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“Restored Instruments”
Romans 6

1What
shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How
can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism
into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we
too might walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old 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. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have
died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised
from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he
died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider
yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.12 Let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 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. 14 For sin will
have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Will And Grace

 Up to this point Paul has
been talking about the
grace of God in the
Gospel
 Grace is the gift, but faith
is the open hand that
receives it
 A choice must be made
(like Adam in the garden)
 Paul turns to the results
of that choice now
Grace? Awesome!

 Apparently, there were
some that thought that grace
meant they could do
whatever they wanted
 The hypothesis being that if
God gets glory by defeating
my sin, the more I sin, the
more glory He gets!
 Rooted in the idea of Sin as
judicial not relational
 Paul says you haven’t
understood grace is you ask
a question like that!
Dead People Don’t Sin!

 Paul’s witty response is a
question: “Can dead
people sin?”
 Notice how Verse 2
describes “sin” almost like
a place
 In Verse 1, “Go on sinning”
is singular in Greek
 “Go on under sin”
 This is about kingdom,
allegiance, reign, power
Two Ages

New aeon (age)
Old age marked sin and
death started by
the Old Adam
Old aeon (age)
New age marked by
suffering love and the rule
of the kingdom of God
started by Jesus
Both are happening at the
same time right now
I’m From the Future…

Jesus comes into
reality as the
representative of the
New Humanity
Humanity as it is
New Humanity
Baptism

Literally Or Seriously?

 When reading the Bible
always remember three things
 1. God comes into culture,
uses what is in that culture to
point to a bigger reality, and
He never gives more than that
culture can handle
 2. Let the words be defined by
the story, not the story by the
words
 3. The Bible is for the explicit
purpose of pointing us to
Jesus
Baptism And Exodus

 This explains Paul’s use of
place in Verse 1
 This is about choosing a
reality (Egypt or Promised
Land)
 Doesn’t mean we don’t act
like we’re still there
sometimes
 But to experience this new
reality one has to learn the
language and act as a
proper citizen (Phil 3:20)
Martyn L. Jones

There is all the difference in the world between being in a given position and realizing
you are in that position... Take the case of those poor slaves in the United States of
America about a hundred years ago. There they were in a condition of slavery. Then the
Civil War came, and as the result of that war, slavery was abolished in the United States.
But what had actually happened? All slaves, young and old, were given their freedom,
but many of the older ones who had endured long years of servitude found it very
difficult to understand their new status. They heard the announcement that slavery was
abolished and that they were free: but hundreds, not to say thousands, of times in their
after-lives and experiences many of them did not realize it, and when they saw their old
master coming near them they began to quake and tremble, and to wonder whether they
were going to be sold... You can still be a slave experientially, even when you are no
longer a slave legally... Whatever you may feel, whatever your experience may be, God
tells us here, through his Word, that if we are in Christ we are no longer in Adam, we are
no longer under the reign and rule of sin... And if I fall into sin, as I do, it is simply
because I do not realize who I am... Realize it! Reckon it!– D.M. Lloyd-Jones
What is it?

 Baptism is rooted in Jewish
understands of “being clean”
 Ezekiel 36:25-26
 Uncleanness—related
primarily to foods, childbirth,
bodily discharges, and
infection or disease (Leviticus
11–15)
 Meant a person could not
participate in worship of God
at the temple or tabernacle
 “Dirty” in language today
Why Wash?

 The point of all the washing is
to reenter a state where one
can be in the presence of God
 Romans 6 presents a clean life
and new relationship with God
 In this new understanding
baptism doesn’t cleanse us so
that we can enter the temple,
but it prepares a place for God
in the form of the Holy Spirit
 If it sounds mystical, it is!
 Would have blown 1st century
minds!
What Happens?

 Baptism both reenacts and
participates in Christ’s death
 There is a “burying” of evil
 Baptism is a “visible word”
about God’s judgment on
death and sin
 As circumcision was the sign
and seal of God’s covenant
with Abraham, so baptism
points to a faith that is willing
to let God cleanse us and make
us one of His people
 Marriage is an okay metaphor
The First Choice

 According to Paul, for the first
time, we can choose NOT to
sin
 Sin and evil is now a tempter
and deceiver and not a
controller
 “Body of sin” in Verse 6 is
“rendered ineffective”
 As the image of God was
broken in us, now the image of
sin is being destroyed
 Both a break with the past and
a look to the future
But…

 My own experience
 Verse 13, “Do not offer,”
military language
 “New life” (V. 4), “Dead to sin,
but alive to God” (V.11),
“instruments” (V.13)
 We live in a highly
individualized culture
 Baptism is a counter-cultural
act (passivity, in it’s
dependence on another)
 It is the path taken by those
following Jesus…
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The Gospels speak of
following Jesus, Paul speaks
of baptism.”
—The Cost of Discipleship
Grace Redefined

 The Exodus was always about
the world (John 3:16)
 Gal. 3:27-28
 In baptism, all the things that
divide, label, and separate are
left in the Red Sea
 Ephesians 2:15 talks about a
“new humanity” made to do
“good works”
 The very word church means
“called out ones”
 Set apart for the sake of the
world
New Pronouns

 Now “WE” has a different
meaning
 Not connected to empire,
nation, family, culture, race,
gender, or football team
 This is hard for Christians
today because they much
prefer to go to heaven instead
of live like they’re already
there
 God saves to save
 CS Lewis on the Christian Life
in Mere Christianity
Restored Instruments
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Prayer
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