[0:00] Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6.! If you're new or visiting with us, welcome. My name is BK. I have the pleasure of serving as one of the pastors here.
[0:17] Last week we looked at Romans 6, 1-7. We learned about what our identity in Christ is. We learned that the Christian life begins with identity that leads to behavior.
[0:34] Last week I answered three questions. First question that I answered is, what does it mean to be dead to sin? What does it mean to be dead to sin? Paul uses these terms in this chapter which has caused some confusion because people did not know how those verses or sayings were defined.
[0:57] The second question that I answered is, who exactly is the old self that Paul refers to and what happened to him or her? And thirdly, what does Paul mean by the body of sin?
[1:13] I am encouraged. I probably had more responses to last week's sermon than I've had in my eight years here. Just many responses simply saying, I did not know this truth.
[1:29] So this morning is exciting because we get to continue diving into this truth. And this morning I want to begin with this question.
[1:40] And I think this is a question that every person believes at some point. When they become a child of God, when they become a Christian, is what actually changes when someone becomes a Christian?
[1:56] What actually changes when someone becomes a Christian? Perhaps you're outside the Christian faith, you're checking it out, and maybe you know some people who've called themselves born again, they're Christians, new believers in Christ, and you're wondering what has changed in them.
[2:14] Well, my prayer for this morning is that you will come to understand what that means. And I'm not talking about what should change. I'm not talking about what we hope will change.
[2:27] But I want to talk about what actually changes when God saves a sinner. Because here's the reality.
[2:40] Most people sitting in churches today believe that salvation changes their destination. Right? I'm going to heaven.
[2:51] Yay! But they're not. But they're, I love an active crowd. It's the Baptist part. Right?
[3:02] But if you're not entirely sure, it changes your daily life. Isn't that not the question? We're excited about salvation, but we start to ask, what does it do for my daily life?
[3:17] Yes, I'm going to heaven. Yes, I'm forgiven. Yes, I have a new status before God. But what happens on Monday morning?
[3:28] What happens on Temptation Tuesday? Comes along when those old habits come back. I react like the person of old. And those old sins present themselves.
[3:42] I believe every believer knows that this is when the uncertainty creeps in. And if we're honest, many Christians quietly assume that the Christian life is still basically the same life they lived before, with just forgiveness layered on top of it.
[3:59] Right? If I can say at my bedtime prayer, Lord, forgive me, all's okay. But yet we face the same struggles.
[4:11] We have the same instincts, the same reflexes. We have the same identity underneath, but we're just covered by grace. If you remember last week, Paul's answer in Romans 7 was not try harder, do better, or be more disciplined.
[4:30] His answer was a radical answer. And frankly, it's very unsettling. He simply says, you already died. You already died.
[4:41] Fact. Your old relationship to sin is dead. It did not get improved upon. It got executed. And here's the thing.
[4:53] If that is true, and Paul insists that it is, then the Christian life is not about becoming someone new. And we usually do that by trying really, really hard, right?
[5:06] I'm going to try to be someone new. It's about learning to live as someone who is already changed. It's learning to live like someone who's already changed, which brings us to the passage in front of us today.
[5:22] This passage in Romans 6, beginning in verse 8, is where Paul presses the question that every believer eventually has to face. And that is, if I died with Christ, and if I now live with Christ, what does that mean?
[5:39] For how do I live now? I think you all know that this is critical. And it's important to notice Paul doesn't begin with a command.
[5:54] He doesn't say stop sinning. He doesn't say get serious. He doesn't say clean yourself up. He doesn't say prove your faith. Before Paul ever tells us what to do, Paul begins by telling us that what is true.
[6:12] With me on that? Before Paul tells you what to do, Paul begins by telling you what is true. And I did not plan that for rhyme. See, what we are going to learn is that Romans 6, 8 to 14, is not what some call a heroic call to willpower.
[6:32] It is a call to clear thinking. It is a call to clear thinking. Paul's concern here is not your behavior. Paul's concern is your belief about reality.
[6:46] It's your belief about reality. And once we understand that, this changes everything. So today we're going to ask and answer three simple questions from Romans 6.
[7:02] We're going to learn what does it mean to be alive to Christ right now? What does it mean to be alive to Christ right now? Number two, we're going to learn why does Paul say that the Christian life begins in the mind and not the will?
[7:18] And the third question is, how does grace, not the law, actually produce real obedience? I think those are three key questions.
[7:31] So if you have your Bibles open to Romans 6, verses 8, please read along with me in this text. Now, and that's given what we've learned from verses 1 to 7, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also live with him.
[7:51] 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.
[8:03] But the life he lives, he lives to God. So, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[8:17] 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.
[8:36] And your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace.
[8:49] For sin will have no dominion over you, you will know that that died for Christ.
[9:21] That we, when Christ died on the cross, we have that death. We were buried with him in sin, and then we've been raised again.
[9:33] So we experience both the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Theologians call this the union, to be united with God. The union. I'm forgetting the real theological, technical term, but anyway.
[9:48] Now, at first glance, we look at this text, and it says, it sounds future-oriented. We'll live with him. And that is right. It is in the future. But it certainly includes our future resurrection, which Paul's going to make explicit later.
[10:07] But if we don't understand what he means, we miss Paul's point entirely. You see, Paul is not preaching this passage to comfort believers who are about to die.
[10:21] Right? That's not the agony. That's not the answer that he's answering. That's not the question that he's answering. He is teaching it to stabilize living Christians.
[10:34] This is his logic. If you died with Christ, then life with Christ is not optional. Life with Christ is not delayed.
[10:47] And life with Christ is not theoretical. It is certain. So it's important for us to understand that Paul is not saying, might is not saying, you might live with him if things go well.
[11:03] He says we believe. It means we are convinced, we are settled, we are assured that life follows death. Amen? And get this, Paul, this is the most encouraging part about this, is that Paul does not ground his confidence in your perseverance, but he grounds it in Christ's finality.
[11:28] Look at verse 9. 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.
[11:42] But the life he lives, he lives to God. This is one of the most Christological, important Christological statements in Romans. What Paul is doing here is he's anchoring your present life in Christ's finished work.
[11:59] You with me on that one? And I'm going to explain four ways to help us understand that. First, we all know Christ's death was final. It said the death he died, he died to sin and once for all.
[12:10] So we're going to unpack this. That phrase, once for all, does not mean long ago, that he died a long ago. It means it never has to be repeated. Why? Because Jesus Christ did not die provisionally, and nor did Jesus Christ leave anything unfinished.
[12:29] You with me on this? It's an important point. When Christ died, it fully, completely accomplished what he wanted it to accomplish. It's not like there was 10%, I got to go back and die again because there's 10% uncovered.
[12:45] No, no, no, no. He's talking about 100% that his death covered everything. Christ did not enter a cycle of death and resurrection. The fact is, sin exhausted its claim on him at the cross.
[13:02] And here's the key connection we want to make. If Christ's death to sin is final, and you and I are united to him, then our old relationship to sin cannot be open-ended.
[13:20] Right? You didn't die a little to sin. You don't die temporarily with Christ. You don't die positionally, but not really with Christ.
[13:36] The union that he refers to means that we now have a shared history with Jesus Christ. And what that means is what is true of Jesus is true of you.
[13:49] Amen? This is big. So what do we know about Jesus Christ's life? Well, we know that Christ's resurrected life is permanent. Notice it says, Christ will never die again.
[14:03] Death no longer has dominion over him. So, as you all know, Paul is using this language of reign and dominion, and he's very deliberate in doing so. Death was not merely an event that Christ experienced.
[14:17] Death was the power that once ruled over humanity. Remember? Before you in Christ, this world, in case you do not know, and you've never heard this before, death reigns here.
[14:30] Death reigns. It is the monarch of this world until you get transferred from that reign of death, which is that reign of sin, and then you're transferred to the kingdom of life, which is in Jesus Christ.
[14:47] The first kingdom, you lived in Adam. The second kingdom, you now live with Christ. This is key. This is crucial. But resurrection just doesn't reverse death.
[15:03] It overthrew it. So, we know from Paul here that death no longer reigns over Christ, and by extension, sin no longer reigns over those who belong to him.
[15:17] This is our new order of existence. So, the question becomes then, so when does resurrection life begin?
[15:30] When does it begin? The answer is it begins right now. The fact is there are many Christians quietly downgrade the gospel. They hear alive with Christ, and they think that's heaven. That's later.
[15:41] That's future glory. And what's interesting, Paul refuses to let you postpone the resurrection life. Because if the resurrection life is only for the future, then present obedience becomes nothing but sheer willpower.
[16:00] It becomes moral effort. It becomes religious striving. And we know Paul will have none of that. So, this is why Paul grounds obedience in our current life, not in our future hope.
[16:17] You see, Christ's resurrection life is unending. It is unbroken. And it's absolutely oriented to God.
[16:27] Notice it says, the life he lives, he lives to God. That phrase matters. You see, Christ's resurrection life has a direction.
[16:42] It is Godward. It is obedience. And it is holiness. Now, Paul's about to say, without apology I might add, that this is now the defining direction for you and me as well.
[16:59] If we are united with Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is Godward, obedient, and holy, guess who else's direction is in that direction as well?
[17:13] Direction whose direction as well? I don't know. And it doesn't happen because you're perfect. And it doesn't happen because you don't struggle.
[17:26] It happens because you're alive in a realm where death no longer rules. Now, let me give you some pastoral clarification. Have you heard me say this?
[17:37] And I'm going to say it again. Paul never says that Christians never sin. He doesn't say that. Paul never says that once you become a Christian, guess what?
[17:50] No more temptation. You're going to find out that, Paul, there is no part in the Christian life that if I live this obedient enough, and I live it holy enough, I will have no temptation.
[18:01] Guess what? Jesus Christ was tempted. It's going to happen. The only difference, our temptation comes from within, as well as on the outside. What he's saying here, and I made this point last week, is so sin no longer has the authority it once had.
[18:19] It can harass you. It can tempt you. It can lie to you. But it can never command you. And until you believe that as a Christian, you will continue to live as if you're still enslaved.
[18:40] You get that? If you live as if you're a slave to sin, guess what? You will live as a slave to sin. You see, Paul wants your obedience to flow from confidence, not fear.
[18:57] Which is why he now turns, and he does so very deliberately, to what is true of Christ, to what must be true in your thinking. And that's where verse 11 takes us.
[19:11] So remember, in this section, Paul has just told us what is true. Now he's going to get into what you need to think.
[19:23] So my second point is found in verse 11, is that the Christian life begins in the mind. The Christian life begins in the mind. If verses 8 to 10 describe what is true, then verse 11 tells us how to live in light of it.
[19:40] And it may surprise you. He does not begin with your hands, or your habits, or your willpower. Willpower, he begins with your thinking. So, verse 11, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[19:58] Now I want you to note that word, consider. Paul is not asking you to imagine something. I'm dead to sin, I'm dead to sin, I'm dead to sin, sin has no power over me, sin has no power over me, I am never tempted.
[20:12] And you go and live and you fall into sin and temptation. That's not what he's getting at. But we believe that a lot, don't we? Paul is not telling you to pretend something.
[20:27] He's not telling you to talk yourself into something. This word consider means to reckon, to count as true, to bring your thinking into alignment with reality.
[20:44] So remember, he started with reality, and now he's moving to your thinking. Paul is saying, think in line with what God has done for you.
[21:00] Now hear this warning. This is not the power of positive thinking that I'm talking about. It's gospel thinking. And many Christians misunderstand this verse, and they immediately go sideways.
[21:11] They hear, consider yourselves dead to sin, and then they start to realize, I don't really feel dead to sin. What's interesting, Paul didn't ask you how you felt.
[21:23] Others might think, that just sounds like denial. But it's the very opposite. Paul is insisting that your experience must bow to truth.
[21:35] Amen? Your experience must bow to truth, not the other way around. The Christian life does not begin with emotion.
[21:49] It begins with revelation. If you want to feel dead to sin, the fact is you will never move forward. If you wait for temptation to disappear, you'll never obey.
[22:06] But Paul's command here is simple, but it's demanding. Stop interpreting your life through your struggles, and start interpreting your struggles through the cross.
[22:21] I'm sure many of you have heard the cross-centered life, that saying. This is what it means. The cross is what defines you.
[22:32] It is not your feelings. You with me on that? That's important. It doesn't matter how you feel. Let's be honest. Some of you, you're pretty sensitive feelers, right? You're going around saying sorry to everybody.
[22:45] Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Sorry, sorry, sorry. You're just caught up in this. Sabian, I know you're smiling. But when we talk about the cross-centered life, it means we take our struggles and we understand them through the cross.
[23:13] You see, Paul, before he gets to any commands, begins with identity. Notice what Paul does not say. He doesn't say, consider sin dead in you.
[23:26] He doesn't say, consider temptation gone or consider yourself victorious. He says, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[23:44] That's identity. And this is crucial that you understand this. You are not dead to sin because you resisted sin.
[23:56] You resist sin because you're dead to it. And the reason you are dead to it is because you died with Jesus Christ.
[24:07] Boom. See, this is where many believers reverse the order and they exhaust themselves. They think, if I obey enough, I'll finally break free.
[24:20] If I listen to enough Christian TV, if I read enough Christian books, if I go to enough Bible studies, I attend church long enough, all that temptation will be gone and I will finally feel free.
[24:33] Paul simply says, hey fool, you are free. Now live like it. See, this is the difference between performance-based religion and a resurrection-based living.
[24:47] One, the performance-based religion will crush your soul. Resurrection-based living will produce real change.
[25:00] Isn't, is that not what we want? We know we need to change. Amen? That's why Paul's dealing with this stuff. That's why we are where we are in Romans. We learned at the very beginning why this world is so mixed up.
[25:14] Then we learned that Jesus Christ made a way that he justified us by faith. And then we start living this Christian life but yet we're struggling. Why can't I get over this thing?
[25:24] And Paul's saying, it's not about your behavior, it's about your identity. And that's where we are. So where does that power come from? Boom, in Christ Jesus. Right?
[25:37] This is the whole point. Paul doesn't say, consider yourselves to dead and alive to God because you decided to change. Doesn't say that. He says, in Christ Jesus.
[25:51] You are not dead to sin because you are disciplined. You are not alive to God because you are sincere. You are dead and alive because you are united to someone who died and rose from the dead and that is Jesus Christ.
[26:04] If you take Jesus out of this, you've got nothing but some flim, flam, false self-help religion. But when you have Christ in it, it becomes true freedom.
[26:22] So what Paul is training, the believer to think like this, he says, what is true of Christ is now determinative for you. And what that means is when sin speaks, it's speaking to someone who it no longer belongs to, right?
[26:38] You're not under sin anymore. When temptation demands, it is demanding allegiance it no longer owns.
[26:57] So let me answer the question why most Christians lose the battle here. The fact is, most Christians do not fail at the level of effort. Most Christians fail at the level of belief.
[27:12] They wake up and assume sin is inevitable, defeat is normal, obedience is optional, and struggle means disqualification.
[27:26] And then when you believe those things, you start to believe as if they were true. Now what Paul is saying here is stop rehearsing lies about who you are.
[27:38] Because every act of obedience is preceded by an act of belief. And here's the gut-wrenching truth. You don't fall into sin accidentally.
[27:50] You don't. You follow a false assumption about who you are, and then you go down that trail. That's why Paul puts this verse before any commands.
[28:06] Notice he says, before he will say, do not let set and rain, he says, know who you are. Before he talks about your body, he talks about your mind.
[28:21] If I can tell you right now that this verse will change everything about how you fight sin. Paul is never calling you to grit your teeth. He's calling you to stand your ground.
[28:34] Right? Sin's come to get you, but you are called to stand your ground. When temptation comes, the Christian doesn't say, I hope I can resist. The Christian says, this doesn't own me anymore.
[28:47] This doesn't own me anymore. And that's not arrogance. That's faith. That's not denial. That's submission to what God says is true. And only someone who believes verses 11, verse 11, will be able to obey verses 12 and 13 without collapsing into legalism or despair.
[29:06] Which is where Paul goes next. Because here's the truth. Once your mind is aligned with reality, Paul finally addresses the body.
[29:17] And that brings us to verse 12 and 13. Point three. Here's the fact. Sin may be dethroned, but it still wants your body.
[29:34] Sin may be dethroned in your life, but it still wants your body. Let's look at verse 12. It begins with a word that we can't skip.
[29:44] It says, therefore. That word matters because Paul is not changing gears here. He's drawing a conclusion. Everything he's about to command is grounded in everything that we've heard here.
[30:00] Everything that he's declared. And here's the command. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.
[30:13] Notice, he doesn't say, kill sin so that it will stop raining. He doesn't say, fight to overthrow sin's rule. He doesn't say, fight for your freedom.
[30:28] Paul assumes the reign has already been broken. Sin is no longer a king.
[30:39] Sin is no longer on the throne. Sin no longer has dominion over you. But you know what sin wants? It wants to. It wants all those things back.
[30:51] And sin, if anything, is a tyrant. And that tyrant wants you. The tyrant is one who's lost its authority, but it still seeks influence.
[31:05] Anybody know what I'm talking about here? That's why Paul doesn't say, remove sin. He simply says, do not let it reign.
[31:18] Four truths we need to understand about that. First, the battle is no longer for ownership, but for obedience. You see, Paul is not describing a neutral situation where you are standing between two equal powers.
[31:33] There's God's goodness, Satan's badness, and I gotta battle this. The fact is, sin is not competing with God for your soul. That battle's already over. You've won. If you are united with Christ, your soul is assured of salvation.
[31:48] But, sin still seeks to use what it can. And notice what it, what Paul says it targets.
[32:00] Your mortal body. It's an interesting way to say it, right? Paul is being very realistic. He's not spiritualizing temptation.
[32:12] He's not denying its weakness. But he doesn't ignore physiology, habit, or desire. But the truth is, your body still remembers sin.
[32:27] Your body still feels temptation. Your body still responds almost like reflex to certain places, certain people, certain situations.
[32:39] But here's the thing, your body no longer belongs to sin. And that's why Paul frames the issue in terms of reign.
[32:53] Reign is about authority. Reign is not about presence. Sin can shout. Sin can suggest. Sin can entice. But it can never command unless you yield.
[33:06] And here's the hard fact, my friends. Sin will always seek to rule you. Sin will always seek to rule you.
[33:19] Paul says sin seeks to make you obey its passions. See, sin doesn't want cooperation. Sin wants submission.
[33:32] That's why so many times when we think we can hold on to something, we're going to be strong enough. You know, I can let a little bit of sin in over here and I'll be okay. Sin is never satisfied with that.
[33:43] If you've got one area of your life, and I've used this analogy, think of your life as a house, you've got a living room, you've got a dining room, couple of bedrooms. You know what, if I can keep my sin to the garage, I'm going to be okay.
[33:57] But it doesn't want to stay in the garage. Right? It's going to get through that door into the kitchen. And then once you spend some time making your dinners in the kitchen, it spreads to the living room.
[34:07] Then it spreads to the bedrooms. It wants to expand its power in your life to make you obey its passions.
[34:20] That's why Paul doesn't treat sin lightly. He doesn't say, be careful. He doesn't say, manage your temptations. He says, don't let it rule. don't let it rule.
[34:34] Because obedience always reveals who we believe is in charge. See, Paul is exposing something uncomfortable.
[34:47] Sin doesn't rain because it's strong. It rains when it's allowed to rain. You with me on that?
[34:57] And notice this carefully. Paul doesn't blame circumstances, personality, or background here. He doesn't deny those factors, but he doesn't excuse sin with them either.
[35:11] He places responsibility squarely on presentation. And that leads me to the third truth here of this point. Verse 13, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
[35:40] The fact of the matter is, this is one of the most important verses for understanding sanctification. Paul doesn't say suppress desires, pretend temptation isn't real, isolate yourself from the world.
[35:52] He says present. That word means to place at someone's disposal. You with me on that? To place at someone's disposal.
[36:03] Your body, believe it or not, your eyes, your hands, your mouth, your mind, will serve someone. They are not neutral. They will serve someone.
[36:16] And Paul gives you two options. They can be used either A, for instruments of unrighteousness or B, instruments of righteousness. There's no third option.
[36:33] Notice the order. He says, first, present yourselves to God, then present your members to God.
[36:43] What does that mean? Identity before activity. You with me on this? once you submit to this truth, this is true. Then you bring in your actions aligned with this truth.
[36:55] The fact is, you don't clean yourself up to present yourself to God. You present yourself to God because you have been brought from death to life. Boom, again. And this phrase cannot be understated as those who have been brought from death to life.
[37:19] Act you're alive, don't act like you're dead. The fact is, to think any way else is performance driven holiness. What Paul is talking about is resurrection consistent living.
[37:35] Now let me answer this question for you. Why is this not legalism? Sometimes when people hear a command like this, they panic, they think that that sounds like you're bringing the law in again.
[37:47] That means you're bringing in more rules again. What's interesting is that Paul deals with this concern really quickly. He says these commands are not conditions, they are consequences.
[37:59] Notice, he's not saying if you present yourself to God, you will be alive. He's saying because you are alive, present yourself to God. Are you with me?
[38:12] Because he's cleaned you, guess what? You're welcome. That's the difference between law and grace. The law says do this and live. Grace says you live, now do this.
[38:26] And if we miss this distinction, we will either become proud when we succeed, or we will feel shame and failure when we collapse under the weight of our sin.
[38:41] Paul doesn't want either of these options. Which is why he ends this section with one of the most liberating promises in the entire chapter. And this is my fourth point.
[38:54] Verses 14, grace changes your master, not just your behavior. If verses 12 and 13 raise the tension, do not let sin reign, present yourselves to God, then verse 14 releases it.
[39:12] Paul does not end this section with pressure, he ends it with assurance. Look at verse 14. For sin will no longer have dominion, will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace.
[39:30] You see, this isn't a command, this is a declaration. He's declaring this truth. Paul doesn't say sin should not rule you.
[39:43] Paul doesn't say sin might not rule you. Sin will not rule you if you behave. He says sin will have no dominion over you.
[39:57] That's called certitude. That's called a promise. And there's another word for that. The gospel. The gospel.
[40:09] What Paul says here is not a statement of authority. It's not optimism. He's stating quite clearly sin is no longer in charge.
[40:23] Not because you resisted it well. Not because you've matured enough. Not because you finally learned the rules. But because you are under a different regime.
[40:36] notice that term not under law. That does not mean no obedience. And this is where people get nervous and where Paul is often misunderstood.
[40:47] Not under law does not mean God no longer cares about holiness. It doesn't say commands don't matter and that obedience is optional. Paul has already issued commands in this passage so he clearly doesn't mean no obedience.
[41:01] what he means is you are no longer under law as a covenant of condemnation. You are no longer under law as a means of power. You are no longer under law as a master.
[41:13] The fact is law can expose sin. Law can name sin. Law can even restrain sin externally. But the law can't break sin's dominion.
[41:28] In fact Paul will later explain that law often provokes sin. And this is where people make a mistake. Some people start to believe that grace is leniency.
[41:41] It sounds too good. Amen? It does. If you are a law and order kind of guy listen I used to be kind of a cop. I am like that right? When I worked with CSIS there is good bad right wrong.
[41:53] That used to drive me even how I lived my life. When I first read about grace I threw the book out. Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges.
[42:07] God can't be that good. That was what I thought. How could he love me like this? How he's so good? I know people they need to suffer more. They need to be punished more for how they live.
[42:20] Look at me I'm living righteous. I'm a wonderful legalist. Man I was a fool.
[42:35] Grace is power. Grace is power. It's not leniency. Many people assume law produces holiness and that grace produces license.
[42:46] Paul says the exact opposite. You see the law tells you what to do but grace changes who you are. Grace does not lower God's standards.
[42:57] Grace meets it in Christ and then raises you into new life. Grace doesn't say sin doesn't matter. Grace says sin no longer owns you. That's why Paul can say without contradiction verse 12 don't let sin reign.
[43:14] verse 14 sin will not reign. So this I lead to my final question or my final answer.
[43:27] Why grace actually produces obedience. You see when people live under the law even religious law they obey out of fear of punishment desire for approval guilt or shame or they're the type of people who like to compare.
[43:44] The problem is that kind of obedience is fragile. It lasts only as long as the motivation is there. But grace produces a different obedience.
[43:57] You see obedience it is rooted in identity. I know who I am. Obedience flowing from gratitude. I have been dead and raised again in Jesus Christ.
[44:09] Amen. Sin no longer controls me. And that obedience is sustained by life not fear. That's why it's so important for you to embrace the teachings of Romans chapter five.
[44:25] You're not just saved from heaven. You're saved into a whole new life. A whole new relationship with Jesus Christ. Grace doesn't say try harder.
[44:36] Grace says live like who you are. are. And this is why Paul is so confident because the same grace that united you to Christ is the same grace that will govern your life.
[44:55] So let me conclude with this thought. Live where you've been placed. Paul has not told you to become someone new.
[45:08] Paul has not told you to earn something more. Paul has not told you to fight for your freedom. What he's told you is you died, you live, now think and act accordingly.
[45:27] You with me on that? You died, that's the truth. You now live, that's the truth. Now live accordingly. So the Christian life is not about achieving. victory, it's about living from victory.
[45:43] Not victory over every struggle, not victory without conflict, but victory over sin's right to rule you. Fact is, you are not under a law trying to earn life, you are under grace living from life.
[46:01] So when temptation, when sin tempts you this week, when those old patterns whisper in your ear, when guilt tries to reclaim authority, don't say, I hope I can do better.
[46:19] You say, that no longer owns me. And what I have, I present to Jesus Christ. And you don't say that because you're strong, you say it because Jesus Christ lives, amen?
[46:38] And where grace reigns, sin doesn't reign. Let me pray. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, I feel like this stutter, this stagnation in trying to get these truths out that are so deep yet simple.
[46:56] And Father, it's even easy to look at my heart and see the stubbornness that I have towards some of these truths and how I've lived them in my life. There's been times in my life where I thought I could debate sin or let some of it in, but I'm strong enough.
[47:16] I'll be able to control where this goes. And I can test and I can attest that every time I did that I was met with absolute failure because I did not present my eyes, my mouth, my hands, my feet to Christ.
[47:37] And I don't think I'm that different than other people here, Lord. God, I believe there's people here that are desperately want to change.
[47:53] It's easy to look at their life and some of us see ruins, some of us see broken dreams, some of us see disillusion.
[48:03] salvation. And it's all because we're living in a life that was ruled by death. And the greatest mistake that we can make as Christians is to think that we still live under death.
[48:25] In fact, it's Christ doesn't need to die again. He already died once and it's complete. my forgiveness is assured for those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and confess their sins will be saved.
[48:45] Father, you know every story here. And I pray that you bring understanding to every story, every challenge, every sin that people have struggled with.
[48:58] And I this thing called grace just seems so easy. Let us not be arrogant to think that we can add something to our salvation. That God somehow lacks something and I need to do something more to earn it.
[49:17] It's foolishness. So God, my heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone here and pray that you would certainly give them ears to hear.
[49:28] that affects their mind so they would know these truths and live in concert with these truths. And I ask you these things in your most gracious and holy name. Amen.
[49:39] Amen.