The Facts and Acts

Most Christians are frustrated, discouraged, and defeated because they do not know and apply the fantastic truths taught in Romans 6. If you will learn these truths and apply them, you will feel victorious in your Christian walk.

I. Three Phases of Your Salvation

1. Justification

Justification is being free from the penalty of sin.

Justification means how to be accepted by God, how to have a right relationship to God. Justification is not by doing good works, going to church, having religion, keeping the law. Justification comes by faith in Jesus. As a result we are completely forgiven. That means we're not going to have to pay for our sins. We are freed from the penalty of sin. Justification takes care of the fact that you're going to make it to heaven and not go to hell.

2. Sanctification

Sanctification being set free from the power of sin.

You want to do what's right but just can't make yourself do it. It's a struggle. Even though you knew what you were doing was wrong but you still did it anyway and you didn't feel like you could change to do what was right.

Sanctification is the key to overcoming that problem. How do I break the power of sin in my life?

3. Glorification: being set free from the presence of sin.

One day we're going to be in heaven. There will be no sin there. As a result there's no sorrow, no tears, no problems, no worries. We'll be set free from the presence of sin. It won't even be around. We won't be bothered by it any more.

As we get into this passage, Section 3, on Sanctification all of us are going to be able to identify. He talks about the struggles of the Christians -- struggles with ourselves, with sin, with Satan. He actually shows us how to overcome the power of temptation in our lives. How do you handle the struggles in your life? When your old sin nature keeps popping up at inappropriate times in your Christian life? How do you deal with that?

Our sin nature is basically a desire to live for ourselves. The old sin nature comes from Adam, the father of the human race. It's been passed down. Because you're human you get part of the human nature, the nature to be your own god, your own boss. How do I break the power of my old nature? You can't.

You can't break the power of your old sin nature on your own. Otherwise you wouldn't need Jesus if you could. The fact is, Jesus Christ has already broken it and we're going to see how we can appropriate that into our lives.

The truths we're going to talk about tonight are very, very important. Yet, most Christians don't understand what we're going to talk about. The majority of Christians are defeated, frustrated, discouraged and have no power in their life. They don't understand what we're going to talk about. They're ignorant of it. Have you ever heard anybody say, "I can't be a consistent Christian." They don't understand Romans 6.

Paul says that in order for you to break the power of sin in your life, the temptation to do what's wrong, you have to know some things and you have to do some things. The secret of victory over sin in your life is knowing three facts and doing three acts. That's why I'm calling this "The Facts and the Acts of the Christian Life.

The difference is the difference between positional truth and experiential truth. Positional truth is different from what I often experience. Can something be true without your ever having experienced it? Sure. Can something be true even though you've never felt it? Sure. Can something be true even though you don't understand it? Yes. Can something be true even though you may not believe it? Sure.

There are some things God says in the Bible about you that from a circumstantial viewpoint you say, "That does not make sense!" But they're true whether you believe them or not or whether you feel it or not. For instance: The Bible says that once you're saved your sins are completely forgiven. Yet many Christians still feel guilty. They positionally are forgiven but experientially they still feel guilty. God says that in Christ you are covered with His righteousness and you are seen perfect before God. But do you feel perfect? No.

Positional Truth: What God says about my Christian Life.

Experiential Truth: When I begin to live the way God sees me.

In the 1860's President Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves. The minute he wrote it, as President, every slave in the United States was legally set free. Did the slaves experience it? Not at all. It wasn't until the end of the war that they were actually given their freedom. Positionally they were free from their master, but experientially they still were slaves. Even many years later they did not experience that.

If God says some neat things about me, how can I experience in my life what God says is true? If God says I'm free from, dead to, sin how do I experience that? How do I convert something God says about me into my practical life so I can enjoy it?

How can I experience in my life what God says is true?

1. I must know it.

I must know what God has said. How can you act on something if you don't even know what He said about it. I've got to know it.

2. I must believe it.

3. I must act on it.

Key Words: know; count; offer.

II. The Facts of the Christian Life (Romans 6:1-10)

Romans 6:1–10 NLT

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.

Paul begins this section with a question...

Romans 6:1 NLT

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

He's talking about Christians -- all Christians, Paul included. Should we go on sinning? He's talking about continuous deliberate sin. Why does he bring this question up? Because some people believe that where sin increases, Grace increases more. Paul answers the question in v 2

Romans 6:2 NLT

2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

We don’t continue to sin because we died to sin. If you are a genuine Christian, your lifestyle changes. Paul is talking about deliberately continuing to sin. We all will sin from time to time, but our lifestyle should begin to change. If someone says I am a Christian, but there is no change in their life, they are fooling themselves.

1 John 3:9 NLT

9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

He is not saying you will never sin, but that your life will not be defined by your sin. You will not practice sin or live a lifestyle of sin. It’s impossible to be a Christian and not feel conviction from the HS about our sin.

How do we break the power of sin in our lives? 3 Facts

1. When I became a Believer, I was placed “IN” Christ.

Phrase “in Christ” is used about 120 times in the NT.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Because I am in Christ then I was crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ. God is so concerned that you get this truth that He gives us an illustration that will show this point.

Romans 6:3–5 NLT

3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

Baptism illustrates this truth. We were buried with Christ, crucified with Christ, buried with Him and resurrected with Him. Baptism represents a burial and resurrection. Whenever you see a baptism, think of it as a funeral. It's saying, "I died with Christ." When we take the person and put them under the water it shows they're dying to an old way of life, dying with Christ. When we bring them up they're being resurrected with Christ. This is why we practice emersion in this church because it symbolizes it.

Colossians 2:12 NLT

12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

Baptism is a burial. Every time you see a baptism think of this first truth. I was placed in Christ and I was buried with Christ. Baptism states: I died with Christ.

What did Christ die for? Our sins. And we died in Him for sin. Paul is saying that all of us, if you're a Christian, you're in Christ, Christ died on the cross and you were in Christ when He died on the cross. That's a positional truth.

We'll come back and explain how this applies to your life

2. When Christ died my old nature was crucified with Him.

Romans 6:6–7 NLT

6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

Can you tempt a dead man? If you are dead in Christ then the temptation cannot have its affect in your life.

When Christ died, my old nature was crucified with Jesus.

Ephesians 4:22 NLT

22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Colossians 3:8–9 NLT

8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.

We get rid of our old selves. our habits, thoughts and actions...

Galatians 2:20 NLT

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I am in Christ and I died with Christ.

He says that when we were crucified the power of sin was rendered powerless. You do not have to sin any more. You can choose not to sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying you can be perfect. I am saying that you can choose not to sin.

There are times in your life that you said, "I can't help myself. I just can't stop." There were times in your life when you were a victim to sin. Before you became a Christian you had no power to stop, no power to change. You'd try to start new habits, and you'd fall off of them. Because you didn't have any power. Sin had a power over you. But now that power has been rendered powerless and you have been freed from the power.

Why are so many Christians defeated by sinful habits? Because they're looking at the wrong thing. Instead of looking at the circumstance they ought to look at the cross where we are set free

3. Christ Resurrection guarantees our ultimate victory.

Romans 6:8–10 NLT

8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.

Even death has been defeated. That's the worst enemy. Hebrews 2 says that people are in fear of death and Christ has defeated that enemy too.

Those are the truths, the facts. What good does all of this knowledge do for me? It doesn't do you any good unless you act on them. You've got to know it, you've got to believe it, and then you've got to act on it.

III. The Acts of the Christian Life (Romans 6:11-14)

There are three things you must do with your knowledge, knowing that I died with Christ. When I died, my old sin nature died but that doesn't mean it was destroyed. We still have a sin nature. But it is rendered powerless. That means you now have a choice, it doesn't control you. You can now choose to do what's right. A Christian can never say, "The devil made me do it!" He can't blame the devil, Adam, anybody. If you sin it's because you choose to sin.

Romans 6:11–14 NLT

11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. 12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

1. Reckon - Believe that God’s Word is true.

Romans 6:11 NLT

11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

Reckon is a business term. Reckon or count mean compute, calculate, consider, count on it, don't doubt it, believe it. We're not talking about a matter of pretending. We're not pretending that sin doesn't have any effect on us. Paul is saying that sin does not have to have any affect on you. You start acting the way God says. But you don't feel it so... What are you going to trust?

Your feelings or God's word? God says that the way you take something that's true and put it into your life is you first reckon it, you count on it. It's not a matter of pretending that when you died with Christ 2000 years ago that sin can't make you sin. It's not pretending but believing what God has said in this verse. We can make our own decisions. We can choose not to sin. We do have a new strength. Reckon it. Count on it. Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Have you ever heard anyone say, "You've got to crucify yourself" or "You've got to die to self." The only problem is you cannot crucify yourself. You can't crawl up on the cross and nail your hands to the cross. You cannot crucify yourself. Nowhere in the Bible are you told that you have to crucify your old nature. The Bible says it has already been done. It's something that happened a long time ago. Past tense. Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ" not "I am crucifying myself with Christ."

You just agree with God, "I don't know how it all works out. I don't understand it all. But I believe that because I am in You, that somehow I've died to that tendency to sin."

Paul takes three chapters to spell this out. It gets a little easier the more you understand it. This is the foundation tonight for all the practical stuff we're going to get into. Reckon -- believe what God says is true.

2. Resist - Don’t let Sin go unchallenged in your life.

Romans 6:12–13 NLT

12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

Review: v. 12 the first word is "therefore". What is it there for? Paul is saying we are coming to a conclusion. The bottom line: If I really believe (a) I am in Christ; (b) My old sin nature was crucified on the cross; (c) I no longer have to give in to sin. I can choose. I have a new power in my life to quit giving in to temptation. Then I realize I do have the power to resist temptation. Paul is saying, Resist it. No longer let it go unchallenged in your life.

A Christian has no business saying, "I can't help it." Because you can help it, according to God. The Bible says that Jesus Christ has broken that power and whereas before you became a believer you didn't have the power to change. But now that you are a believer you have a new power. And you believe it and you resist what God says to resist. Resist that sin! Reject the idea that you can't control your own desires. You can control your own desires.

Galatians 5:16 NLT

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Some people think that the more they become a Christian, the less they will be tempted. The stronger Christian you become, the more the devil is going to tempt you! I think Billy Graham and those kind of guys get temptations that none of us have to deal with! Sometimes I doubt that the devil even knows my name; I don't think I'm that big of a threat. I think the devil works on the big guns of Christianity. He just puts some little private demon on you or me. The devil probably doesn't even know who I am. But he knew who Paul was and he tempted him. And he knew who Jesus was.

People get psyched out by temptation. You've been a Christian for twenty years and one day in your prayer time the devil puts a thought in your mind that is the most ugly thought you've ever thought in the whole world. "Where did that come from?" It freaks you out! Maybe I'm not even a Christian, you think! Have you ever been intimidated by temptation?

Our mind plays all kinds of tricks on us. I imagine some of you mothers some days when your kids are all tense and you might think, "What if I kill one of my kids..." and you immediately think "No, I shouldn't have a thought like this!" God doesn't condemn you for a thought that comes into your mind. The devil can put thoughts into your mind. What makes you guilty is when you act on the thought! When you entertain it! Some of you men have been down at the beach... some cutie comes walking by in a next-to-nothing bikini. You can have several different thoughts. One thought might be, "That is a woman!" That's not even a temptation. Some people think that if they have a sexual desire that's a temptation. In the first place, you ought to thank God you recognize that's a woman. In today's society you ought to thank God you attracted to a woman! That means you're normal. The devil will give another kind of temptation: undress her or something else. Does that mean you have just sinned because that thought went through your mind? Not at all. What is a sin is when you begin to meditate on it, think about it, roll it over and over in your mind! Then you act on it.

This passage teaches, as a Christian, you do not have to be intimidated by your old nature, or the devil, or self, or anything any more. I died with Christ. That means when Jesus took the penalty for the sin, He took the penalty for all the sin: not only the sins I did yesterday, but the ones I do in the weeks to come. All of my sins have been paid for. Now do you see why it makes sense (in one sense) for someone to say, "If all my sins are paid for, I'll just go ahead and do whatever I want to." Do you understand why the first question was even brought up?

Have you heard anyone say, "I know it's wrong but I know God will forgive me"? That's what he's talking about in this passage. We don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. We have those desires. We just don't fulfill them

3. Render - Offer Yourselves.

Romans 6:13–14 NLT

13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

These three things I've just shared with you are the key to overcoming temptation. We'll come back and cover this in more detail as we go on. We've got to learn to do these three things.

The only problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar. On Sunday we agree with God that we've blow it this week, ask forgiveness. Then we want to realize that we don't have to give into sin because He's broken the power on the cross. We believe He's broken the power of sin in our old nature and we don't have to give in to it any more. We resist the devil and his temptation because we know we do have a right to choose and we don't have to be manipulated by sin any more. We don't have to be intimidated. Then we render, we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice on Sunday.... And then on Monday we crawl off the altar. On Sunday we sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and on Monday we go AWOL. It is a continual thing but it is first a once for all present. Present yourself to God. Make a present. "God, here is my mind, here is my tongue, here are my hands, here is my body. I give it all to you." That's the key to victory in the Christian life. It's the starting point. That's why it's here at the beginning of this section.

This doesn't mean you're not going to stumble, fall. You will. Look at v. 14 "For sin shall not be your master because you are not under the Law but under grace." We have looked at the Law and we've seen how the Law brings death. But grace brings life. The reason we can have victory is because God says we are under grace.

Titus 2:11–12 NLT

11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God,

The grace of God teaches us to say "no". You now have within your power, the power to say "No!" to sin. You don't have to keep on in sin. Sin does not have to dominate your life anymore. Sin is like gravity and it's constantly pulling you down trying to make you fall. But grace is like God giving you wings. You can sore in the air in spite of gravity. In spite of the fact that you have an old sin nature. You do, but on the cross it was rendered powerless. It cannot manipulate you any more. The next time a voice within you comes and says, "Go ahead and sin! It's no big deal! God will forgive you!" Think of Romans 6:1 "Shall we continue to deliberately sin so that grace will abound more. God forbid!" God says you are dead to sin. That's positional truth. Experiential truth -- start acting like it. How do you act like it? Those three words: Reckon -- God, I believe what you say is true. My old sin nature died on the cross. Resist -- I'm not going to just give up and let the devil intimidate me and let it go unchallenged. I don't have to do that any more. I may have done it for thirty years but I don't have to do it any more. Render -- Give yourself as a present to God.

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