of man is not able to see the reality of the heart of a person, there is the eye of someone who sees it all, and unto whom we're going to have to give an account for who we are and what we have inside of us, and that is God himself.

All of us will have to come before the Lord one day, and the books are going to be open, not only to point us to the things that we have done, but to the reality of what is going on in our hearts. And on that day, the only thing that prevails and that is important, it is if we have truly come to the feet of Jesus Christ. Nothing else matters in this life other than having received the grace of the Lord that gives eternal life and that changes. And that grace that operates, that grace that transforms, that grace that unites us to Christ, that grace that unites us to His death, that grace that unites us to His life, that grace that empowers us to live righteous life is free. There's nothing that we ought to do It is just simply surrender before the Lord, to give up to our own self-righteousness, to give up to try to be a good person, or try to be seen as something by the eyes of the men, to renounce to the praise of men, to be seen, to be observed by others, but rather to come to the feet of Christ.

I'm a sinner, I deserve your wrath, I deserve hell, but I also know that you're merciful, you're good, and you're loving, and you're mighty, and you're the only one who can forgive, and you're the only one who can give me eternal life. So empty hand, I come before you, O Lord, to receive that which I have not merited, to receive that which I have not worked for, to receive that which I don't deserve. But I know that you are a good and a gracious God that gives to the one who comes by grace, changes and transforms for his glory and for the establishment of his kingdom that is built upon redemption, reconciliation to the work of the Son. May the grace of the Lord abound. not in our minds only, but may abound in our hearts, teaching us to renounce all ungodliness of this world and teaching us to live lives according to the righteousness of the Lord as we wait for His coming and as we rejoice in the fact that we are no longer ours, but we are His.

Amen? Amen. Let us pray. Well, Father, Lord, once again, we come before you. It's in the name of your son, Jesus Christ.

And as we have these passages, Lord, that are confronting and difficult before us, Lord, we only pray that you will grant us the grace that is needed for our eyes to be open before you, Lord, and to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray, O Lord, that even as we have read the Scriptures and as we have preached the Word of God, that if there's anyone among us who is convicted of their condition and their position before the Lord, we also know that you're just and faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We also know, Lord, that you're the one who says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We also know that you're the one who by purely by grace and for your glory are the one that brings the sinner that is repentant to forgiveness and cleanse them from all unrighteousness. I pray, O Lord, that you will protect us, that you will keep us, Lord, from deceiving ourselves in our own minds, but rather, Lord, that you will guide us and that you will grant us the light that we need.

I pray, O Lord, that you will help us, Lord, not to abide in a jail of guilt in which our sins and our shortcomings and the things that we've done leave us as if we did not have a shepherd and as if we did not have a Savior. But the grace of God will point us to the fact that all of the troubles and the temptations and the issues with our sins and with our minds and with our unrighteousness are dealt with and at the feet of Jesus Christ. We're so tempted many times, Lord, to try to fix ourselves and trying to improve ourselves in our own strength, in our own power. And so many times we have to go down into the place of sorrow and brokenness to realize that there we have no power nor strength of ours. And we praise you, Lord, for the times in which you show us our weakness in that way.

But we do pray, O Lord, that you will grant us the grace that it will not be necessary for us to be broken in such a way, Lord, but that you will grant us by your grace that you will take us to Christ, that you will show us, Lord, our feebleness, that you will show us our limitations, that we will know who we truly are in light of who you are and what you've done, that the glories of the gospel will be so clear to us that apart from your work, we can do nothing. That is your life, that is your power, that is your love. I pray, Lord, for my brothers and sisters, and whatever word corresponds to truth and whatever thing has been deposited in their minds and in their hearts, please use it for your glory. Use it, Lord, for the edification of these brothers and sisters, that they will grow in love for you and for what you have done. Bless our children as they receive and we hear the word and as we read it together Lord We pray we bring them before you and we leave them in your hands And we pray Lord of the work that you have done of grace that you will extend it to our children We pray Lord that you will bless our families marriages in our church the abundant and powerful grace of Christ will abound That you will be the one that is going to hold us keep us and sustain us until the end We praise you and we give you thanks in Jesus name.