Our subject is victory over indwelling sin.
The problem before us is this.
Before salvation, the sinner is completely controlled by
the indwelling sinful nature.
There's a vital connection between that person and
that evil nature.
When God saves that person, an answer to
his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, what
relationship does the indwelling sinful nature have to
the person?
The same relationship as it sustained before salvation,
namely that it had the person in his
grip continually in the past and still has
that person in his grip, or is there
some difference in the relationship?
That's the problem.
And so we turn for an answer to
Romans chapter 6.
And if you have your Bibles there, will
you turn with me to Romans?
And I'm sure you'll be able to follow
the message better if you have your Bibles
open.
Romans chapter 6.
And we're going into the Greek text for
the answer to this problem of ours.
Romans 6 was written by Paul to answer
two questions.
One, in verse 1, shall we continue in
sin that grace may abound?
He answers that question in verses 2 to
14.
Two, verse 15, shall we sin because we
are not under the law but under grace?
And he answers that question in verses 16
to 23.
The first question involves habitual sin.
The second question involves spasmodic, infrequent acts of
sin.
We'll take one question at a time.
Paul says in verse 1, what shall we
say then?
Say then to what?
Well, we go back to the previous chapter
in verse 20 to the words, where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound.
Or we could translate more fully, where sin
abounded, their grace was in superabundance, and then
some on top of that.
Paul was in the habit of preaching on
that text.
And frequently a person would come to him
after his message and say, shall we continue
in sin then that grace may abound?
Paul, do you mean to tell me that
God is willing to forgive sin as fast
as a man commits it?
Paul says, yes.
And the man says, well then, shall we
who profess to be Christians continue in sin
that grace may abound in God forgiving sin
and glorifying himself?
That's the question.
Now we look at it.
Shall we who profess to be saved continue
in sin?
And the word sin refers either to the
sinful nature or the acts of sin.
To which does it refer?
The answer is found in the fact that
in the Greek text we have the word
the before sin.
In the sin.
And a rule of Greek grammar tells us
that this sin is referred to in the
previous writing here and defined in verse 21
of chapter 5, where we read that as
sin has reigned as king.
Now acts of sin don't reign as king,
but the sinful nature reigns as king.
That means that the word sin in Romans
6, where it is used in its noun
form, always refers to the sinful nature and
that is the key to the understanding of
Romans 6.
Romans 6, 7, and 8 form a trio.
In Romans 6 we have the machinery of
the Christian life, the mechanics of the spirit
-filled life.
In Romans 8 we have the dynamics of
the spirit-filled life.
In Romans 7 we have the monkey wrench
when thrown into the machinery stops the works.
It's like going through a furniture factory.
The guide takes us through the floors of
whirring machinery where the furniture is being made.
That's machinery.
That's Romans 6.
Then we say to the guide, take us
to the place where the power is developed
that operates this machinery.
And he takes us down to the basement
where the steam turbines turn the dynamos that
furnace the power.
That's Romans 8.
The dynamics of the spirit-filled life, the
ministry of the Holy Spirit that produces the
power.
Then we go through the floors of whirring
machinery again and all at once the machinery
stops with a crash and a bang.
And we say to the guide, what's happened?
And the guide says, a careless workman dropped
the monkey wrench into the machinery and stopped
the works.
And that is Romans chapter 7, mainly self
-dependence that stops the ministry of the Holy
Spirit.
Now, in this message we are in Romans
6, the machinery of the spirit-filled life.
Romans 6 doesn't tell us what kind of
a Christian life we should live.
It tells us how to live that life.
And so we go back to our question,
shall we continue in the sinful nature that
grace may abound?
The Greek word translated continue in the Gospels
is used with persons.
When it's used with persons it refers to
fellowship, friendship, cooperation, cordiality, friendliness.
It's used in other ways also in the
Gospels, but it's used with persons in a
relationship that is friendly.
And so we could translate and interpret, shall
we who profess to be Christians continue to
sustain the same friendly relationship with the sinful
nature that we sustained before we were saved?
What relationship was that?
Namely, we willingly, gladly obeyed it.
That's the question.
And so the question here primarily does not
have to do with acts of sin in
the Christian life.
It has to do with the inward relationship
of the sinful nature to the Christian, and
the change that comes when God saves an
individual.
Paul answers the question in verse 2, first
emotionally.
He says, God forbid, that is, may not
such a thing ever occur.
Then he answers it rationally.
He says, how shall we that are dead
to sin live any longer therein?
The Greek word for how is very, very
strong.
How is it possible that such as we
who died off to the sinful nature live
any longer in its grip?
Now, what is death?
Death is separation.
Physical death is separation of the person from
his body.
Spiritual death is separation of the person from
God.
Here we have the separation of the person
from the sinful nature.
Let us translate and paraphrase and interpret it
this way.
How is it possible for such as we
who have been separated by a one-fell
stroke of God's surgical knife from the sinful
nature to live any longer in its grip?
That is, Paul is telling us here that
the believing sinner at the moment of salvation
has a surgical operation performed in his inner
being in which God cuts him loose from
the sinful nature, and that this operation is
just as actual and practical as a physical
operation where a doctor removes an appendix from
the person, cuts him loose from it.
The only difference being that a doctor will
take the appendix out while God leaves the
indwelling sinful nature in.
And let's be very careful to understand that
the Bible teaches that the indwelling sinful nature
is never eradicated in this life, but remains
in the individual until he dies and until
the rapture.
But the point is, he, the believing sinner,
is separated from it.
Let us use this illustration.
Here is a floor lamp, and the cord
is attached to a wall socket, and the
wall socket there produces the power to make
that lamp shine.
Now I pull out the plug and cause
a separation and the lamp stops shining, and
it'll keep on stop shining until I put
it back, the plug, into the wall socket.
That wall socket is like the evil nature,
and let the lamp illustrate the unbeliever.
And just as the wall socket produces the
power to make the lamp shine, so the
evil nature energizes the unsaved to sin.
But when God separates the evil nature from
the person, he stops sinning.
How long?
As long as that believing sinner, the Christian,
keeps himself separate from the evil nature.
The evil nature has no more power over
the Christian than the Christian allows it to
have.
The Christian is the master of the evil
nature.
I have the same power over this evil
nature in me as I have over my
radio.
Notice I did not say over my sinful
nature.
The Christian has two natures in him, but
only one is his nature.
He doesn't have two natures.
The evil nature is not his nature anymore.
That has been slewed off.
He has the divine nature.
Now I have just as much power over
the evil nature as I have over my
radio.
Here I am listening to music and a
program that is fit for Christian ears, and
all at once the radio program changes to
music that is unfit for Christian ears.
What am I to do?
Who's master in that situation, the radio or
am I?
I jump out of my chair and I
shut off the radio and I say, you
cannot bring that much into my life.
So the Christian has the power to say
to the evil nature, you cannot bring that
sin into my life.
Now there is one of the great truths
that will bring victory over sin in the
Christian life.
The realization that when God saves the Christian,
he separates the Christian from the evil nature
while allowing the evil nature to stay in
him.
But the evil nature has no more power
over that individual than that individual allows it
to have.
And so we translate, how is it possible
for such as we, who have been separated
from the evil nature, to live any longer
in its grip?
Paul declares the impossibility of a Christian habitually
living in the power of the evil nature.
Then in verse 3 he informs us as
to how this operation took place.
Know ye not that so many of us
that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death?
Now the word baptized is the English spelling
of the Greek word here, not the translation.
Let us translate.
Know ye not that so many of us
that were placed into Jesus Christ were placed
into his death?
When were we placed into Jesus Christ?
Two thousand years ago when he died on
the cross.
What for?
In order that when we put our faith
in him, the power of the evil nature
might be broken in us, that we might
be separated from us.
Thus the believer's identification with Christ in his
Christ's death breaks the power of the evil
nature in that person.
Then Paul goes on.
He says, therefore we are buried with him
by baptism in the dead.
Or someone might say, there it is, buried
in the waters of baptism.
But the Greek word for buried does not
mean to bury in water, it means to
bury in a tomb.
And so all believers were buried with Jesus
in the reckoning of God in Joseph's tomb
when Jesus was buried in that tomb.
Therefore we were buried entombed with him.
By this introduction into death, that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we
also may order our behavior in the power
of a new life imparted.
And that new life is in the form
of the divine nature.
What has Paul told us now?
In verses one to four, two outstanding things.
One, that through our identification with Christ in
his death, the evil nature's power over us
was broken.
Indeed we were separated from it.
And it has no more power over us
than we allow it to have.
We're its master.
Two, that our identification with Christ in his
resurrection, we have been given divine life.
Now there is victory over sin.
The realization that the power of sin has
been broken, we do not have to obey
the evil nature, we do not have to
sin.
And second, that we live our new life
in the newness of divine life imparted.
Now Paul is a master teacher.
In verses five to ten, he gives us
the same truth that he gave us in
verses one to four, but in different words.
In order that we might be sure we
understand this deep truth.
He says, for if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we
shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection.
That is, in view of the fact that
we have become united with the Lord Jesus
in the likeness of his death, the logical
conclusion is that we were joined to him
in the likeness of his resurrection back there
in the first century.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, and henceforth we should not serve
sin.
Now there are three things we want to
investigate in this verse six.
To what do the words old man refer?
Second, the body of sin refers to what?
And how are we to understand the word
destroyed?
Well, first now, the old man.
There are two words in Greek meaning man.
One is a word that refers to the
male individual of the human race.
The other is a racial term referring to
the individual.
And this is the word that's used here.
It refers to an individual person, man or
woman, boy or girl.
Then there are two words in Greek meaning
old.
One meaning old in point of time, the
other meaning old in point of use, and
the second one is used here.
And so we translate knowing this, that our
old and equated outworn decrepit self, that person
we were before we were saved, that's the
old man.
The evil nature is not the old man.
The old man is the unsaved person dominated
by the evil nature.
Then the words the body of sin.
Sin there, of course, is the sinful nature.
And the word of is the translation of
a Greek case showing possession.
And we could translate the body, that is
the physical body, possessed by the sinful nature.
And that refers to our physical body, which
before salvation was dominated by the sinful nature.
Then the word destroyed.
The Greek word literally means to render inoperative.
And so let's translate the whole verse knowing
this, that our old and equated outworn decrepit
self, that person we were before we were
saved, was crucified with him, that the physical
body, which before salvation was dominated by the
sinful nature, might be rendered inoperative in order
that with the result that henceforth we are
not living a life of habitual sin.
Well, let's take it this way.
With the result that we are not rendering
an habitual slavery to the sinful nature.
Or we could put it this way.
That with the result that we are not
habitually obeying the evil nature as a slave.
Now, what do we mean by rendering the
body of the sinful nature inoperative?
When I was a young man, I was
sent to a manual training high school where
we had a machine shop.
And there I operated a turning lathe.
And that turning lathe, that machine ran by
the power that was given it from a
wheel in the ceiling and the wheel was
connected with the machine by a belt.
When I wanted to render that machine inoperative,
that is, when I wanted to stop the
machine, I shunned it off the belt connecting
the machine with the wheel in the ceiling.
So, God, when he saves an individual, removes
the belt that causes the Christian, the believer,
the unbeliever, to sin.
And that belt is connected with the evil
nature.
That wheel in the ceiling is like the
evil nature.
And the machine is illustrative of the unsaved
person.
And when I shunned the belt off between
the wheel and the machine, the machine stopped.
And in salvation, God shuns the belt off
that connects that person with the evil nature.
Now, I can put the belt back on
and make the machine run again.
And the Christian can put himself into the
control of the evil nature again.
He has a free will.
But he doesn't do that very long, for
if he's properly taught, he doesn't want to
do that.
And in the second place, if he does
do it, God makes that person so miserable
under conviction of sin, and brings suffering and
sorrow and hardship into the life that that
person runs away from that sin and back
to the Lord Jesus.
Then in verse 7, Paul has a tremendous
statement.
For he that is dead is freed from
sin.
Let us translate it and expand the translation.
For he who died off once for all,
that is from the sinful nature, stands in
a permanent relationship of freedom from the sinful
nature.
Then as God says to you and to
me as Christians, I have separated you from
the evil nature.
Now maintain that separation.
And that's our duty.
Then Paul goes on.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we
believe that we shall also live by means
of him.
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead
dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him.
For in that he died, he died unto
sin once.
But in that he liveth, he liveth unto
God.
Paul in verse 10 tells us that Jesus
Christ died with reference to the sinful nature.
He had none.
He died with reference to our sinful nature.
Now the death of Jesus Christ has two
aspects.
He died with reference to our acts of
sin.
He paid the penalty.
He died with reference to our sinful nature.
That is, God provided in Christ's death on
the cross the breaking of the power of
sin in our life.
In the words of the song regarding the
blood of Jesus Christ, the double pure, save
from wrath and make me pure, save from
wrath, that's justification.
Romans 4 and 5.
Make me pure, that's sanctification.
Romans 6.
Now in verses 1 to 10, Paul is
told of two things.
One, the power of the sinful nature has
been broken in the believer's life.
He has been separated from that evil nature
while that evil nature still remains in him.
And the evil nature has no more power
over him except that power which the believer
allows it to have.
Two, the divine nature has been implanted.
Now that is the spiritual machinery that God
has installed in the believer.
Now that machinery always works, but it doesn't
work at its highest efficiency unless it's taken
care of.
Just like an automobile.
If the automobile engine is not serviced regularly,
it does not work at its highest efficiency.
So in verses 11 to 13, Paul informs
us as to the responsibility of the Christian
with regard to that machinery.
That that machinery should work at its highest
efficiency.
He says in verse 11, "...likewise reckon ye
all through yourselves to be dead indeed unto
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord."
That is, count upon the fact that you
have been separated from the sinful nature and
you don't have to obey it anymore, and
count upon the fact that you have the
divine nature and you can, in the divine
nature's power, live your new life.
And as you do that, stop allowing the
sinful nature in verse 12 to reign as
king in your mortal body, that you should
obey it in the lusts or desires thereof.
Now the question comes, does the word it
refer back to the word body or to
the word sin?
Well, logic would lead us to conclude that
it refers back to the sinful nature.
Because the sinful nature said the reign is
king and we shouldn't obey it.
But Greek grammar will not allow that.
In Greek, we have the word sin in
the feminine gender, the word body in the
neuter gender, the word it, the pronoun, is
in the neuter gender, and the rule of
grammar is that the pronoun agrees with the
antecedent in gender.
Therefore, the word it goes back to the
word body.
And you say, well now teacher, why this
parade of Greek scholarship?
Very practical, very practical.
We cannot successfully fight an unseen enemy, but
we can successfully fight a seen enemy.
We can't see the sinful nature, but we
can see our bodies.
We cannot stop evil thoughts coming from the
evil nature and actions, but we can stop
them at the surface of our bodies.
We can watch what our eyes look at,
and we can watch what our ears listen
to, and we can watch what our tongue
says.
And that's why Paul says that we should
not allow the mortal body to express the
evil things in the evil nature.
Then he says, also neither yield ye yourselves,
members as instruments of unrighteousness to the sinful
nature, but yield yourselves once for all to
God, as those that are alive from the
dead, and you're members as instruments of unrighteousness
under God.
And there we have the truth of a
once-for-all dedication of ourselves to God,
and here to God the Holy Spirit.
Then if we do that, Paul says in
verse 14, sin, the sinful nature shall not
lord it over you, for ye are not
under law, but under grace.
The little poem that comes in here very
nicely, do this and live the law commands,
but gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better word the gospel brings, it bids
me fly and gives me wings.
That is, the law says do this, but
gives neither the desire nor the power to
obey.
Grace sweetly exhorts and gives both the desire
and the power to obey.
That's under grace.
Paul has answered his first question now.
Shall we continue to sustain the same friendly
relationship to the evil nature we did before
we were saved?
How does he answer it?
He says the power of sin has been
broken in your life, you don't have to
obey the evil nature.
The divine nature has been implanted, you don't
want to obey the evil nature.
And when a person doesn't have to do
what he doesn't want to do, he doesn't
do it.
Then the man comes back with another question,
verse 15.
What then?
Shall we sin occasionally because we are not
under the law but under grace?
Arthur S.
Wade, in his paraphrase of the Pauline Epistles,
has it this way.
Shall we sin because we are not under
the uncompromising rule of law, but under the
lenient scepter of grace?
He read that man's mind.
Law is uncompromising, but grace, is grace lenient?
The answer is no.
Grace is far stricter than law ever was.
Here's the boulevard with signs on it, speed
limit 30 miles an hour.
But which do you think is a better
deterrent to speeding?
Those signs or a half a dozen motorcycle
policemen with their motors tuned up?
The Ten Commandments never made anybody obey them,
but the Holy Spirit indwelling the Christian notices
the slightest sin in the life.
Then Paul says, knowing enough to whom you
yield yourself servants to obey, his servants he
are to whom you obey, whether of sin
unto death, but are of obedience and righteousness.
The word translated servants is the key to
the understanding of this argument.
It's the Greek word for slaves.
It refers, first of all, to a person
born into slavery.
When you and I were born into this
world, we were born into the slavery of
sin.
We had a nature that made us love
sin.
When the person puts his faith in Jesus
Christ, he's born of God and has a
nature that makes him hate sin and love
God.
Paul says how ridiculous to ask such a
question.
Namely, shall we Christians live a life of
planned occasional sin?
The answer is no.
Why?
Because the power of sin has been broken
in our life.
The divine nature is implanted and we don't
want to sin.
Then this word slave means also one whose
will is swallowed up in the will of
another.
Before salvation, our wills were swallowed up in
the will of the devil.
After salvation, our wills are swallowed up in
the sweet will of God.
Paul says how ridiculous to think that a
person whose will is swallowed up in the
sweet will of God would want to live
a life of planned occasional sin.
Then the Greek word means also one who
serves another to the disregard of his own
interests.
Before salvation, we serve the devil to the
disregard of our own interests.
We always were punished for it.
After salvation, we Christians as we yield ourselves
to the Holy Spirit say nothing matters in
our life as long as Jesus is glorified.
Then the word means also one who is
bound to another in bands so strong that
only death can break them.
We were bound to the devil in bands
which only death could break them.
And it was our identification with Christ in
his death that broke the bands of sin.
Now we are bound to the Lord Jesus
in bands so strong that only death can
break them.
And since the Lord Jesus will never die
and he is our life, we will never
be separated from the Lord Jesus.
Thus Paul says how ridiculous again is it
to ask a question.
Shall we Christians live a life of planned
occasional sin?
We can't go back under Satan's rule.
We're bound to Christ forever.
And so Paul says but God be thanked
that whereas that's the idea, ye were the
slaves of the sinful nature, ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine to
which you were delivered, the best Greek texts
have.
That is in being saved we were handed
over to a new form of doctrine.
Being then made free from the sinful nature,
he became the servants the slaves of righteousness.
He says I speak after the manner of
men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as ye have yielded your members slaves
to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even
so now yield your members servants slaves to
righteousness unto holiness.
For when you were the slaves of the
sinful nature, you were free from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things
wherever you now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death.
But now being made free from the sinful
nature and become slaves to God, ye have
your fruit resulting in holiness and the end
eternal life.
For the pittance wage of the sinful nature
is death, but the free gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And so we have victory over indwelling sin
in Romans 6 from three angles.
One, the power of sin has been broken
in our life.
We've been separated from the sinful nature that
indwells us and we don't have to obey
it.
Two, the divine nature has been implanted that
makes us hate sin.
And three, we become loving bond slaves of
the Lord Jesus Christ, having a nature that
makes us love to obey gods.