Triumph

Romans Chapter 6

The subject of this section is very clear – ‘Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?’

Sin is doing anything that displeases God.

Surely not! After the exposure of ungodliness in chapter 1, and the denunciation of conceit and pride in Chapter 2. And yet we do sin – tempted by lust, pressured by peers, pushed by circumstances.

Considering peace with God in Chapter 5 – why disturb the peace by offending God. Then hope in God for a better purpose – why be turned aside to less. The love of God imparted to us by the Holy Spirit is insulted by sin. It will not do to blame Adam, so what is the answer to overcoming the propensity to sin.

Chapter 6 begins to answer this problem.

I would like to suggest that two words are most significant:

1             Verse 11 – consider, (reckon, calculate)

2            Verse 13 – present ( yield)

There is grace to overcome, if we have the will to do it.

I would like to briefly go through these verses to show the way to victorious Christian living.

Please observe the prepositions used in this section.

Verses 2,3 The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has died to sin. By our faith in Christ, we are immersed into His death. Not only did He die for us, we died with Him so that we acknowledge our guilty past should be buried and our only hope for new life is by the power of God. Immersion in water as baptism is the public identification of our link with Him.

And as the old self is seen as crucified, the power of God sets free from the habits and chains of sin. The new life is now orientated to God, alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Verse 11  - this pivotal verse calls upon us to pause and consider, to calculate what is God’s estimate of sin, God solution to sin and God’s desire for our holy living.

Verses 12 -14 This paragraph pivots around the word ‘present”.

The focus is on the body of the believer and the amazing opportunity we have to present the members of our body, our brain, our hands, our feet our all, to God. Previous to salvation, we were most unacceptable to God, now by grace  (not law ) we have this invitation to present ourselves to God, not in our own worth, but in the worth of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The conclusion is that law keeping will only bring us down, but the grace of God will lift us up.

Verses 15-22.  This section shows that as we were once slaves to lawlessness, we now have the opportunity to yield ourselves as slave to righteousness, slaves to God.  While the  idea of slavery sounds difficult in our culture, this is the path of eternal life (verse 23).