Romans: Chapter 6

Learning the True Meaning of Sanctification

6:1-2

What shall we say then to all this? Paul is now linking everything from Chapters 1 through 5 to a summation and application for us. Paul is asking us to reflect and respond to all the Truth he has presented to us! Should we remain in sin so God’s Grace can multiply and overflow? (2.) The answer: Of course not! It is an obvious and emphatic Absolutely Not! How can we, who have actually died to any sin, possibly live in it any longer? It will make us miserable, we now know how awful sin is. We understand that it actually destroys who we are and who we were meant to be. We can never again continue in sin. We strive to obey God, turning away from sin and seeking to Honor, Glorify and Praise Him in our lives. The Truth is we cannot ever live a sinful life, not if we have truly died to sin by becoming Believers in Jesus!

6:3

If you do not understand, then you are ignorant of this Truth: When we chose to accept by Faith, and Believe in, Jesus as Savior and Lord, we were baptized in the Holy Spirit and born again. In becoming ‘born again’, we had to die first; that is, we are baptized into His death. What did the death of Jesus accomplish? The death of Sin! Remember that death is not extinction, it is separation. So the end result is that we have joined with Jesus in overcoming sin. We are now separated from the control of sin over our lives. The choice is now ours, we can choose to overcome sin, day by day, moment by moment; or we can relapse and choose to fall back into sin. We want to become Overcomers! At least we now have a choice; before we were born again we were trapped by sin; we were held in slavery to sin. Jesus has now freed us from sin. Our entire life is now new, changed, we are free people, freed from the slavery of sin. Sin no longer can control us. The death of Jesus on the cross was a triumph, not a tragedy. Jesus was born to die on the cross! By dying on the cross Jesus has freed us from the POWER of sin over our lives. We are now free to live out our lives to become more like Jesus, sin-free! It is a transformation, a becoming. Step by step, day by day, choice by choice, we become more like Jesus with each choice made by the power of the Holy Spirit. Can we do it alone? Of course not, we must rely on God’s continuing Grace for each act of obedience to Him.

6:4-5

We were buried with Jesus by being baptized, that is ‘Born Again’, into His death and resurrection. So just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God the Father, so we should also be raised from the death of sin into a newness of life. The very quality of our lives should be New. We are now Believers, that is Followers of Christ, meaning that we live like Christ; we avoid sin and turn away from it and are repulsed by sin. Sin is no longer attractive to us, but disgusting. How can you tell if you are a true Believer? Do you hate sin, especially your sin? Do you turn away from sin and toward a Christ-like life? Do you seek to spend every moment possible with your Savior and Lord in prayer and Bible Study? These are hard questions and we have to be brutally honest with ourselves. Remember we are freed from the POWER of sin, but not yet the PRESENCE of sin. We will only be freed from the presence of sin upon our death and resurrection. We will then never have to deal with sin again, ever.

6:6-8

We now know and understand that our old sin nature was nailed to the cross with Jesus so that our body, which is the instrument used for sin, might be made ineffective and powerless for evil. We are no longer the slaves of sin. We are freed by Jesus from being sin’s slave. We now are free to say NO to sin. However, it is always our choice, we can choose to disobey God and make ourselves a slave to sin. How foolish! Why would we be so stupid, when we know that the end result of sin is eternal death and suffering? So we must develop an attitude of freedom. We are freed from being slaves to sin; therefore we choose to avoid all sin. The very second we recognize sin in our life, we seek God’s forgiveness and ask the Holy Spirit for strength to repent and turn away from sin. (7.) When we ‘die to sin’, we are freed from the power of sin. When we die physically we are freed from the presence of sin. (8.) If we have truly died with Christ, then we are free to live with Him.

6:9

Jesus is raised from the dead and will never die again, death has no power over him. So also, death and sin no longer have control over us. We are guaranteed to be raised from death. Satan may lie to us and cause us to falsely think sin has control over us, but we know he is a liar and that Jesus has freed us from the power of sin!

6:10-11

Jesus died once to sin, thereby ending any relation to sin. He is alive, living in continuous fellowship with the Father. Jesus offers us this same fellowship with Him, living our lives with and for Him. Joining ourselves with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, seeking to live in love and obedience.

6:12-14

THEREFORE, (because of these Truths) we should no longer let sin rule over us. Do not yield to the lusts of our bodies. We can insist that God’s Word is True, by honoring Jesus and living a sin-free life. The moment we realize anything is a sin, we must confess it, repent of it, and turn away from it; seeking Grace from the Holy Spirit to avoid all sin. Do we really believe God? Then we must act like it. Actions speak louder than words! (13.) Do not yield yourself to sin, yield yourself to God, as one that is alive from the dead. We are no longer the walking dead in sin, we are alive in Christ! Our choices of using our bodies as implements of righteousness shows we are believers. (14.) Sin no longer has any control over us. We are not under the law but under God’s Grace. The more we immediately turn away from any temptation to sin, the easier it is to continually obey God and avoid sin!

6:15-16

So what does this mean? Can we go ahead and sin because we’re not under the law? How foolish! We are under Grace as recipients of God’s unmerited favor. Paul clearly tells us that NOT being under the law does NOT mean we can just go ahead and sin; notice his emphatic statement of “Certainly not!” (16.) And Why Not? Because now we understand and know that we are servants of the one we yield ourselves to. When we yield to Jesus, we are truly servants of Jesus. We can choose who we follow. There is no gray area; sin is always sin. If we yield ourselves to sin, then we are slaves of sin, and ALL sin leads to death. Every single decision you make is either for or against God. We make the choice. Who are you yielding to? Who are you a slave or servant to? Servants of Jesus? Or slaves of the evil one?

6:17-18

We thank and praise God for all this. We were once slaves of sin, now we have become obedient with all our hearts to the standards of God’s Word. The Good News of Jesus Christ; He died for our sins, so we could be freed from sins. He paid the ultimate price of death, so we could be made free. Notice how Freedom and Faith work together? (18.) So God’s MERCY freed us from the POWER of sin; and His GRACE gives us the POWER to follow Jesus in righteousness. We are now free from sin and are now servants forever to righteousness. Our new nature will always desire to follow God. We are only satisfied when we follow Jesus. We make a faith choice to follow the Will of our Father through the power of the Holy Spirit which dwells in us.

6:19

Paul tells us that he is explaining all of these Truths in simple human terms so we can clearly understand that as we yield ourselves, mind, body and soul, to righteousness, this will lead us to Sanctification, a transformation of ourselves, both soul and spirit, into the person God meant us to be. We were created in the Image and Likeness of our Creator! We know that at one time, before becoming a True Believer in Jesus, we were literally slaves to lawlessness and sin. Each time we fell into sin, it lead to MORE sin; we were on a terrible downward spiral into eternal death. Now, however, we can present ourselves as slaves, or servants, of righteousness, leading to holiness. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to BE righteous and holy before God?

6:20-21

When we were slaves to sin, we had NO righteousness. We are now ashamed of the sins we committed, NOW recognizing they lead only to death, ETERNAL DEATH!

6:22

Now since we have been set free from sins, we are the servants of our Lord, God and Creator. As we obey as servants of God, our reward is righteousness, holiness and Eternal Life.

6:23

Now we know and understand without any doubt the Truth that the wages of sin is eternal death, separation from God forever, but the free gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. This is a great scripture to memorize and pray into your own life daily.

Summary: Being separated from God forever, would be suffering a horrible, miserable, painful existence with absolutely no hope, ever. Yet, we are assured that as obedient believers, we are guaranteed to be with God throughout our lives on earth and forever. Our time here on earth is to be spent constantly striving to obey God, seeking His Wisdom and Will for our lives. We can ONLY accomplish this through the Power of the Holy Spirit. We must choose to yield and obey the Holy Spirit in our lives. As we grasp this magnificent Truth, we now earnestly desire with all our hearts and souls to be transformed and sanctified to become like Christ; in the Image and Likeness of our Creator! So what is your goal in life? Sanctification should be our ultimate goal!