Romans 6, Dead to Sin, Alive to God.

 

Romans 6 – Dead to Sin, Alive to God

 

Rome was filled with slaves, many of whom had been brought from conquered lands. To be a slave means to serve another and to have one’s entire life controlled by them. All people are “slaves of sin” because we are born in sin. But in a transaction that we cannot completely comprehend, God took our sin and crucified it with Jesus on the Cross. Thus, believers can consider themselves dead to sin and freed from its tyranny. The struggle against sin and temptation will continue until death, but believers can trust Christ to help them win their battles. It is through Christ that we are sanctified, which means we have been set apart or dedicated to the purpose and service of God by our baptism into Christ. That means we are in the process of becoming more righteous, more unselfish, more obedient, and more like Christ. As a Christian we are obligated to demonstrate to the world the quality of our new life in Christ. When we are baptized, we have a new heart as well as a right standing with God. It is the new heart, a new life within that give promise of sanctification.

Paul disputed the people’s idea that grace really is an encouragement to sin, because the more one sins, the more God’s grace abounds. Paul states that it is illogical and absurd to even think that way because if we are dead to sin through the experience of grace, how can we have any desire to continue in it? Grace does not encourage sin, it encourages righteousness.

Baptism represents the believer’s confession of having died to sin and of having been raised up spiritually to a new life. Baptism which is properly done by immersion is a dramatic portrayal of death and resurrection. In repentance we have changed our mind about sin and have turned from it, in our faith, we committed our self to the Lord. In baptism the Christian has in his inner being the living Christ. All of this leads to Christ like living. We gain a victory over sin, not because of the law forbidding it, but through the power of grace by which we have been saved. The fact that we are under grace gives us the desire to live a more righteous life and a desire to be more like Christ.

 

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Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible. J. Vernon McGee Through the Bible