United to Christ, Dead to Sin (Romans 6:1-4, Ezekiel 36:16-31)
Rev. David Huffman, February 23, 2025Part of the Series On Romans series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Paul has reached a turning point in his teaching on life in Christ. The church in Rome had the true gospel, seeking then to be growing in grace and fellowship. Sound doctrine leads to righteous living. What, then, is the true gospel? What difference does it make in our lives? Justification by grace is the most Biblical and practical understanding. By grace, saving faith brings forth justification by means of imputation; Jesus Christ taking upon Himself our sin and imputing to believers His righteousness. We remember that Adam was our federal head, such that his sin was imputed to all his seed. The law given through Moses increased the guiltiness of our sins arising from our sin nature. Yet, this depth of sin cannot compare to the marvelous grace of God. Now, Paul transitions from justification to sanctification, describing how our lives are transformed. Paul presents an absurd error in vss. 1-4 and emphatically rejects the error in vs. 2. How can we continue living in sin without a sense of rebellion against God? How can we claim Christ as our savior from the wages of sin and then delay or deny seeking to walk in obedience to His statutes and ordinances? This is impossible if we have been given a new nature in Christ. There are two dangers that this absurd thinking gives rise to: antinomian lawlessness (where the law has no place in our lives) and legalism. One form of legalism is criticizing a believer as a “legalist” for diligently keeping the Sabbath out of gratitude and joy for God’s grace. The righteous believer is not depending on Sabbath-keeping for justification, rather as an outworking of transforming sanctification. The absurdity that Paul describes is destructive against what it means to be a Christian, which is accompanied by a once for all change and a new relationship to sin. We can’t be a Christian if we continue to rebel in sin. In vs. 2, what does it mean that we have died to sin? Through Christ’s resurrection, we walk in newness of life. Baptism is a sign and seal of union in Christ; we die with Christ. In the Exodus, Israel was baptized unto Moses, a profound identification. In Christ, we become the righteousness of God. We become dead to sin, and we identify with the death and burial of Christ as we walk in newness of life. We want to please God and obey His commands to be more like Christ. It is absolutely impossible to be an antinomian and be a Christian.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « The Law and Abounding Grace | None |
Romans 6:1–4 (Listen)
6:1 What 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.
(ESV)
Ezekiel 36:16–31 (Listen)
16 The word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. 18 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. 19 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20 But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ 21 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.
(ESV)