Grace 101, week 5, dead to sin, alive to christ

Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

Week 5, Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ Romans 6:3-23

There are those who would say that we need to “balance grace and truth.” What this means is that grace and truth are polar opposites on either side of a see-saw and we need to make sure we keep them balanced.

What they are saying is that truth is about obeying God’s commands and grace is about not getting punished when you don’t. Or truth is when we need to tell someone something they need to hear, but don’t want to hear it; and grace is letting them off the hook and not telling them what they need to hear.

Here are a couple of verses that often come to mind: John 1:17 - ...GRACE AND TRUTH came through Jesus Christ.

John 4:24 - ...those who worship Him must worship in SPIRIT AND TRUTH. The “balance folks” say grace/ Spirit are on one side and truth is on the other, but we need them both.

However, read those verses references above in their entirety: John 1:17 - For the law was given through Moses, but GRACE AND TRUTH came through Jesus Christ. [truth is on the side of grace!!!]

John 4:24 - God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

Jesus is Grace. God is Spirit. What is truth? It has nothing to do with obeying commandments or delivering rebukes. The word “truth” actually means “the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested, veritable essence of a matter.” (Vines) It’s what IS behind that which is seen.

In Jesus we have grace (the unearned favor of God) and we have truth (the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested). In Jesus we have the reality of who God really is.

Colossians 1:15 - He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Hebrews 1:3 - And He [Jesus] is the radiance of His glory [the Father] and the exact representation of His nature.

We can know the Father through the Son. Jesus is Grace and Truth. And the Spirit reveals to us that we are sons of God, new creations in Christ, “the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested.”

Colossians 3:3 - For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Life in the Spirit is the manifestation of the reality that Christ is in us. Life in the Spirit reveals Christ in us, the hope of glory. He lives His life through us.

That’s the TRUTH we will learn in Romans 6.

So what about a balance of grace and law (“truth”)? Jesus said,

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

Luke 5:36-39 - “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. [In Mark’s account it says, No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. Mark 2:21] 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”

Luke 5:39, NLT - But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. “The old is just fine,” they say.

Luke 5:39, The Living Bible - But no one after drinking the old wine seems to want the fresh and the new. “The old ways are best,” they say.

The problem with men is that they are so used to drinking the old that they don’t want the new. They don’t want to change. They like the old the way it is.

The old is righteousness by self-effort: law.

The new is the gift of righteousness: grace.

[Shirt Illustration - see podcast] God never intended that man would just have a behavior modification outwardly. He didn’t want us to just plug the holes of the old garment.

Righteousness under the law is like a shirt with holes in it. It doesn’t cover. It’s not sufficient because you can’t ever do enough. The reason the law can never make you righteous is because it’s not a matter of what you do. It’s all about the heart. You cannot change the heart. Only God can. That’s what Jesus was getting at when He was saying, Matthew 5:22, 28 - But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment...But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Men want to take the old and new and try to balance them together. “Yes, we’re free from the ceremonial law, but we’re not free from the moral law. We can eat pork, but we need to law to remind us not to commit adultery.”

They cry, “What’s going to happen if we get rid of the old?!”

The old cannot cover you. It has the holes of the weakness of the flesh. It can’t make you righteous. The purpose of that old torn shirt and those old wine skins was to make men come to the end of themselves.

Jesus is not another, better, superior Moses. He didn’t raise the bar for us with His standards so you could reach them. He raised the bar to show you that you couldn’t! He wants you to receive righteousness as a gift, by faith!

We’re not trying to sew two covenants together.

You can’t repair the old shirt by tearing up the new shirt. You have to throw the old shirt away, and put on the new shirt.

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

The death of Christ is all about the complete removal sin of our being and the end of judgment for the believer. The resurrection of Christ is GOD CREATING AGAIN! He created a new species, raised with Him in power.

From last week: Romans 6:1-2 - What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

6:3-5 Romans 6:3-5 - Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

At the cross, Jesus Christ identified with us. He became our identity so that we could be His. He stepped into our very worst so that we can receive His very best.

The highest realms of glory are ours. There is nothing that we are deprived of because there is nothing that He isn’t worthy of. Why? Because there is no depth of darkness and depravity that He refused to absorb on our behalf. This is the New Covenant in His blood.

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

Co-raised: Ephesians 2:4-6 - God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus Dominion has been restored to man through the cross of Jesus Christ. Now we can say, “Jesus, as you are - seated high above all rule, power, dominion, and authority - so am I in this world.” (1 John 4:17) God has crowned us with glory so we speak life everywhere we go and see the forces of death and decay give way to the force of good that comes out of our mouths. We speak to the mountains and they move.

Notice that these verses in Romans 6 are in past tense. It has already happened. We have been baptized into His death. We have been buried with Him. We have been united with Him! Grace says we are complete in Christ. Fullness and completeness is our starting post.

Colossians 2:9-10 - For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Law says that completeness our ending post, and we must live our whole lives trying to earn it. But grace says the work is finished!

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

You are co-crucified, co-buried, co-raised, co-ascended, co-seated with Him in heaven, and you are coequal heir with Christ and an heir of God. You are not trying to get there one day. You are there now!

6:6-9 Romans 6:6-7 - ...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Have you ever tried to die to sin? When you feel the influence of sin or sinful tendencies in your flesh, do you ever think things like, “I’m dying to that sin. I’m dying to anger, lust, fear doubt...” But the more you say you are dead to it, the more you seem to be alive to it!

Trying to die does not work. Why? You are trying to do something that has already been done. For example, imagine how frustrating it would be to try to be in this room when you are already here. All we need to do is to have our eyes opened to the fact that we are dead to sin already.

Two grammar points: 1. In the Greek, the word “dead” or “died” in a verb tense that means it’s a one-point-in-time action, never to be repeated. When you died, you died for good. It will never be repeated again.

2. In Romans the word sin is used forty-eight times. Forty of those times is it a noun (“hamartia”), and only eight of those times is it a verb. In Romans 6, “sin” is a verb (“harmartana”) ONLY ONCE, and that’s in Romans 6:15. For instance in Romans 6:7 which says, “For he who has died has been freed from sin,” sin is a noun. People mistakenly think this verse means we freed from “sinnING” (verb). So they think the verse is saying, “For he who has died has been freed from SINNING,” freed from sinful actions and behavior, freed from the influence and power of sin. So they get discouraged because they are trying to be dead to sinnING and they are failing.

Have you ever thought, “I lost my temper this morning. I have tried so hard to claim my death to sin.

What is wrong with me?”

There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s something wrong with what you believe. You think you are supposed to be free from sinning (verb). But the Bible says we are free from “sin” (noun).

The “old man” was your inward man that was JOINED to the flesh. This is the way you WERE before you were raised with Christ and put IN HIM. You were “in the flesh” in the old race of Adam, dead in sin and the uncircumcision of the flesh.

Romans 8:9 - But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

YOU, the new creation that is YOU, are no longer IN THE FLESH because the old man died. He has ceased to exist because of the spiritual circumcision that took place in the cutting away of the “body of the sins of the flesh.”

Colossians 2:11-12 - In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Our inner man was literally cut away from our outer man by the hand of God and then the Spirit of God came into us to form a new creation, a new dwelling for Himself!

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

However, in a way that we cannot explain, God allowed the power of sin to remain the body. Who we are was cut away from the flesh, but the flesh remains. Our flesh was not saved. Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom, so we will all get new incorruptible bodies when these corruptible ones die (1 Corinthians 15:50-54). Until then, the power of sin is quarantined in the flesh and does not have dominion over us.

2 Corinthians 5:17 - if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

We still stumble in may ways, but that is not according to our new nature in Christ. Our response to sin should not be the self-centered, “I can’t believe I did that!” Our response is, “Lord, thank You for Your incredible grace. Thank you for teaching me that I cannot live this life without You. The reason that just happened is because in the flesh I was worried (fearful or envious or lustful or greedy) and trying to do something in my own strength without You. Apart from You, I can do nothing!”

The enemy twists the truth to get us to try to look for sin in the flesh in order to be more Christ-like. That was the methodology of the law! Through the law was the knowledge of sin. The law exposed sin for the purpose of bringing people to the end of themselves that every mouth would be shut and everyone would become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19-20) Then they would stop trying to fix themselves, and cry out to Jesus to save them.

There is a clear distinction between Adam’s race which is from below - of the earth - which is flesh, and that which is born from above which in the Spirit from the Christ - A NEW CREATION. What God did was allow this new creation to remain in earthen vessels.

2 Corinthians 4:7 - we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

Because we are in these earthen vessels, the manifestation of the excellency of God’s power is clearly seen to be of God and not of ourselves. No flesh will glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:29).

There is a dependency on Him because He allowed the new to remain in the shell of the old. He has literally separated us from our sin as far as the east is from the west by cutting away the flesh from our identity. When we were dead in our transgressions and sin in the race of Adam, He cut away the body of the flesh and translated us from the kingdom of this darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. He raised us up, but at the same time, left us in these earthen vessels.

Paul said, 2 Corinthians 4:16 - Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

Romans 8:10, NASB- If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

The devil tries to twist the truth and bring confusion: 2 Corinthians 11:3 - I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Satan beguiled Eve in the garden and lured her away from the simplicity of just walking with God and being God-conscious and not being self-conscious, and just being a HUMAN BEGIN instead of DOING.

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

Adam and Eve were tricked into eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which brought confusion, spiritual blindness, and a focus on themselves and their own nakedness instead of on God Himself. God said, “Who told you you were naked?” Focusing on our nakedness is not God’s way.

God does not need evil to bring forth good.

Romans 16:19 - I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil.

The enemy says to us in theological circles that we need to know the evil so we can change and be like the good. It’s a deception. It’s going back to the law. God said, “Who told you you were naked?”

The result is sewing up fig leaves to try to make yourself presentable to God. Ridiculous!

The power of sin still resides in these bodies, and sin is still stimulated by law in the believer’s life. Any time you try to fix yourself by looking at sin in the flesh, you are not walking in the revelation of Christ, you are not walking in faith, and the power of sin will rear its ugly head. But this power is NOT the old man. The old man is gone! You can’t dig him up.

But you can go on the endless search for sin in the flesh, and then try to perfect yourself in that same flesh by trying to separate the good from the evil. But that’s futile!

Romans 7:18 - For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.

James Garfield story: In 1880 the 20th President, James Garfield, was shot in the back by a would-be assassin. The doctors tried to find the bullet. This was before the invention of the x-rays so without anesthesia they probed with their hands trying to find the bullet trying to save his life. He died three months later. After he died, the doctors said, “It wasn’t the bullet that killed him. It was the probing.” He got an infection from all those hands trying to find the bullet. They said he would have lived fine with the bullet inside of him for the rest of his life.

Believers are being probed by well-meaning preachers and teachers who think that this is the way to make you more Christ-like. They think you have to find the bullet in the flesh. God says, “Don’t worry about the bullet in the flesh. This is the power of sin in the flesh, and I’ll take care of that. Set your mind on Me. You are a new creation in Me! Nurture what I have done in you. Nurture what I have raised and it will be life to you!”

So what do you do when you sin? You don’t have work and get forgiven AGAIN and again to get “right with God.” You don’t have to do anything but to STOP and be still and behold the salvation of GOD! And REMEMBER that you are still joined to Him. Romans 6:8-9 - Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. Before we were a new creation in Christ, we were dead in sin and separated from the life of God, darkened in our understanding.

Ephesians 4:18 - ...having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart...

We had an evil, darkened heart.

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

It was prophesied in the Old Testament that God would wash us with pure water and give us a new heart. The washing of pure water is a reference to the death of Christ which removed all of our sin.

Ezekiel 36:25-26 - Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

Today, we have a new heart and a new spirit within us! What God has done is profound! We really are a new person! A new man has been raised who can only glory in one thing: Christ and Christ alone.

Isaiah 66:8 - Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?

On the day of the resurrection a royal priesthood, a holy nation was raised in day. We are a nation that spans time and generations and we are seated with Christ right now!

6:10-12 Romans 6:10 - For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Why is it important for us to know that Jesus died to sin once and for all?

Romans 6:11 - LIKEWISE you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Notice the word “likewise.” We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin in the same manner that Jesus died to sin. If we misinterpret verse 10, we will misinterpret verse 11. This is really important! Why? Because when people are not believing the truth, they will live a lie, and this lie is giving power to sin’s influence in their lives instead of them living in the truth which sets them free!

Whatever is true of Jesus is true of us. In whatever manner Jesus died to sin is how YOU died to sin. Is Jesus dying to sin gradually? Obviously not. How did Jesus die to sin? Once and for all on the cross.

How are we to die to sin? Once and for all.

So many Christians are trying to “die to sin” on a daily basis, but to die continually or to die some time in the future is a negation of the truth. We have already died, past tense, IN THE SAME MANNER that Jesus died to sin. You are not going to die - future tense. You died! When? When Christ died because God put you in Him. You might ask, “But doesn’t Jesus say,..

Luke 9:23 - “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Jesus said these words before the cross. Whenever you see someone carrying his cross, you know that he’s on his way to death. But notice that Jesus never repeated that in the letters of Paul (Paul’s letters are Jesus words after the cross). Why? Because the cross is a done deal. We all died in Christ already.

But are you free from sinful behavior and tendencies? No. No one is. However, can you say you are free from sin, though? YES! The word “reckon” doesn’t have the meaning Southerners use when they say, “I reckon so...” meaning maybe so... “Reckon” is the Greek word “logizomai,” and it is an accounting word. It means “to count, 63

Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

compute, calculate, count over, to make an account of.” Reckoning is to count it as a fact! Reckoning has nothing to do with probabilities or opinions. If I have reckon that I have $1,000,000 in the bank, it’s because I HAVE $1,000,000 in the bank.

In other words, because of what has happened to you in Christ, you are to calculate/ to count yourself, as a fact, “dead indeed to sin.”

That brings us to the next question: how did Jesus die to sin once for all? UNLESS you understand what it means to be “dead to sin” (the noun), you’ll never be able to have the power over sin (the verb). a. Did He die to sinning? Did He die to sinful actions, deeds, behaviors, thoughts; the influence and power of sin? OR b. Did He die to the imputation, penalty, and condemnation of sin?

Could it be A? Did Jesus die to sinful actions and deeds? Was Jesus ever influenced by sin? Did Jesus ever come under the power of sin? NO! Why? Because He had none. “In Him was no sin.” (1 John 3:5) Hebrews 4:15 - For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

He was tempted in all points, but without sin. Jesus was never tempted to sin - the verb. He was tempted, but without sin - the noun! The word “tempted” means “to try whether a thing can be done, to test, to make trial of one, put him to proof.“ Jesus was tested and tried to be proved pure and holy. It’s like testing gold to make sure it has no impurities. His testing by the devil was to show that He was our perfect, sinless representative. He was WITHOUT SIN. Jesus was tested and proved to be without a nature to sin. There was nothing in Jesus that the power of sin could tempt. Jesus did not have Adam’s nature. He has His Father’s divine nature.

Jesus was not born in Adam’s sin because the blood line of a baby is determined by his father. Jesus’s Father does not have sin contaminated blood. Jesus came as a human being, but He did not have anything for sin to influence. There was nothing in Him to be tempted by. He said this, John 14:30 - “For the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” Jesus was from the bloodline of the almighty God. He was not fallen like the race of Adam. He was the only begotten Son of the Father, and He became the firstborn among many brethren.

He went through the testing so that He could take our place, die our death, and raise us up in Him as partakers of God’s divine nature. This is how we became a new creation in Christ! We are nothing like the old! When we are put in Christ, His nature replaces our old nature. We no longer have a sin nature. The old Adam (man) is cut away by the cross.

The only way that Jesus had sin on Him at the cross was by way of imputation. He became sin on our behalf, and all of our sins were counted against Him. When Adam sinned, God imputed Adam’s sin to all mankind. Then Jesus came, and all the sin of mankind was imputed to Jesus. (Romans 5:17-19) Jesus willingly received the punishment for our sin - no one forced Him. In the same way, we must willingly receive His righteousness.

John 10:18 - No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

He died to the guilt and condemnation of sin. That is the way Jesus died to sin, and that’s how we died to sin in Him - once and for all.

Only when you realize that you will NEVER come under the condemnation of sin will sin lose its power in your life.

The power of sin has its way when we forget to RECKON ourselves dead to it. If you take on guilt with your sins, you are doomed to repeat the sin. Condemnation is what keeps you in a cycle of sin. When you forget who you are in Christ, an identity is imposed on you in your mind: the identity of a sinner. You will live out what you believe.

Believer, from now on there is no penalty, no guilt, no shame, no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So now you are free to live for the glory of Jesus!!

For those who fear that we’ll run wild and sin, think of this: God would never put in place a system that would defeat His own purposes.

Grace doesn’t give a license to sin! Grace is the answer to sin!

Often the church says that when you sin, you’re not right with God - which means you lose your righteousness. So if you sin, you are now unrighteous and you have to confess your sins and then you can be re-righteous. It’s a process. Yes, we can certainly come boldly before the throne of mercy and grace talk to the Holy Spirit about our struggles with the flesh, but not to become “re-righteous” before God. When people teach that when you sin, you are away from God, separated from God, or have broken fellowship with Him, here’s a question: what can you do in your separation from God to get back to God? Outside of God’s presence, how would it be possible see your way back home?

As believers we are in the light! It’s not a way we walk, it’s a realm we have been translated into! Jesus is the light of the world, and you will forever be in Him! After verse 11 where Paul says, “Likewise you also reckon yourselves dead indeed to sin....” He gives us a THEREFORE. What is it there for?

Romans 6:12 - Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

When you understand verse 11 and that there is no condemnation and you have DIED to it, THEREFORE, now you have the power not to let sin reign in your body.

There is a story in John’s gospel that beautifully illustrates the truth of Romans 6:11-12. It’s the story of the woman caught in adultery.

Jesus was confronted by the pharisees who threw the adulteress at Him in the temple courtyard. They asked Him, “Should we stone her? Moses said we should stone her.” If Jesus responded, “Don’t stone her”, they would claim that He broke the Mosaic law. If He said, “Stone her”, they could ask what happened to His teachings on grace? So they thought they had Him both ways. But Jesus stumped them when He stood up and demonstrated the spirit of the law: “He that is without sin, cast the first stone.”

Did He break the law? No. He said, “Stone her.”

John 8:9 - Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.

They all walked away, and Jesus was left alone with the woman.

John 8:10 - “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

Imagine the present-day analogy of terrorism. We all know what terrorism is. This woman knew what stoning was. She was very familiar and had seen it before. Imagine being in a school where terrorists have taken over. They have killed three students and a teacher, and you are next! What would you feel?

Imagine this woman, not only feeling the shame of being thrown out in the street naked, but overcome with the terror that stones were getting ready to pund on her and slowing kill her with excruciating pain and torment!

Notice that even though Jesus is God and the author of the 10 commandments, He didn’t remind her of the commandment, “Thou shall not commit adultery.” Jesus was preoccupied with her freedom from condemnation, not her sin. He wanted her to say it from her own mouth. “No one, Lord.” There is only one Person who could have thrown a stone at her and He did not. Jesus COULD, but He wouldn’t. The pharisees WOULD, but they couldn’t.

John 8:11 - “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

Jesus puts NO CONDEMNATION FIRST! Man tries to put NO SIN FIRST. What God puts first, man cannot put second. The message is this: there is no condemnation for everyone who is IN CHRIST. (Romans 8:1) Why? Because Jesus took your condemnation.

When you know there is no condemnation on you, you are empowered to go and sin no more. When there is no condemnation, people are empowered to live victoriously and glorify Jesus. Grace produces the empowerment.

Romans 6:11-12, again - Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Verse 11 is Jesus saying to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.”

Verse 12 is Jesus saying to the woman, “Go and sin no more.”

Behavior modification says, “Go clean yourself up and behave yourself, and then I won’t condemn you.”

Heart transformation comes when Jesus says, “I do not condemn you, now go and sin no more.”

6:13-15 Romans 6:13 - And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. True holiness - the kind that is an overflow of love and gratefulness to God because of His extravagant love lavished on you through the cross - always follows correct believing that there is no condemnation for you in Christ.

Romans 6:14 - For sin shall not have dominion over you, for [because] you are not under law but under grace.

Those who are IN CHRIST, born again of the Spirit of God, joined to the Lord are “under grace.” As a new creation IN CHRIST, it is impossible for us to be under the dominion of sin.

In Romans 6:14 you can fill in “satan shall not have dominion over you, sickness shall not have dominion over you, poverty shall not have dominion over you” because all evil was a result of sin.

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

But as we saw in Romans 6:1, the critics of grace will still raise the question: Romans 6:15 - What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

This is the only place that sin is used as a verb in the entire book of Romans, and it’s used by those who would question whether Paul was condoning sin. For the critic of grace, sin is a verb that we can somehow control by working hard enough.

The preaching of the pure word of God concerning grace causes the insecure to fear the freedom that we have in Christ. But Paul is in no way giving us the freedom to sin. Why? We are already free to choose to sin. The Gospel doesn’t give us freedom TO sin. It gives us freedom FROM sin - from the imputation of sin! Not only are your sins not counted against you, you have been given a new nature that does not desire sin - any more than Jesus desires to sin!

Paul’s answer to the question: Romans 5:15, cont. - Certainly not!

What it the key to living out this freedom? Believing the truth the same way you did when you were first saved.

Colossians 2:6 - As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. By grace through faith. It’s a righteousness from faith to faith.

6:16-17 Romans 6:16 - Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey,...

Romans 6:16 talks about being slaves to whom we “obey.” The word “obey” there in the Greek is the word “hypakouo” which means “to listen, subscribe to, be attentive to, harken to.” Here’s what Romans 6:16 literally says: “You are slaves to whomever you pay attention to, whomever you listen to.” It’s about what you are CONSCIOUS of!

Romans 6:16, cont. - ...whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Are you sin conscious which brings death or righteousness conscious which brings life?

The better translation for this verse is the King James Version. The word “leading” is not in the original manuscript of the Greek. It should read like this: Romans 6:16, KJV - ...whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Many people misinterpret this verse to say, “Don’t sin because when you sin, it will lead to death. If you obey, it will lead to righteousness.” But that negates everything that Paul took pains to explain in the first five chapters of Romans! We cannot be righteous by our works. We are made righteous by Jesus’s obedience!

What is Paul saying then? He is talking about doctrine here - what we BELIEVE. “TO WHOM you present yourselves slaves to obey - listen to, harken to...” He’s talking about a person. Who? Whose sin brought death? Adam’s!

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

Whose obedience brings righteousness? Jesus’s!

Are you listening to the message of Adam’s sin leading to death, or are you giving attention to the truth of Jesus’s obedience producing righteousness in you?

If we go back one chapter in Romans it becomes clear: Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world [Adam], and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men...

Romans 5:19 - For as by one man’s disobedience [Adam] many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience [Jesus] many will be made righteous.

Paul is saying, “Which one will you believe? Do you still believe you are in Adam whose disobedience leads to death? Or in Christ whose obedience gave you righteousness?” It’s doctrinal.

To confirm that it’s doctrinal (what you believe), then look at the next verse Romans 6:17 - But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

We were slaves to sin, the noun, but we “obeyed from the heart” - in other words we believed, listened to, gave attention to - from the heart that form of doctrine [teaching] to which we were delivered. It’s about obeying GOOD DOCTRINE! THE GOSPEL of Jesus Christ!!

We hear the word “obedience” alot, but what kind of obedience? Under the New Covenant of grace, our obedience is an obedience to the faith.

Acts 6:7 - And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Were they obedient in all their actions and thoughts? No. They were obedient to the faith. They had a righteousness from faith to faith. (Romans 1:17) Romans 1:5 - Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith.

At the end of Romans Paul writes again, Romans 16:25-26 - Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith.

Every time you believe, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ,” you are being obedient to the faith.

“Obeying from the heart this doctrine to which you were delivered” is the process of the renewal of our minds to the truth of this new identity in Christ.

Ephesians 3:16 - that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.

We are strengthened in out inner man by feeding on Christ!

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ”

John 6:53 - “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

How do we “eat His flesh and drink His blood?” Remember His work! It’s called EATING FROM THE TREE OF LIFE! When we do that, we nurture our inner man and he comes forth! We feed on Jesus’ love for us, and He feeds on loving us. This is our food!

Ephesians 4:23 - ...and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

1 Corinthians 2:16 - But we have the mind of Christ.

You cannot improve on that the mind of Christ! But there is a process of renewal because the NEW man is in this old body. While we are in these old bodies, we see in part, we prophecy in part, we manifest who we really are in part. But when we are released from these bodies, we shall know all things even as we are known.

1 Corinthians 13:12 - For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

The good works of the new man come forth through the strengthening that we receive by SEEING the glory of God in Christ Jesus because the NEW MAN that we are is made in the image of HIM. Colossians 1:21-22 - And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.

The process through which the believer is outwardly transformed into the image of Christ is by beholding HIM. In the New Covenant we don’t look back to sin in the flesh in order to become more Christ-like. The New Covenant is a revelation of Christ Himself whose resurrection power resides in us to manifest the life of God in these mortal bodies.

Romans 8:11 - But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

If we behold Christ in our inner man and see him, there is a dynamic that takes place that is unexplainable. It draws out what IS already in us by the new creation because we are made in the image of Him who created us.

When you see Jesus, you will see your new identity come forth.

1 John 4:17 - As He is so are we in this world.

Looking into the face of Jesus is like looking into a mirror. You will see the glory of God in the face of Christ, and yet you will begin to see the new creation that you are in Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 - But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Jesus has raised a new creation after His own likeness. The love and compassion and patience and faithfulness that you see in Him is in you. The healing and deliverance that is in Him is in you, and it manifests as we behold HIm!

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Grace 101: Week 5, “Dead to Sin, Alive to Christ” Colossians 3:2-3 - Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Hebrews 12:2, NASB - ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith...

The change in our identity and person has already taken place, but the manifestation of the change is what the scriptures call transformation. We move from faith to faith and what IS is seen by all who are around us. As we behold Him, the new man breaks forth and manifests to the world to bring glory and honor to His name.

Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

6:18-23 Romans 6:18 - Having been set free from sin [NOUN], you became slaves of righteousness [NOUN].

Before we were saved, no matter what good we did, God still saw us as sinners. No righteous act could change our status. Our works were dead.

However, today even when we sin, God sees us as righteous. He has freed us from the slavery of sin the NOUN - to the slavery of His righteousness. What Jesus has done is much more powerful than what Adam did.

You are as righteous as Jesus is. When you pray, God says, “Yes, son. Yes, daughter.” The fervent prayers of a righteous man are powerful. (James 5:16) The children of the righteous will be delivered. (Proverbs 11:21) There is no death in the pathway of the righteous. (Proverbs 12:28) 2 Corinthians 5:21 - He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That is who you are!

To finish Romans 6: Romans 6:19-23 - I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God doesn’t want us probing for sin in the flesh or exhume the old man from the grave. This is the mind set on the flesh and it is death.

Romans 8:6, NASB - For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.

He wants us to see the invisible reality of the new man, and put him on. The new man is like the “invisible man” before his clothes are put on. The world cannot see that you are a son of God until you put your clothes on. Put on Christ! Put on who you are!

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Romans 13:14 - Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Galatians 3:27 - For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Colossians 3:9-10 ...you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him...

When you put on these good deeds, the are already in your DNA as a new creation Ephesians 2:10 - For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We are God’s workmanship! He doesn’t make junk!! We manifested His good work by bearing much fruit, and God is glorified.

John 15:16 - You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

God is so good that He rewards us for using the grace that He first gave us!

Copyright © Patricia Gunn 2013

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