Pauls Letter to the Romans Ch.6 Session 11

                                                                                                                                                                              Pg.1
                                                                     Opening Prayer                      
Dear God, You have offered to a sinful world by Your sufficient Grace, our Salvation, and that by  the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son our Lord Jesus. Your Son paid the price for our sin, with his life, and as believers we too have died to sin, and raised to new life with Christ, Thank you God for our salvation, made real in this life by His resurrection.  Bless us now with understanding as we study more about Jesus from Your word. We pray this in the name of Your Son our Lord Jesus, AMEN                                            
                    Romans 6: 1-14…  The believer is dead to sin, alive in Christ.
Rom 6:1  What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2  By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3  Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7  because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 8  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13  Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14  For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

                                              Discussion
In these verses Paul tells us that in every believer, having now been justified before God, sin no longer rules. We have been relieved of the power of sin over our lives. (1 John 5:1-4) Because of our faith in what Jesus Christ has done in our lives, we are made new, we are dead to sin. The Grace of God abounds because of the sin of man. Thus God’s Grace has made forgiveness a continuous blessing for those who have been justified. And from the knowledge that has been given to us through the study of God’s word, we know that in death, we have been set free from sin. Therefore as Christians we have been Baptized into Christ’s death, we know that we can be associated with sin no longer. We are no longer slaves to sin. and therefore sin is no longer an obstacle to our salvation, (Titus 2:11-14). We have become alive to God by the Grace of God.  We now have as representative of our sinful self, Christ’s Righteousness. Our old self has been redefined. We are now crucified to sin and raised anew to a justification before God by the act of one, who before we believed was not, but who now is, our righteousness… Jesus Christ.

Q.1  What do you feel it means to be baptized into His death?
Q.2  What does Paul mean in verse 6 by  our "old self' being "crucified" with Christ?
Q.3  What is your opinion of the phrase, "dead to sin, alive to God."
Q.4  How do these Scriptures relate as to what you have believed about sin.




                                                                                                                                                                Pg.2
                                     Romans 6:15- 23…   Slaves to righteousness
 6:15  What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16  Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17  But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19  I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20  When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul clearly teaches that we can obey God only if we are under grace. Contrary to the Judaism of the Apostle’s day, God’s law—be it the Mosaic law or the law of God revealed in nature—does not solve the problem of sin.
Paul’s point in these verses is that to be human is to serve a master. We are mortally bound to an owner, and that owner is either sin and death or God Himself. God has allowed sin to reign  over those who are in Adam, those who reject Christ. And as we discussed last week, it is our choice, we will serve God or we will serve sin, (Galatians 4:8–9).  True freedom from sin is not liberation to serve ourselves but liberation to serve God. In Christ, we belong to God And through Christ, God’s Grace grants us freedom  from sin, and we cannot help but pursue sanctification and its end, eternal life.
But we must be careful, for we are never to see ourselves as meriting eternal life because of our sanctification. Eternal death is earned as a wage we deserve and will surely receive for our sin, if we continue to follow the path Satan has paved for us. But eternal life is a gift. Growth in holiness inevitably follows our justification, but this growth is not the basis upon which the Lord grants us eternal life. Obedience to God’s law is the consequence of our redemption, but this redemption is secured by grace alone, (Ephesians 2:8-10) God is the owner and sole proprietor of our destiny, We make the choice, death through sin, the choice of Adam, or life through Christ, The choice of the justified.  Choose wisely, the choice is for eternity.

Q.1 Can you recall a time when any act you might have committed or considered would be called disobedient? What was the result of the matter?
Q.2 What does the phrase "obedient slave " mean to you?
Q.3 What does the phrase “slave to righteousness”, mean to you?
Q.4 Paul tells us that we cannot earn salvation, but isn’t our choice to believe in Christ’s finished work earning our salvation? How is it not earning our salvation?
Q.5 What does obedience to God’s law mean to you? Aren’t there too many laws already?
Q.6 In some descriptions, the way of sin has been stated as wide and easy, and in other descriptions it has been called a slippery slope. Can we explain the reason for the difference?
Q.7 What does The Doctrine Of Salvation, stated in Romans 6: vs 23, mean to you?

                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                       Pg.3
                                                         Scripture references
1 John 5:1-4 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2  This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3  In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4  for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith

Titus 2:11-14  For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12  It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13  while we wait for the blessed hope--the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14  who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Galatians 4:8–9 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles

Ephesians 2:8-10  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9  not by works, so that no one can boast. 10  For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.


Closing Prayer
Father God It is through Your Son our Lord Jesus Christ that You have given us our life eternal. You have accomplished what we over a lifetime cannot do. You have absolved us of our sins. Both now and forevermore we remain Christ’s righteousness. And for that we are eternally grateful. We pray now for those of our loved ones who need your strength and comfort. __________  We pray that You would give these mentioned, and those who remain in our thoughts and prayers  your strength and comfort to bear the burden they now are going through. Heal them and bring them closer to you is our prayer. In Jesus Name we pray AMEN

















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                                                          Meditation

In justification by faith, we have God’s legal declaration that we are righteous in His sight by the finished work of Christ which establishes our heavenly citizenship and guarantees eternal life. We are granted peace with God and are secure in salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, and we are confident that the Lord will preserve His justified people forever.
In justification, we look only to what Jesus has done in our behalf. However, justification is not the entirety of our salvation, which also includes the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is right with God that those who have been justified begin to serve God truly, but this service is never the basis for our right standing with our Creator.
Sanctification, occurs when we first trust Christ, It is then when we are set apart as holy unto Christ once and for all. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. You have died to sin, you have been set free from sin and made holy,  God did not leave us to ourselves to create a legal status of righteousness before Him, and He does not call us to make ourselves holy, The Holy Spirit works in our behalf as our helper in our effort to live a righteous life. We are to work out our  salvation in fear and trembling, but it is God who works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure.
In our sanctification, God sets us apart as holy, then He commands us to be holy and grants us the power and inclination to strive for holiness.  Sin’s power has been broken, and its final destruction is assured, but sin does not give up its hold on us easily. Until our glorification, sin will ever attempt to reestablish its rule over us and make us obey its passions once more (Rom. 6:12). Of course, given the perfection of the work of Christ, it is not possible that sin will ever fully and finally succeed. But if we are not very discerning, sin can regain its hold over us. Thus, we must do all that we know how, to keep sin as far from our life as we possibly can.
We accomplish this by not presenting ourselves to sin as vessels of unrighteousness but to God as vessels of righteousness. As Christians, our call is not to allow any thought word or deed to become subject to what sin would have us do. Instead, we must continually give all things over to God, putting them in His service for His glory. No matter who we are or what we are doing, if we seek to subject ourselves to God’s rule, we can find victory over sin.
Because He has made us holy, we are to become holy by presenting ourselves unto the Lord for righteousness’ sake, relying on the means of grace such as Bible study and preaching, the sacraments, and prayer to draw on the strength we need to obey Him even when things get tough. We will not be perfect, but we will grow in conformity to Christ. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1Corinthians 10:31).  AMEN