Victory Over Sin: Living Under Grace

The key to the understanding of this chapter, as it is indeed the key to the understanding of the entire Christian life, is the doctrine of the union of the Christian with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the key. He has unfolded that in the previous chapter, chapter 5, where his whole argument, you remember, has been this: the tie nature by-bust we are all in Adam. [00:05:58]

The Apostle takes it up, of course, in its context. He is interested primarily in the way that certain people misunderstand the doctrine and grace. And because he has said at the end of the previous chapter, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, some were tempted to say, well, very well, if that is so, let us continue in sin that grace may abound. [00:04:27]

The first argument was that we have died with Christ. We've been baptized into his death. And when the Lord Jesus Christ was dying on that cross on Calvary, all believed in him were dying with him. Now, we work that out in detail because it's absolutely vital. We were crucified with him, we died with him, we were buried with him, we've risen with him. [00:08:12]

The way of victory in the Christian life is not primarily just to be praying and to be looking to Christ. The first thing we have to do is to realize the truth about ourselves in Christ. That's the purpose of this chapter. And again, I must point out how so much holiness teaching completely ignores this sixth chapter of Romans. [00:11:33]

The Christian is no longer vainly trying to make himself a better man by applying law, by trying to conform to the law. He's finished with it. He's not under law; he's under grace. What's that mean? Well, it means he's rejoicing in God's free favor. He has heard and he has believed the gospel which tells him that in spite of his failure and this sin, God is forgiving him. [00:35:14]

Sin is still here in the organization of our body, our mortal body, our flesh. The old man has gone, yes, but sin is still here in my body, in my physical being, which includes, remember, my mind and my understanding as well as my physical processes, my instincts, and all these things. Sin is still there in this mortal body. [00:21:40]

We have to realize the certainty of our victory over sin. Now then, that's the fourteenth verse. Listen to it again: for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. Now, that is again a categorical and an absolute statement. And yet, you know, people are afraid in it. [00:25:24]

The Apostle is simply saying here, I say categorically, that because we are joined to Christ, we are certainly inevitably going to be delivered entirely from sin, and that is why we should wait for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. Now, that is the way in which we fight the problem and the battle of sin. [00:41:59]

The Christian is not one who goes through this life mourning and defeated and grumbling. Now, there have been Christian people who have put it like that, you know. The perfectionists and those who talk about an entirely cleansed heart, they have rather given the impression that the Christian in this life and in this world has a very, very defeated life. [00:24:28]

The Apostle doesn't tell us here to act as if this work is appeal is this: realize that it's true. How different it is true. I'm not persuading myself about something that isn't true. I am to realize that it is to I'm to grasp it, lay hold upon it, and truly to realize it in my constant thinking as well as in my living. [00:13:21]

The Christian is no longer trying to make himself something; he's been made something. He has received it as a gift from God. He's been given it freely without doing anything at all in his sins. God justifies the ungodly, so he's dead to the law, firstly with the law, but his resin with Christ. He's got a new nature. [00:36:52]

The Apostle tells a man, being troubled and harassed by sin, is not just simply to surrender it and to wait for victory. He says, working yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, and you've got to do it. Nobody can do this reckoning for you. It isn't the state of passivity. You and I agree literally gotta do this to ourselves. [00:19:18]