The Epistle to the Romans
Lesson 12
Special English Version

God’s Method for Victorious Living

Reading Assignment: Romans 6

Introduction
You now should know the meaning of JUSTIFICATION well. From Romans 3:21-5:11 Paul’s theme was justification through imputed righteousness unto all and upon all them that believe.

We have just studied Romans 5:12-21. In this passage Paul presents Christ as the federal head of a new creation, the source of our sanctification. Paul gives us several noteworthy contrasts between Adam and Christ.

Now a new theme is introduced. In Romans 6:1-8:17, Paul’s emphasis changes to “Righteousness Imparted for Sanctification.” In Romans 3:21-5:11, we learned how to become a Christian. Now we will learn how to live the Christian life.
In Romans 3-5, Paul has been talking about Christ’s death in connection with sin. In Romans 6, he talks about our sinful natures.

In Romans 3-5, Paul had in mind our deliverance from the guilt of sin by justification. In Romans 6, his emphasis is on our deliverance from the power of sin through sanctification.

Importance of this Lesson

• It is most important that we learn the difference between justification and sanctification.
• God never meant for us to be satisfied only with justification – saved from the guilt and condemnation of sin by grace through faith.
• God wants every believer to live a sanctified life, which means a life that is separated from sin and dedicated to God.
• Romans 6 shows us the method God uses to separate us from our old nature and provide us with a new one. This lesson will teach us how to live a sanctified life.

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The Lesson

I. A COMPARISON OF ROMANS 6, 7, AND 8

1. Romans 6 presents the method God provides for the believer to live a Spirit-filled life.
2. Romans 7 shows us the hindrances to living a Spirit-filled life that is separated from sin.
3. Romans 8 teaches us the process by which God makes us able to live a Spirit-filled life.

II. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION
(Learn these contrasts for your exam.)

1. Justification – What God did FOR us.
   Sanctification – How God works IN us.
2. Justification – God delivers us from the GUILT and PUNISHMENT of sin.
   Sanctification – God delivers us from the POWER of sin.
3. Justification – God declares us as righteous.
   Sanctification – God makes us righteous.
4. Justification –This is about the acts of sin we commit.
   Sanctification – This is about our sinful natures.

III. THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS IN ROMANS 6 ARE ABOUT TWO QUESTIONS

1. These two questions are:
   1. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1).
   2. “…shall we sin, because we are not under the law?” (Romans 6:15).
   • Remember, in Romans 6 Paul is NOT considering the distinctive parts of the Christian life. He does that in Romans 12-14. Here he describes the method, which makes us able us to live the Christian life!
2. The KEY to understanding Romans 6 is in learning the way Paul used the word “SIN.”
   1. Romans 6:1 refers back to the way Paul used the word “sin” in Romans 5:21 – “sin hath reigned.”
   2. This can only refer to our sinful natures. Paul uses the word “sin” this way continually in
      Romans 6.
   3. Every time you see the word SIN in Romans 6, it always means, “sin nature.”
3. The question in Romans 6:1 should therefore read, “Shall we continue to let our old sin nature control us so that God’s grace will be greater?”
   1. Who asked such a question? There were people in Paul’s day that wanted to take advantage of the grace of God. They said, “The more the sin, the greater the grace is! This means that by sinning they made the grace of God much greater (abound, Romans 6:1).
   2. Here we should refer back to Romans 3:8. In Romans 3:8 some people accused Paul of teaching this kind of false doctrine. They said he taught …Let us do evil that good may come….
   3. How does Paul answer this accusation? In both instances, Romans 3:6 and 6:2, he says, God forbid, or “away with such an idea.” Paul never taught that grace gave people permission to sin.
   • In Romans 6:2-6, Paul continues to answer this question. In this passage Paul teaches that we are completely one with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism is a picture of this oneness. In Christ we died and rose again and now have a whole new life to live.
4. The question in Romans 6:15 should read, “Since we are no longer under law but under grace, shall we allow our old sinful nature to show its ugly head by doing acts of sin?”
   1. Paul’s answer, again, is “God forbid.”
   2. You become the servant of the thing to which you give yourself, “…whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (Romans 6:16).

IV. THREE THINGS ABOUT SANCTIFICATION THAT MUST ALWAYS BE KEPT IN MIND
(Understand these three for your exam.)

1. It is POSTITIONAL – we are “in Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:2,30).
2. It is EXPERIENTIAL – it is by the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2) and through the power of the Word of God (John 17:17).
3. It is for the FUTURE – when we are presented to Christ “…a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle…” (Ephesians 5:26-27) and when “…we shall be like him…” when He comes in the Rapture
   (1 John 3:2).

• The basic idea of sanctification is to be “set apart” for God.
• The Bible NEVER presents sanctification to mean the destruction of our old nature. This lesson and many other verses teach us how we can live victoriously over our old natures.

V. SANCTIFICATION IN ROMANS 6 IS MADE POSSIBLE IN THREE WAYS

1. By our total union with Christ (Romans 6:1-10).
2. By our two-fold reckoning (Romans 6:11-13).
3. By our exchange of masters (Romans 6:13-23).

• In Romans 6 we have Christ, the basis of our sanctification.

VI. THREE KEY WORDS IN ROMANS 6, WHICH SHOW OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN THE WORK OF GOD WHEN HE SEPARATES US FOR HIMSELF (Know these key words and where they are found for your exam.)

1. KNOW, in Romans 6:3,6,9 – This is about our total union with Christ.
2. RECKON, in Romans 6:11 – This is about looking at ourselves in two ways.
   1. We are alive to God.
   2. We are dead to sin.
3. OBEY, in Romans 6:13,16,17,19 – This is about which “master” we should obey.

VII. FIRST, OUR TOTAL UNION WITH CHRIST (Romans 6:1-10)
The key word in this passage is KNOW, Romans 6:3,6,9. We are sanctified by our knowledge of certain facts. What are these facts?

1. We …were baptized into His death (Romans 6:3). Every believer is baptized (submerged, immersed) into Christ by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). Our baptism in water is a picture of our death, burial and resurrection with Christ (Romans 6:3-4).
2. Our old nature is crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6). Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). We are so perfectly one with Christ when Christ died, we died. We must “know this” and we must believe that take this privilege as a fact.
3. God raised Christ from the dead. Christ will never die again (Romans 6:9-10). Christ died for sin once, that is “…once for all…” (Hebrews 9:26, 10:10-12). We must know that He rose from the dead and will never die again. We must know that God raised us up with Christ and we know that we will never die spiritually (John 10:28, 11:26).

VIII. SECONDLY, SANCTIFICATION IS MADE POSSIBLE BY OUR TWO-FOLD RECKONING (Romans 6:11-13)

1. The second KEY word that shows our responsibility concerning God’s sanctifying work is RECKON.
2. What does “reckon” mean? We are not merely to suppose! We are to consider it as true and must depend on it. We are to consider that in God’s mind he already completed it.
   1. In other words, you must put into practice what you know, as revealed in Romans 6:3,6,9. Be a living dead man.
   2. Note: In Romans 12:1 where we are told we must be a “living sacrifice.” It is a two-fold consideration.
      1. We are to consider that our old nature died with Christ. Treat it as you would anything that is dead.
      2. We are to consider that we are “alive unto God” – we are alive to receive everything that God is and everything God has for us. He wants us to take all these things as our own possessions. He wants us to enjoy these possessions.

IX. THIRDLY, GOD MADE SANCTIFICATION POSSIBLE BY OUR EXCHANGE OF MASTERS (Romans 6:13-23)

• The KEY words here are YIELD (Romans 6:13,16,19) and OBEY (Romans 6:16,17).

1. YIELD – Romans 6:13. Surrender yourselves first – then the parts of your body! If God possesses you, He will also possess your body (hands, feet, tongue, eyes, and ears). We are to use them as instruments (actually, weapons) of righteousness.
   1. …yield yourselves unto God… (Romans 6:13). In the past we surrendered ourselves to sin. We obeyed sin. Sin ruled in our physical body (Romans 6:12). But now we have a new master – God Himself. We now surrender ourselves to Him.
   2. …to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are… (Romans 6:16). This is Paul’s answer to the question in Romans 6:15, shall we (commit acts of) sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? In John 8:34, Jesus said, “Whosoever committeth (practices) sin is the servant of sin.” Paul is saying you are the servant of that to which you surrender yourself to, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness (Romans 6:16).
   3. …yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness (Romans 6:19). Before we became believers we surrendered our bodies as servants to uncleanness and “to iniquity unto iniquity.” We went from one sin to another.
2. OBEY – Romans 6:16,17
   1. Romans 6:16 – We used to obey sin. Now we OBEY righteousness and we try to do what is right in the sight of a Holy God.
   2. Romans 6:17 – Before we believed we were the servants of sin. As believers, we “OBEYED from the heart” the doctrine (the truth concerning Christ) God delivered to us. Through teaching about Christ we became the servants of righteousness by faith.

X. Brief Commentary on Romans 6:20-23

1. Romans 6:20 – for when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from (that is separated from) righteousness (of God).
2. Romans 6:21 – We are now ashamed of the life we lived before we were saved. Now we realize that the fruit of that old sinful life without Christ was spiritual death. We had no purpose in life. We had no goal in life. Life was empty.
3. Romans 6:22 – But now, the sacrifice of Christ delivered us from the power of sin. The power of the Holy Spirit set us free from the power of sin because Christ died for us. As servants of God, we produce a different kind of fruit. We produce fruit that brings glory to God. Fruit that shows God’s holiness. The end of this kind of life is everlasting life.
4. Romans 6:23 – When you obey sin you become the servant of sin and sin will pay you – with death! There will be a “pay day some day” for every person who rejects Christ and surrenders himself to sin.
5. “The gift of God” is the opposite of wages. God never pays wages! All we are and have is by His grace. Our eternal life in and through Christ is the free gift of God’s amazing grace.

Examination

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