2. He Made Us Alive (Ephesians 2: 1, 5)

(6) The dead are freed from sin, dead to sins and alive for righteousness: Romans Chapter 6

Let’s pray:  Dear heavenly Father, we are so full of thanksgiving, because of your great love, and the work of your Holy Spirit, we are able to become your children.  Oh Lord!  How can we get out from under the control of the sin nature?  Oh Holy Spirit, we ask for your further guidance so that we may know your truth, to not live under law, but to live under grace, thank you Lord, in Lord Jesus’ name!  Amen!  

In this lecture the topic of discussion is: “The dead are freed from sin, dead to sins and alive for righteousness.”  Previously, we talked about our being dead in our transgressions and sins but by grace Jesus Christ completed “the way to cross over from death to life”; and through faith, when we call on the name of the Lord we can “cross over from death to life” and receive a new life.  Lord Jesus prepared this path of “crossing over from death to life” – a brand new, living path, so that we may come before God through our faith and sincerity.  We were “in Adam”:  Controlled by the sin nature, dead in transgressions and sins, under Satan’s authority, and were sinners.  But by Jesus Christ’s redemption, we were united with Christ and made alive to enter “in Christ”; we moved into the kingdom of the beloved Son and justified by faith to become righteous.  We “crossed over from death to life” not only in our status, but also in our hearts and thoughts: if there were any unbelief, wickedness, darkness, evil, or idolatry; God commanded us to come out from them.  We must purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.  God called on us not only to “come out” but also to “enter into”.  Come out of “in Adam” and enter into “in Christ”.  Come out of “in Adam” is to purify from everything that contaminates our body and spirit; enter into “in Christ” is to unite with the holy Lord Christ and become saints – a chosen people and a royal priesthood.  Before we were prodigal sons away from God’s home, now we become God’s children and can draw from the fullness of Christ.  In Adam, we were “living under law” and followed the desires of the flesh to act, relied on our own intelligence and efforts to attain the requirements of God; in Christ, we “live under grace”, we live in accordance with the Holy Spirit, no longer rely on our own efforts but on the mighty power of the Holy Spirit to attain the requirements of God.  Brothers and sisters, please do not think that although you have believed in Jesus but in real life you are still the same person yesterday and today.  No, not the same!  May the Holy Spirit enlighten us:  After believing in Jesus, before God we not only have a transformation of life and a change of family, but also a move to a new kingdom.  We now belong to a holy kingdom; we are people of God, a chosen people, and a royal priesthood.  Hallelujah!

Give thanks to the Lord for such an immense grace.  Romans 6: 1-5: “What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”  Previously we talked about “justified by faith” was all because of God’s grace, as long as we believe and call on the name of the Lord.  Since it is all by grace does that mean we can break all laws and continue to sin for God will show us even more grace to cover our sins?  Paul in Romans Chapter 6 especially pointed out that we should by no means continue to sin, why?  He used baptism to show us that our status and identity have changed.  What are our new identity and status?                

1.      How does baptism express “being united with Christ”? (Romans 6: 1-5; Colossians 2: 11-12)

      When we believe in Jesus and call on the name of the Lord, we are united with Christ; just like the branches are connected to the vine: it is a union of lives.

(1)      What is the meaning of baptism?  What does baptism signify?  Some Bible scholars said: “When a believer is being baptized, he is attending the funeral of his ‘old-self’.”  Baptism symbolically represents the process of our death, burial, and resurrection with Christ.  When we stand inside the baptismal pool, expressing our union with Christ; the baptizer says: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  When our head is immersed in the water, it symbolizes that we are united with the Lord in death and in burial; when our head re-emerges, it symbolizes that we are raised with the Lord and that we no longer live but Christ lives in us.  The old-self is dead, buried; the one who is alive now is the new-self who is united with Christ; this is our new identity and status.  Thanks to the Lord, by the blood of Jesus Christ, he forgave all our sins; and by the death of Jesus Christ, we were freed from the control of the sin nature.    

(2)      Baptism proclaims that the old-self is dead:  Romans 6: 3: “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”  Since we are baptized into Christ’s death and our old-self is already dead, why do we still sin?  1 John 3: 9 says that no one who is born of God will continue to sin, that is, when you in the new-self, you will not sin; but when you rely on your own efforts to act, you are in fact living “under the old-self condition” and you will sin.  Therefore Paul reminded us to remember our identity and status – “I” have died, have been buried in the water, I no longer live but Christ lives in me.  If we understand the meaning of baptism then we won’t ask this question: “Is it all right to continue to sin?”  Of course not, because we are baptized to belong to Christ, our old-self has died and we have been set free from sin, so we shouldn’t continue to sin.

(3)      Baptism does not require us to do anything; it just announces that we are “being put to death and being buried with Christ”.  We are dead, buried and raised together with Jesus, so Christ lives in me:  When we are being baptized, we should understand the real meaning of what Lord Jesus has accomplished for us – it is not what was revealed on Mount Sinai, rather it is what was manifested at the Calvary.  The revelation on Mount Sinai was the law which commands us what to do but we all fall short of it; at Calvary, Lord died for us and I, through faith, am united with Christ in his death – there is nothing I should or could do; then I am also raised with the Lord so I no longer live but Christ lives in me.  “Being united with the Lord” is this whole Lecture is about, because to complete God’s salvation plan requires our being united with Christ.  If we set aside Christ, the salvation plan accomplished by Jesus Christ, and our union with Christ then Christianity does not exist and we have nothing to believe in.

     Some Bible scholars say that the moment we believe in the Lord, God recognizes us as being united with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection.  Baptism is the symbolic enactment of this fact – our death with Christ is like putting a period to the history of our being the offspring of Adam.  Our resurrection with Christ means we are new-selves.  God’s verdict to our old-selves doesn’t say that we are sinners and should change our ways and be good from now on.  No!  The verdict God gives us is: “You must die, only through death that your old-selves will die and then you will be able to enter into the resurrection of Christ and become new-selves.”  How do we die?  We die by calling on the name of the Lord, uniting with the Lord, and uniting with him in his death.  Remember this so that we won’t keep repeating every few days: “How come my old-self keeps hanging around and won’t die?”  It is not by our own will or efforts to put the old-self to death; rather it is by our calling on the name of the Lord, being united with the Lord, and achieving uniting with the Lord in his death.  Thank you Lord.  

(4)      Baptism proclaims that we are raised with the Lord so that we too may live a new life:  In the past I had the misconception that once baptized then we should put in the effort to become a descent Christian so that the name of God is glorified.  It is correct that we should be descent Christians and live a new life.  The problem is how should we strive to achieve this?  The Holy Spirit, through Paul, told us that it is not by our efforts to live a new life, rather if we have been united with Christ in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection; further, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him (see Romans 6: 5-6, 8).      

2.      What did God use to free us from the control of the sin nature so that we are no longer slaves of sin? (Romans 6: 6-7, 18, 22; Galatians 5: 1)

What did God use to free us from the control of the sin nature?  We have said again and again, it is through our being united with the Lord and to die, to be buried, and to be resurrected with him; so that my old-self has been nailed to the cross with Christ and since I am dead I am freed from the control of the sin nature.  Some say that the sin nature has been put to death, but in reality it is not dead.  Both scripture passages in Romans 6: 18 & 22 say that we are set free from sin.  That is, the Lord has let our “old-self”, which is under the control of the sin nature, be crucified with him and thereby set “I” free from under the control of the sin nature.  The key to our being set free is because of our good deeds?  No, what counts is that I am willing to die, willing to ceaselessly call on the Lord and ask to be united with Christ so as to be freed from the sin nature.  Galatians 5: 1 says “It is for freedom that Christ set us free.”  Let me ask you this question:  What did Jesus use to set us free?  It was by his death on the cross, combined with our faith in him that we also died with him and was set free.  Please note that the precondition of our being set free is “death” and not our good deeds.  Only by dying can we escape from the control of the sin nature and thereby set free.  Hallelujah!  Through death, the power of the sin nature in us has been completely defeated.  It is not through us “fighting” to kill the sin nature.  No, it won’t die; instead it is “I” who died to escape the sin nature’s control on me.  This is a very important point because sin can’t make any more demands of a dead person, so now we are totally free to live for God.  Paul told us the truth about this new-found status, and since we have this status, our actions should also reflect our new status – we want to become an obedient slave of God leading to righteousness.     

3.      Jesus died on the cross, whom did he die to?  Whom did he live to?  What do these have to do with those who are saved by faith?  (Romans 6: 10-11)

Lord Jesus’ death on the cross, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  What does this have to do with us?  Through faith we are united with him and died with him, so that we too died to sin and no longer slaves to sin; we are raised with him into righteousness and we too live to God.

Romans Chapters 1 – 5 talk about how we are saved and born again by the redemption of Jesus Christ; while we were dead in our transgressions and sins, he made us alive to become babies of this new life; we are justified by faith so our status changed from being sinners to being of righteousness.  From another view point, we can also say that we attain holiness through faith (we have the status of being holy), we become saints because of our union with Christ and Christ’s life is holy.

Romans Chapter 6 – 8 talk about the growth process of our newly received life, that is, after we are justified by faith how we can continue to grow our faith, to be reliant and obedient and leading to righteousness; starting with being holy in our status and then gradually evolve into being holy in our daily living.

In Romans Chapter 6 Paul discussed baptism, pointing out the changes in our status and identity – “the dead has been set free from the sin” is the fundamental key to gaining life and growing this new life.  Only through assuming the correct status – by “death” I have rid the sin and I no longer live but Christ lives in me; we will be able to gradually achieve life growth in earnest, enter into righteousness in practice, and eventually lead to holiness.    

4.      From Romans 6: 12-13, how do you explain that God gave us the free will to make choices?

Romans 6: 12-13: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”  Here the contrasting terms of “do not” and “but rather” are used, shows that God gives us the free will to choose.  We are united with Christ, saved and born again, Christ is our life and is in us, but he does not control us like the sin nature (under the control of the sin nature, one has no choice but to sin); rather he gives us the free will to choose.  God longs for us to love him (he is the joy of fullness and the source of eternal joy), to offer ourselves to him, but he gives us the free will to choose: to love the Lord or not to love the Lord; to have a closer or not so close union with him; and to obey God or not to obey God.  God wants someone who is willing to surrender his free will.

5.      What is the meaning of “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace”?  (Romans 6: 14)

      After I have been on the journey of living and growing the new life, I have come to accept this truth: whenever I rely on my own efforts to act, the sin nature           will sneak up to control me.  Give thanks to the Lord, recently I have come to this realization, as I was reading Romans 6: 14: “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace;” it suddenly became clear to me that when I am closely united with Christ, “I no longer live but Christ lives in me” and sin shall not be my master; but when I use a set of standards to measure others or myself: “you (or I) shouldn’t be this or that, you should be this or that ….”, it is in reality also living under law so sin has sneaked up to control me and become my master (of course this is against God).

      Romans 6: 12-13: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body ….”  When do you let sin reign in you?  In fact, it is when you are under law:  That is, when you try to rely on your own efforts to attain some requirements or when you use a standard to measure others or yourself, then you are letting sin reign in you and you are immediately under its control.

      For example: a few days ago, due to an extraordinary circumstance a sister asked my husband to give her a ride as she waited by the roadside.  Usually my husband would try to get there as soon as possible because he understood her urgency.  But it so happened that day someone called him.  I was thinking to myself: “Why can’t you just apologize to that person and tell him that you have to go to pick up someone and you’ll call back later, that’s what you should do.”  When I started to have this thought, I was in fact living under law – “I” had surfaced.  That day I especially sensed that as soon as “I” surfaced, sin reigned in me so that I was following the desires of my flesh – I was really irritated inside and became so impatient, thinking why he couldn’t just hang up the phone; every sentence he uttered seemed like five minutes long so I was totally beside myself.  Just then, God enlightened me with Romans 6: 12 “do not let sin reign in your mortal body”, and “if you live under law, then you obey your body’s evil desires.”  Why did I get irritated?  Because I felt that under that circumstance my husband shouldn’t be on the phone.  When that happened, I was living under law so sin became my master, and with that came my sinful desires, getting irritated.  Brothers and sisters, how do we get rid of the evil desires at that moment?  Not by suppressing them using words like: “I am not going to get mad.”  No matter how hard you try to suppress it, you will still get mad.  Thus I can only confess by saying: “I shouldn’t live under law.  Oh Lord, save me!  Save me!  Free me from myself.  Oh Lord, let this matter be taken care of as you see fit, please give me your guidance.”  When you do that you will calm down on the inside.

      That day I truly learned that if you are not under law, sin cannot be your master.  Conversely, if you live under law then sin is your master.  Once sin becomes your master you will obey the evil desires of your body and lose your temper.  Even though you mean well and you don’t say it out loud, but the fact that you are struggling inside signifies that you are offering parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness.  What is the key to not offering parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, and not to obey the evil desires of your body?  Today, we are not tackling our body’s evil desires that have surfaced like our bad temper; rather we want to solve the fundamental problem – that is to let Christ be our master, or not to live under law.  “Oh Lord, I want you to be my savior, I thank you; I have failed because I relied on myself, Lord, you be my lord, I no longer lord over myself.”  This is how you solve the problem -- by going to the root cause.  Give thanks to the Lord, I am grateful for my failures.  It is not that failure is a good thing, but through this failure God let me see a live example – if you live under law then sin will be your master, and your body’s evil desires will surface to offer you as the instruments of wickedness.  It was very obvious that day, when God’s light shined on me, I confessed my sins and asked God to save me from myself.  I was so full of joy, my heart had been set free and I have peace now.

      Hallelujah!  “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”  Grace means “according to God’s will and with his mighty power to accomplish all things.”  We must satisfy the requirements of the law, my husband for sure will go to pick up that sister; the question is: “Oh Lord, he is on the phone right now, I look up to you, what I should do, Lord, I ask for your guidance.”  Now that I prayed, God took care of my problem, because we lived under grace not under law.            

6.      How have we been set free from sin and become slaves to righteousness? (Romans 6: 6, 17-18)

How have we been set free from sin and become slaves to righteousness?  Romans 6: 17-18: “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”  What is the secret for being set free?  It is obedience.  “By grace and through faith” that we are saved and born again, obedience is the manifestation of our faith.  I used to be a slave of sin, now through faith I trust and obey Jesus Christ’s salvation; I am united with Christ, freed from the control of sin, and justified by faith; Christ is the lord of my life and we are slaves to righteousness.  Again look at the above example:  When I saw my husband talking on the phone, the attitude borne from “trusting and obeying” should be: “Yes, since my husband is still on the phone, Lord, all is well, thank you Lord!  Lord, what should I do next?”  If you can be obedient like that you won’t become slaves to sin, you won’t obey the evil desires of your body, you won’t be anxious or mad, and you won’t offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness.  From here we see that the reason we offer our body parts to sin is dis-obedience.

7.      How does a person who has been saved and born again bear the fruit of righteousness?  (Romans 6: 16; Philippians 2: 12)

Give thanks to the Lord, we used to be slaves to sin but because we wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching so we are saved and born again to become slaves to righteousness.  Likewise, through being obedient the slaves to righteousness will bear fruit of righteousness.  Romans 6: 16 says: ”Don’t you know that when you offer yourself to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”  Philippians 2: 12 says: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”  “Working out your salvation” means to bear the fruit of righteousness; “obedience” means by faith to live not under law but under grace.  When you are dealing with issues in your life, you must first have an attitude of obedience: “Lord, I thank you, your authority rules over all things; if you do not allow it, nothing will happen to me.”  “With fear and trembling” refers to the attitude of reverence and awe towards God.  This scripture passage clearly shows that after we are saved and born again, it is by our fear of God, being careful and watchful in our daily living, and ever so obedient to God that we may bear the fruit of righteousness.

Back to the above example, a sister in Christ called to ask for a ride but my husband was held up by a phone call; my first reaction at that moment was to figure out what “I” should do, this is living under law!  Because of that I became a slave to sin.  If I was being obedient to God then the attitude exhibited for living under grace would be: “Lord, I thank you.  Right now there is a phone call delaying my husband, Lord, how do you want to handle this situation?”  When I ask the Lord, I stand as a slave to righteousness; according to how the Holy Spirit moves me, I just use prayers, thanksgivings, and pleadings to talk to the Father God; and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus, then I just act according to this peace.  In this way I will bear the fruit of righteousness and will not obey my body’s evil desires.

Brothers and sisters, I have experienced countless painful lessons that I must share with you:  Whenever we put emphases on the requirements of the law saying that we should be this way or that way, then our “selves” will surface and we will be under the control of the sin nature.  Once we are controlled by sin, the body’s evil desires will appear – no room for negotiations.  On the contrary, when we encounter things and don’t use the requirements of the law to measure, rather we come before the Lord in total obedience: “Lord, how you would handle this matter; Lord, I look up to you!”  Then what comes out of us will be the fruit of righteousness.               

8.      What is the difference in the outcome of being a slave to sin and being a slave to righteousness?  (Romans 6: 16, 23)

Romans 6: 16, 23: “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ….. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

      After we have been saved and born again, if we live under law then we are in the situation of being the slaves to sin which leads to death – meaning our temporary separation from God (Once we have been saved, we are united with the Lord and have a relationship that can’t be severed).  When we are angry, can we still deliver a good sermon or say a prayer in public without feeling embarrassed?  These are examples of our temporary separation from God.  If we are slaves to righteousness, even if we have failed we can still come before the Lord: “Oh Lord, I have failed again and you have seen my corrupt nature.”  If we immediately turn to trust and obey the Lord, look up to the Lord for his salvation and guidance; then our life will become cheerful, our fruits will be of righteousness, and our new life will grow a little bit more.

      Romans Chapter 6 tells us especially that anyone who has died has been freed from sin.  Brothers and sisters, we must correctly recognize our identity and status.  Understand how to die to sin and how to live to righteousness; this way you will bear the fruit of righteousness.

      In future lectures we will discuss that through ever more obedience and ever more faithfulness, our new life may grow; we move from “being justified” to “being of righteousness”; and also from “being holy in status” to “being holy in earnest”.