Transformed in Christ: Freedom from Sin's Dominion

Paul begins with a response that in a sense is pure emotion to the question will we continue in sin in order that grace may abound and then he gives his explanation as to why he has responded that way he understands that he is a christian believer who has been baptized into jesus christ he has a new identity he has been given a new name he belongs to a new family and therefore it follows logically and ought to follow spiritually that he lives out the new family lifestyle. [00:00:17]

The first is this that the old self the old man who pelios anthropos the former man the old man was crucified with christ second that happened in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing or perhaps in your translation destroyed and the result of that so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin so three very interesting statements number one the old man or the old self was crucified with christ. [00:02:18]

We were by nature united to adam to the old order to the fallen order to the sinful order but now we've been united to the new man the last adam our lord jesus christ we've been taken out of one family and placed in another family and what has effected that is that we have been crucified with our lord jesus christ remember galatians chapter 2 verse 20. [00:03:13]

Our union with the old man adam was broken and our union with the new man jesus christ is established the old man the old order has gone now paul is not simply talking about the two halves of his life before i became a christian and now that i am a christian that is included but he's thinking of that big picture that big narrative that we spoke about in an earlier session. [00:03:50]

Now i understand who i am now and you can see why paul ties all this to baptism because it tells us you have been baptized out of the world of adam out of the reign of sin into the world of the father the son and the holy spirit you remember how aaron when he pronounced the aaronic benediction that threefold blessing that was placed upon the people god said to him put my name on them. [00:14:10]

And the sense seems to me to be this that we have been set free from sin in order that we might live to god his the whole context here is is not actually about our justification is it it's about how we've been delivered from the reign of sin and i think this is confirmed in in several different ways one is in chapter 6 verse 18 where he says we have been set free from sin. [00:10:21]

We truly are justified and so we are set free from the guilt of sin but here he's saying that there is a double cure in the gospel we are set free not only from sins guilt we are set free from sin's reign now we are not yet set free from sin's presence and we need to understand that and paul does understand it and goes on to talk about it. [00:11:07]

But here is a glorious truth i as a christian believer i'm no longer under the dominion of sin i've been set free from it that's a very important thing for us to know because we continue to sin don't we um and sometimes when we continue to sin we are we are prone to listen to the evil one who says that you're not really free from sin at all. [00:11:37]

Paul is not saying we're free from the presence of sin he's saying we're free from the reign of sin and that's the only reason we are able to deal with the sin in our hearts if we are not set free from the reign of sin we have no choice but to sin but knowing that we've been set free from its reign that that's who we are liberates us. [00:12:14]

You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to god in christ jesus now again let me put it negatively he's not saying i need to sit in a seat in the morning i'm dead to sin i'm dead to sin oh i must be dead to sin no he's saying you are dead to sin so don't think about yourself as though you weren't dead to sin. [00:16:27]

And paul is using that accountancy language he's not saying make this up about yourself he's not saying work yourself up to this he is not saying this is true of some christians but it's not true of other christians he's saying this is the truth depend upon it this is the truth reckon it to be true because it is true and when we grasp that when we grasp that this is the truth about us. [00:19:10]

The more we grasp the riches of the grace of god and the gospel the more ready we are for overwhelmingly powerful and demanding commands and demands there is a great tendency in the christian church to think that because there is so much grace in jesus christ there are no commands left that's not how it works what we find here in this passage is that because of the greatness of the grace of god and the gospel. [00:19:55]