Freedom In The Gospel

Romans 6:1-11

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Romans 6:6-7  For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  On this past July 4, our nation celebrated its 246^th birthday.  We are most grateful and thankful to God our heavenly Father not only for preserving our land these many years, but also for His gracious protection for us as individuals.  We have a God who is the ONLY true God, a God who loves His people and blesses those who are obedient to His Word and will.  And so we give thanks to Him who alone is God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for all the blessings we as individuals and as a nation have received.  Freedom truly is a gift from God.

But national and personal freedoms are not the only things we as Christians receive from the hand of Almighty God.  We also – and most importantly – have freedom in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  For when sin comes knocking on the door of your life and demands that you give in to it, we have the freedom and strength in Christ and His forgiveness to say “no!”  Paul writes in Romans 6:1, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”  Paul taught and preached the Gospel of free grace.  Guilty sinners are saved freely, by grace through faith for Christ’s sake.  You cannot earn and you do not deserve the forgiveness of sins and eternal life Christ won for you.  You are like the beggar who has nothing to offer yet freely receives from the hand of another.

Paul boldly preached this Gospel of grace which caused his enemies to accused him of preaching a cheap Gospel.  They accused him of teaching that we should continue sinning because it makes the grace of God look even better.  But Paul responded by stating that for the Christian to keep on sinning openly and boldly is not only outrageous, but it also demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of the Gospel.  In the opening verse of our text Paul writes, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!”  The phrase, “By no means!” is too weak.  The Greek words are an exclamation of horror.  “Ma it never be!”

Paul cannot imagine such a thing as a person claiming to be a Christian and living a life of open rebellion against God and believing that in so doing, it makes God look better.  It is as if a person would say, “Look at me! I drink all the time, I eat way too much, I curse like a sailor, I blow off worship whenever I feel like it, I steal from my employer.  And you know what?  I don’t have to worry about all that, because God is great and gracious to save and forgive me!”

In response to such a ridiculous attitude, Paul shrieks, “May it never be!”  Indeed, Paul says it cannot be.  It is not possible for a person to claim to be in a faith relationship with Christ and yet continue to live in open and unrepented sin.  It makes no sense; it is impossible.  It is impossible because, as Paul says in v.2, “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”  You cannot continue in sin because the relationship you once had with sin has been changed.  Formerly sin was your master.  You had to obey it’s demands. 

Listen to Paul from Romans 6:16-17, 20: “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted…  When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.”

Paul says that apart from Christ you are slaves to sin and you must obey its commands; but this master/slave relationship has changed.  “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

We know that a slave is only obligated to his master as long as he is alive.  Once he dies, he is free from the master.  The master can shake his finger at the dead slave and make demands, but the slave no longer obeys.  Paul says that you died to sin, and for that reason you cannot keep on doing what sin demands.  Sin can shout at you, sin can plead with you, sin can dangle sweet temptations before your eyes, but your eyes are closed in death.  Christ makes you dead to sin.

I suppose that there are some who may be thinking, “Wow, Pastor is off the beaten path here.  I am very much alive.  I have a pulse.  I have blood pressure.”  Yes, you are very much physically alive; nevertheless there is a sense in which you are dead.  You died when you were baptized.  Paul says in vv. 3-4, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death.”

Folks, your baptism was your burial.  In baptism you were united with Christ; and since Christ died, you died with Him.  Your life is bound up with His.   Let me illustrate.  If I had died before my children were born, there is a sense in which they would have died with me.  They were in my body in a certain sense, and the death of my body would be their death.  Your baptism unites you to Christ’s body.  Christ died and you died with Him.  Your life is bound up with His.  Christ died to sin once and for all, said Paul, and so you also died to sin once and for all when you were united with Him through baptism into death.

This death which happened in baptism changes your relationship to sin.  Sin is no longer your master.  You are no longer under obligation to sin.  Listen to how Paul uses marriage to illustrate this truth in Romans 7.  “Do you not know, brothers that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?  For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.  So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.  But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.  So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.”

It is against the law – not to mention immoral – to marry a second spouse while you are still married your first one.  But if the first spouse dies, there is no legal obligation remaining, and you can marry again without penalty.  What we are talking about here is that Sin and the Law were your spiritual husband.  You were obligated to obey your husband, but now that you died through baptism in Christ, you are free to be married to another; and that other is none other than Christ.

You have a new master; He is the Lord Jesus.  But He is nothing like your old master.  He gives you forgiveness of sins instead of slavery to sin.  He gives you eternal life instead of eternal death.  Your new Master Jesus makes you truly a free person.  But you are not free to continue in sin.  You are free to serve Christ and to serve others because of Him.  This, dear friends, is true freedom, because this is what God has intended for you.  It is your purpose; it is your reason for existing.

But we are born slaves to sin.  We have been hideously and brutally enslaved.  We are less than God intended us to be.  Dare I say that sin has de-humanized us.  It’s very much like that scary sequence in the movie Pinocchio where he is carted off to an island where every kind of temptation is placed within his grasp.  And ss he gives in to sin, he is no longer a boy but turns into a donkey.

Sin does that.  It makes a donkey out of you; it makes a fool out of you.  But now that you are baptized, now that you died to sin, now that you are joined to Christ, you are beginning to be and do what you were created to be and do: to live a life of obedience to your Father in heaven.  And, as with machines, you work best when used for your intended purpose.

You will only know what it means to be human to the degree that you grasp this truth: that you have died to sin and you are now alive to Christ.  You will only know what it is to be truly human when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you die to sin.   Do not be mistaken, for sin will continue to make its demands on you.  Sin will continue to dangle sweet dainties before your eyes.  Sin will continue to beg and plead with you to do its bidding.

But you no longer have to obey sin’s commands.  When temptation comes – and it will come – you can say, “No!  I will not do what you say.  I do not have to do what you say.  I belong to another master, the Lord Jesus.  I cling to Him, and rely on His strength.”

In the Pinocchio story, the secret to his redemption is to let his conscience be his guide.  In the Christ story, the secret to freedom from sin is to let the truth of Scripture be your guide.  Scripture says that you died to sin when you were baptized into Christ Jesus.  You may not feel dead to sin, but feelings do not determine truth.  It is true that you are dead to sin because God’s Word says it is true.  And because it is true, you can count on it.

Listen again to Paul in Romans 6:11: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Count it so!  Count yourself dead to sin.  It is God’s truth. 

But do not stop there.  Count yourself alive in Christ.  He who once died for you is alive forevermore, and you are not only buried with him through baptism into death, but you are also raised with Him.  He is alive, and because He lives, you, by faith and trust in Christ and His atoning work for your salvation, live and will live for all eternity.

Come, now, and receive from your Lord and Savior His life, His forgiveness, and His strength through and by His body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Come and be blessed by and through His gift of Himself, so that you may be kept in the one true faith – kept until the day when He calls you Home to be with Him in all eternity.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.