“Spiritual Death & Life and the Practice of Sin”

Five Sermons on Romans 6 – Part 1: “Baptism and the Practice of Sin”

TEXT:  Romans 6:1-4

REVIEW

1. Why the Law?  Our first thought concerning the relationship between the Law and sin is that the purpose of the Law is simply to restrain sin.  We imagine that once we are properly informed as to what God hates and what He loves, that we will readily pursue what He loves and avoid what He hates, with the result that sin will be restrained.  But at the end of Romans 5, Paul writes of a gospel use of the Law that surprises us.  He says, “the law entered that the offense might abound.”

 2. Is that God’s final goal – to make sin abound?  Not at all.  The Apostle says, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  The point of the entire fifth chapter is to show us the abundant greatness of grace in overthrowing the death that is all around us.  This morning, we begin five weeks of considering whether the practice of sin is consistent with that abundant life of grace that has come to us through Christ.

TODAY’S PASSAGE:

¹ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  ² Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  ³ Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

1.  Shall we continue in sin?

            Let’s look at the bad thinking that would allow a person to conclude that his continuing in sin would be a good idea for God’s glory.  Paul has just stated at the end of Romans 5 that the Law entered that the offense might abound.  But then he went on to say that where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.  One might perhaps think that it is a good idea to sin more.  The more sin you have, the more there is for God to forgive.  He gets to show you more mercy the more you sin.  It glorifies God to show mercy to sinners.  So help Him out.  Sin more and more so that He gets the opportunity to show more and more mercy.

            This is very bad thinking.  It forgets the ultimate purpose of God’s work with man.  He has determined that we should be His holy children, serving and worshiping Him forever.  He does not extend us further mercy to encourage us into greater depths of sin.  His plan is for our holiness.  That is what He has determined would be most glorious.  The cross would not be glorious if it had no power to free us from the dominion of sin.  If we never become truly holy, then the mercy of God is not glorious.  We still continue to be stuck in serving our own “choice” God, enslaved in our own hopeless depravity.

            There may be some among Paul’s hearers who are saying, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” I think it is more likely that those who think that Paul is wrong in his understanding of salvation are bringing this objection to Paul.  Thinking that they themselves are largely keeping the Law, they are angry about Paul’s teaching here.  They are really saying this: “Paul, if your so-called gospel is the right message, then we might as well start telling people to keep on sinning, or even to increase their sinning.  That should make God happy, Paul.  That is, in effect, what you are saying.  Isn’t it Paul?”  The problem is not only people who are looking to dismantle the law system to satisfy their own desires.  It is also the rebelliousness of people who have heard the message of radical grace, and don’t like it.  It makes them mad, because it means that there is hope for rotten people, and they don’t think that there should be any hope for rotten people.  These enemies of the gospel are not recommending a life of sin here.  Instead, they feel certain they have identified the absurdity of Paul’s message, and want to press their point.

2.  We died to sin.

Paul’s answer: “You do not understand the message of the cross and of baptism by which you have a sacramental union with Christ.”  Specifically, Paul says here that we died to sin.  What does this mean?  The death of Christ was somehow our death because of our union with Him.  His death was a death to sin.  Our sin brought about that death, and that death was not only a legal declaration of forgiveness from the penalty of sin.  It was also a powerful defeat of the bondage of sin that had held us.  If death is dead for the believer through the death of Christ, then it does not make sense for us to act like dead men still.  That power has been defeated.

Our ready objection to this doctrine is this: Why do we still feel trapped in sin?  The answer of faith corrects our feelings of powerlessness.  The truth is that the death of Christ cut the chains that were binding us.  When you sincerely say and believe that Jesus is Lord, you have laid down your life at His feet.  His death is your death.  His life is your life.  Death is a final thing.  It is complete.  If you laid your life down, then you are not living in it any longer.  Christ is your life now.  Christ lives in you. 

But if this is the case, why are we still able to sin?  God has determined that our growth in holiness is to be a matter of warfare.  Like the Israelites going into the promised land, the promise has been given to us, but we are to be engaged in the fight, and the enemies will not be gone all at once.  I am sure that God has very good reasons for doing spiritual growth this way.  More and more we are enabled to say truly from the heart, “not my will, but yours be done.”  This does not happen all at once, or at the same pace for all of us, but it will happen for all of God’s elect.

3.  As many of us as were baptized…

Throughout Romans 6 Paul is telling us that a life of continuing in sin is not the sensible choice for the follower of Jesus.  Christian warfare means that our life is a spiritual battle.  We know that there is plenty of sin in the world, and we even know that we will regularly fall into it.  But think of a soldier in the intensity of combat.  He may know full well that bullets are flying and men are being wounded, but there is still no excuse for him throwing away his weapon, and then running into an open field screaming “Shoot me!”  It’s the same thing in spiritual warfare.  Even though we know that we will take the wound of sin in battle today, there is no sense in giving up the fight and giving yourself over to sin. 

How does your baptism fit into this spiritual warfare?  Baptism is a part of the system of grace that God has given us.  In the first four verses of this chapter Paul tells us plainly that our baptism is inconsistent with a life of sinning.  This makes baptism a very helpful weapon in the battle before us.

Water baptism is a significant part of the grace picture.  It is not all of the grace picture.  Baptism does not automatically save as if the water and word do magic.  Baptism does not throw out the rule of justification by faith or the electing decree of God.  Yet it is a significant memorial stone and in the case of one who is or will become a believer, it is a powerful aid in the fight against sin.

            In baptism we are reminded of the rest of the details of the full picture of grace.  We remember the obedience of Christ, His death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension to the seat of heavenly power.  He is the one who gave the command to baptize, and together with the Father sent forth the Holy Spirit, effectually calling us to life, and granting us the gifts of faith and repentance.  Without the true work of God in our lives baptism does not speak for us, it speaks against us.  It says, “Here is one who had all the advantages of hearing the Word, but he hardened his heart, and rejected the message.”  With the true work of God, our baptism is a powerful blessing that assures us that while we were powerless sinners, Christ died for us.  We remember again that we have been united with Him in His death. We “were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

APPLICATION:

If you are sitting here today as one who has not yet crossed over the great divide between unbelief and true life, the call comes from God and it goes out far and wide to every creature, “Repent, believe and be baptized.”  If you have been baptized, but have somehow drifted into skepticism, and don’t know how to come back to a life of faith, humble yourself before God and turn to Him again.  “A bruised reed, He will not break.”

All of you who have been baptized, remember the fact of your baptism and fight the good fight of faith today in the strength of that holy ordinance, turning away from all known sin.  Make the best use of your baptism (see WLC #167).  Think about the nature of it as a simple but powerful gift from God.  Christ did not institute it for you to continue in sin as if you were headed to eternal death, but that you would be marked for life.  Think of what a privilege it is to be baptized into His death, and the death of death that comes from truly being united to Him.  Be humbled by your sin and by the ways your thoughts, words, and actions have often been inconsistent with the picture of grace in that holy washing.  Walk in the power of it as you remember that you have been promised to the Lord.  Grow in assurance of the pardon you have received for your sins.  Draw strength from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as one who has been solemnly united to Him in the eyes of the church, and walk in brotherly love with all His people.  In short, consider well your baptism, and live in the strength of it, knowing that a life of continuing in sin does not fit with the picture of grace that God has granted to you in this holy sacrament.