Church Picnic Worship at Skonewood

Paul opens Romans 6 by pressing the question that always comes after the gospel is made plain: if salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, can somebody just go on sinning? Paul answers with the strongest possible no. Grace does not give sin a permission slip, because those who are in Christ have died to sin. Death and life are not two settings that somebody can toggle back and forth between. If sin is still master, then sin is still being lived for. But if Christ has set somebody free, sin no longer has that old mastery.

Baptism gives a real, visible picture of that gospel reality. The water itself is just regular water. The water does not save anybody, and there is nothing magical in it. Baptism publicly declares what grace through faith has already done: believers have been buried with Christ and raised with Christ. Christ really died, really entered the grave, and really rose on the third day. Baptism reenacts that true history with a physical act, going down into the water like burial and coming up again in resurrection life.

Paul says this newness of life is not an old life cleaned up a little bit. Newness is not an old car with fresh paint or an old house after renovation. Christ makes a new creation, a new self, a new person. Union with Christ means more than being close to Him. Union with Christ is like a grafted branch becoming part of one living organism. Christ’s death counts for His people, and Christ’s resurrection guarantees their future. Christ’s hold on His people, not the strength of their feelings, gives assurance.

The old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Sin once ruled unchecked, making people slaves to passions, pleasures, guilt, and destructive patterns. Christ breaks that old mastery. The burden of sin does not merely get shoved into a corner. The cross and the tomb mean that burden rolls away and loses its claim.

Paul closes with a command: consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is not an attempt to manufacture a feeling or talk somebody into something false. This is reckoning as true what Christ has already accomplished. Christ’s death is still for sinners, the tomb is still empty, and resurrection hope is still real in the regular humdrum of everyday life. Baptism calls believers not to coast on a past religious moment, but to carry this truth from head to heart and out to hands and feet.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Grace does not excuse ongoing sin. Paul’s “by no means” refuses the idea that grace can become a cover for living however somebody wants. Sin is not a harmless habit for those united to Christ, because it once held them as slaves. Grace does not leave sin in charge. Grace frees believers to say no to the master they once could not resist. [22:43]
• 2. Baptism pictures union with Christ. Baptism does not save through special water, but it visibly declares a salvation already received by faith. Going down into the water pictures burial with Christ, and coming up pictures resurrection with Him. The physical act points to a physical Savior who truly died and rose again. Baptism says that Christ’s story has become the believer’s story. [26:03]
• 3. Christ makes a genuinely new person. Newness of life is not a little cleanup job on the old self. Christ does not merely renovate what sin ruined; He creates something new. The old self has been crucified, and its old claim has been broken. This gives real hope for change without pretending that change comes from human effort alone. [28:59]
• 4. Assurance rests on Christ’s hold. Feelings rise and fall, especially when camp days and baptism days give way to dishes, laundry, school, and ordinary work. Christ’s resurrection remains steady when emotions do not. Union with Christ guarantees that those who died with Him will also live with Him. The empty tomb gives better assurance than a strong spiritual feeling. [31:03]
• 5. Consider what Christ has made true. Paul commands believers to reckon themselves dead to sin and alive to God, not to become something they are not. This truth must move beyond a checked mental box and take root in the heart, hands, and feet. Daily life becomes the place where baptism’s picture is remembered and lived out. Christ’s death and resurrection remain present realities for every ordinary day.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [15:04] - Baptism and Romans 6
• [17:39] - Dead to Sin, Alive to God
• [18:40] - The Gospel of Grace Through Faith
• [19:45] - Grace or Rule Keeping?
• [20:44] - A Past Religious Moment
• [22:43] - Paul’s Strong Answer to Sin
• [24:06] - Sin No Longer the Master
• [25:44] - Baptism Publicly Declares Union
• [27:26] - Buried and Raised with Christ
• [28:59] - Walking in Newness of Life
• [30:24] - United with Christ
• [31:57] - The Old Burden Rolled Away
• [33:22] - Living on Resurrection Truth
• [35:40] - Consider Yourselves Dead to Sin
• [38:38] - The Tomb Is Still Empty

Bible Reading

Romans 6:1–11
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[15:49] [17:35]

Titus 3:3–7
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
[24:22]

1 Corinthians 15:54–57
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[35:16]

Observation questions

1. In Romans 6:1–11, what question does Paul raise about grace and sin, and how quickly does he answer it? [22:43]
2. What words and pictures does Paul use to describe baptism in verses 3–5—especially burial, death, resurrection, and newness of life? [27:21]
3. According to Romans 6:6–7 and Titus 3:3, what kinds of slavery or mastery characterized life before Christ? [25:06]
4. What does Paul say believers are to “consider” true about themselves in Romans 6:11, and what has Christ already done that makes this possible? [35:40]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says believers have “died to sin,” yet Christians still face temptation and sometimes fall into sin. How does this passage distinguish between sin being present and sin being the master?
2. Baptism does not save through the water itself, but it publicly declares union with Christ by faith. Why is it important to keep both of those truths together? [26:03]
3. Romans 6 says believers are united with Christ in both His death and His resurrection. How does that union give a person hope for real change now as well as confidence for the future? [30:24]
4. Paul tells believers to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God, rather than telling them to make that identity true. What difference does that make for someone who feels spiritually weak or discouraged? [36:08]

Application questions

1. Is there a sin, habit, pleasure, fear, or destructive pattern that has felt like a master in your life? What would it look like this week to remember that, in Christ, you are no longer required to obey it? [25:12]
2. When you are tempted, do you tend to think, “This is just who I am,” or “I cannot change”? How could Romans 6:6—“our old self was crucified with him”—speak into that specific struggle? [31:57]
3. If you have been baptized, how does remembering your baptism help you remember Christ’s death and resurrection? If you have not been baptized, what questions or next steps would help you understand this public declaration of faith? [27:43]
4. Feelings can be strong on special days but fade during dishes, laundry, school, work, and other ordinary responsibilities. Where do you most need the steady truth of Christ’s empty tomb in your regular week? [34:38]
5. Christ’s hold on His people is stronger than their changing feelings. When have doubts, guilt, or weak emotions made assurance difficult? How can the fact that Christ died and rose again help anchor you? [31:15]
6. Paul calls believers to carry this truth from the mind to the heart and out into hands and feet. What is one concrete relationship, decision, habit, or situation where being “alive to God in Christ Jesus” could become visible this week? [36:48]