Romans 6:12-14
New Life in Christ
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2Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
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Intro
√ Chapter 6 – the work of sanctification
Sanctification is the life-long process by which God separates us from our sin.
We understand that the believer does daily conflict with the Flesh (the old nature) which would keep us from sanctification.
In chapter 6 Paul gives us practical advise as to how we can work with God in the sanctification process.
His advise deals with 3 attitudes of the mind along with specific action by which the believer can cooperate with God as He transforms our lives.
Ex. Physical therapy
If you break your leg – a doctor can fix it. However, you won’t walk or run the way you did without help from a physical therapist.
But, the physical therapist can only help you if you work with him/her. If you resist the work of the therapist you’ll find that you will always walk with a limp – a constant reminder of the “old injury”.
To walk in a new way – without that nagging reminder – you have to work with the therapist.
Ap. Salvation is a work of God – we can’t do anything to earn forgiveness of sin or make ourselves righteous.
However, once saved by faith, God begins the work of sanctification in our life to make us more like Christ.
You can chose to work with Him and walk in newness of life…
…or you can resist His work and find yourself always carrying around the reminder that the old man is still got control of your life.
√ What’s our spiritual therapist tell us to do?
Victory over the old nature with all its sinful behavior starts with a new attitude in life.
Vs. 1-4 Recognize your new life in Christ
Vs. 5-11 Reckon the old man dead
Vs. 12-14 Yield you body and mind to God’s will
Vs. 15-23 Serve God with all your strength
We looked at step 1 and 2 last Sunday, let’s look at steps 3 and 4 this morning.
Yield yourself to God’s will (vs. 12-14)
Rom. 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Rom. 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Rom. 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
√ “Yield” – used 5 times in this section
Yield =
“To place at one’s disposal, to present, to offer as a sacrifice”
Later in Romans 12:1 Paul tells us that Christian’s should…
“ present your bodies a living sacrifice”
Contrasted with the Old Testament in which the sacrifices were dead!
The Lord may ask some of us to die for Him, but He asks all of us to live for Him!
How do we live for Him? By yielding our lives to Him.
That is, you make yourself available to do God’s will instead of making yourself available to sin.
√ How do we yield to God?
It is an act of our will – a choice that we make based upon the knowledge of what Jesus has done for us.
Remember last week we said that you must first…
Vs. 1-4 Recognize your new life in Christ
Vs. 5-11 Reckon the old man dead
We believe these (recognize and reckon) by faith – we can’t see that these things are true by observation, rather, we believe by faith.
Then believeing these to be true – the promises of God – we then daily yeild – show up for – present ourselves to – God to do His will!
Ex. The ex-con who receives training in prision so that he will have a new skill when he leaves prison. However, when he’s released he has a choice to make…
To show up for work with his new skill
To show up at his old hood and go back to the old life
Ap. Remember – the battle for your behavior is fought between the flesh (the old nature) and the spirit (the new nature) in the battlefield of the mind.
The point is that victory over sin begins with a choice – that is we make up our mind to follow a new leader.
The original language makes this clear…
“Do not constantly allow sin to reign in your mortal body so that you are constantly obeying its lusts. Neither constantly yield your members of your body as weapons (or tools) of unrighteousness to sin;…
…but once and for all yield yourselves to God.”
Did you notice that Paul’s instructions place the key to victory in the hand of the beliver? That is, Jesus doesn’t wave a magic wand over you and make you chose Him over sin…
…rather, the truth is that we will experience victory over the sin that once ruled our lives when we finally acknowledge that Jesus is our Lord of our life.
Many people like the idea of Jesus as Savior, but they still want to run their own life.
The truth is that until a person is willing to let Jesus have His rightful place as Master and Lord or our life we will find ourselves powerless to say “no” to temptation and sin.
Listen – you can be saved and not sanctified – separated from the power of sin!
Really!? Yes, look at who it that Paul is writing these instructions to – CHRISTIANS!
Ap. Look at your life this morning – you know you’re a Christian because you gave your life to Christ – you’ve seen the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life…
…and yet, I’ll bet that every Christian here this morning is dealing with some area of sin in their life!
Do you want to be free of that sin?
…but once and for all yield yourselves to God.”
There must be ii the believer’s life that final and complete surrender of the body to the Lord Jesus.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any further steps of surrender, because there will be.
The longer we walk with the Lord – the deeper the fellowship must become – each step being accompanied by surrender of some portion of our life to Him.
But, there can be no real victory over sin without that first step of surrender – yielding body to the Lord.
√ Why does the Lord want our body anyway?
Two reasons come to mind…
1) The believers body is God’s temple!
1Cor. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
1Cor. 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
God’s desire is to use your body to bring Him glory through the testimony of your life.
2) The believers body is God’s tool and weapon
Rom. 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Instruments = “hopla” meaning tool, or weapon
God wants to use your body as a tool to build His kingdom, and as a weapon to destroy the kingdom of the Devil!
√ Your life, your gifts and talents, are like a hammer – it can be used for good or evil
Ex. Build a house, or kill someone.
Ap. Are you building God’s Kingdom, or are you tearing down the work of God?
√ How is it possible to yield to God?
Rom. 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Paul’s answer – because in God’s Grace we find the power to perform what we’ve chosen to do in our mind.
Ex. My own experience is that I came to a point in my life where I was confronted with the fact that my willful disobedience to the Lord was holding me back from what God had called me to.
I became so sick of my sin that I finally surrendered it to God – found the power to resist temptation and sin – then the doors began to open to pursue His calling.
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