Welcome
Prayer
Song
Silence
Romans 6.14-23
May 9th 2021
So, we left off last week covering Romans 6:13 and then we introduced the Fourth Dimension Christian model to help gather all of Paul’s directives of dying to self and living with Christ, of putting off the former man and putting on the New and not yielding to the same but yielding to the things of the Spirit.
In all of these things Paul has described growth of the natural woman into a mature Son or Daughter of God.
Let’s read, beginning at verse 14 out to the end of the chapter as Paul now writes:
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Alright back to verse 14 as Paul now adds:
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
And it is here where Paul reminds us of another key (or tool) that will aid us in operating by our new identity – “dying to the Law.” It is such an important point that the next chapter is all about it. And this is, in fact, Paul stepping into the concept.
Under the banner of grace, with grace truly understood, grace truly appreciated, and grace fully embraced, believers are then FREE to love.
This freedom from grace liberates us from the bondage of sin, which is a by-product of living under the law, and being free from the onus and anger and guilt of sin, we are mad free to love as He loved.
Unconditionally.
Radically.
Consistently.
This is why Paul wrote,
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: (WHY? He says, “for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
Praise God, eh?
Show me a man who knows he has been forgiven of all sin past, present, and future by the shed blood of Christ, therefore he would be a man who accepts that fact that the Law was nailed to His cross and he is therefore dead to it, and I will show you a man who gratefully and graciously and humbly forgives others of all their sins – past, present, and future – and as a direct result of this is therefore FREE.
Show me a woman who is not forced to obey, commanded to work, manipulated to perform, but is forever FREE to choose to love according to (and in response to) the love she knows Jesus has shown her, and I will show you someone NOT under the dominion of sinful taskmasters including the Law.
So, this is yet another reminder of Paul – “the Law gives sin life.” Remove the taskmaster called the Law and you remove sin.
Paul goes on (verse 15) bringing out a point that he sort-of started with at the beginning of the chapter and, in reference to dying to the law, and as a means to sort of head the query off at the pass, he says:
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
We covered this point extensively four or five weeks ago so I will not belabor it now. We have also explained in detail how the Law serves to make us all sinners so I won’t repeat the ideas around that either.
The bottom line is, “Christians are not under the law, which forbids all sin (and therefore make us servants to the Law because we are guilty), but are under grace, which has pardoned all sin (which then makes us servants to Christ the Law keeper). (Let me REPEAT that )
And this causes Paul to add (at verse 16)
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
See, prior to being freed by Christ, Paul is pointing out that we were all “slaves or servants of sin.”
And he mentions a principle that exists between masters and slaves (or servants).
And what he says is, “Whomever we yield to follow,(whomever we give ourselves over to follow) who we agree to obey, we become that things/persons servant.”
Now notice the language used here because Paul is not talking about a thing here, but a being when he says:
16 Know ye not, that “to whom” ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
The way this is written, in the context of talking about living to sin or holiness, Paul has essentially named two masters that the believer then could serve:
God or Satan.
Another way to say this is Spirit or flesh.
And as radical as this sounds, another way to say it is God or Satan. See, Satan was called the accuser of the brethren because of the Law.
He was like the Grand Prosecutor and had the Law on His side to make his accusations.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
So Paul is telling them that they could serve (and therefore be the servant of Satan/Flesh/Law) through their Old or former Man or woman, which equated to them doing “sinful works with our members that lead to death,” or they could be “servants of God, through our New Man, which always equates to being obedient to Him by and through works of love.”
To bring this all under one roof, listen to Romans 7:6 where Paul will say:
“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
The writer of Hebrews (9:14) after talking about sacrificed animals and their shed blood asks:
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience “from dead works” to serve the living God?”
In 2nd Peter 2:19 the Apostle says:
“or of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”
And Jesus said it plainly in John 8:34:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”
Now listen carefully. Paul liberates every Christian here. He will brings us all the way back to our identity in Christ, points to the New Man, when he reminds us, saying in verse 17:
17 But God be thanked, that ye “were” the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
But GOD be thanked! Paul says, “Thanked for what?
That we were the servants of sin but we have “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered to us!”
What form of doctrine? The Gospel. That Christ died, was buried and then raised – applied to us! We have obeyed the Gospel from the heart! How? We have been buried with Him AND now walk in the newness of life!
Paul thanks God – not us. Not a system. Not a philosophy or a twelve-step program, but “God be thanked for He has provided the means by which all of these multi-faceted elements of our existence can be perfectly met . . . and fixed. By and through the Gospel of His dear Son (which is another way to say the life death and resurrection of His dear Son).
Note that Paul says
But God be thanked, “that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed “from the heart” that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
This is identity. We are no longer that woman or man. We were the servants of sin, but we have a new master, a new King who reigns on the throne, and He will always and forever be there to bring us out from under the bondage of the former life and into the light!
Paul makes it clear that we were this but that were not anymore. Why?
Because we adhered perfectly to all that our pastor and church demanded of us?
Not at all.
Paul says why. Because
we have obeyed “from the heart” that form of doctrine which was delivered us.”
We have chosen to “obey from the heart the doctrine (the Gospel) that was delivered to us.”
We obeyed (believed) from the Heart!
We said “Lord, Lord,” from the heart!
And Paul reminds each and every one of us that because of this, we are not longer servants of Sin, we are no longer under the Law, but we have been liberated and unencumbered and made holy servants of Christ. And so he adds a natural outcome of all of this at verse 18
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
In these passages Paul returns to the idea of our New Identity in Christ.
“We WERE servants of sin . . . SIN (or Satan and/or the flesh/the Law WAS our master) but . . . we have obeyed from the heart (or believed, had faith, from the core of our being), the Gospel, which directly tells us that “there is another Master on whom we believe and rely, “Jesus Christ.”
And (verse 18 says) “Being then made free from sin” we became servants of righteousness.
The former boss – the flesh, operating under the Law which made us sinners – is dead. And being made FREE FROM SIN we have a new living master and became the servants of righteousness (Him).
We serve Him. He is our master.
In Exodus 21:2-5 there is an interesting set of instructions relative to slaves in that day that has application to believers now. There we read:
2 It says If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.
5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
Here, if the servant, from the heart, freely chooses to remain a slave to the master,
God tells the Master to bore through the earlobe with an aul which was a act and picture of him forever having a ear urgently attentive and listening to the instructions of that Master.
Note that the decision was that of the slave not the master.
So, it is with the Christian toward Christ, who, freed us from the bondage of sin and having a mind to hearken to it, hears a new master and His call. But listen, “we choose” to make Him our King.
We choose to hearken to His commands OR we choose to ignore them and continue to hearken to the commands of our former selves. And so the question becomes
Who (or what) are you a slave to? Who is your master?
Yeshua is ever presently there to assist us if we choose him from the heart to reign over us rather than the flesh. And this is what Paul is trying to convey.
“Don’t yield to the calls of the flesh any more but yield yourselves to Him.” Abide in the right dimension.
This is why he uses the term “yield” and “yielding” rather than more forceful words and phrases like “you MUST obey Him” etc.
We have from the heart voluntarily believed and we have from the heart placed ourselves under the dominion of Him who is righteous; we yielded ourselves to it; and are therefore bound to be holy because He is holy.
I cannot conjure up the right combination of words and phrases to adequately explain the importance of the principle of freedom and liberty in the Christian walk.
But know this, anything, anyone, or any theory that attempts to superimpose itself onto, over or above the freedom and liberty God wants His children to have is, in my opinion, is a form of evil or darkness.
I am personally convinced that the liberty of human beings is the single most important principle of God and is primary – even over faith and love because without liberty faith and love are impossible.
Speaking prophetically of the coming Messiah, the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 61:1
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”
When Jesus began His ministry He entered into a synogogue, stood before the men, opened the Old Testament, and read this very passage, telling them then – “today this is fulfilled in your ears.”
In other words, this is why He came!
He was anointed to “preach good tidings unto the meek!”
“To bind up and heal the brokenhearted!”
“To proclaim liberty – LIBERTY – to whom? The captives!”
“And to open the PRISON to them that are (WHAT?) BOUND?”
What a gorgeous picture of the heart of God. So I reiterate and take liberty in doing so, that the living God hates captivity, despises imprisonment, and sent His Son to heal and proclaim . . . liberty! To the captives.
He is LIFE! He is LIGHT! He is FREEDOM! And the OPPOSITE of all that is confining, restrictive, manipulative, controlling or dark.
When people realize they have, from the heart, been freed FROM the captivity of their flesh, FROM the sin that once held them bound, freed from the LAW through Christ the purposes of God are made clear.
Notice that once freed from sin we are then free to serve a new master.
The God of Freedom would not be the God of freedom if He forced those He saved to serve Him. Being this good, He is also and forever presenting us with the option to continue to choose Him . . . or not. This is what Paul is talking about – our choice to live.
We know from the Parable of the Sower that once we have received the Word of God “joyfully” into our lives we can still remain subject to fruitlessness.
Again, once we have been saved to the Kingdom, our existence is ALL, ALL, ALL about bearing fruit – which is synonymous with bearing fruit of the Spirit to the glory of God but from the heart in devotion to our New Master as we realize how indebted we are to Him.
Interestingly, in the parable of the sower Jesus gives us several general reasons why FRUITLESSNESS occurs in the life of believers.
Let’s consider it. In Matthew 13 beginning at verse 3 he teaches an all too familiar parable on the subject, saying:
3 “. . . Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Then, explaining the meaning of the parable to his disciples, Jesus said (in the same chapter)
19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
This seed appears to be speaking of the person who (in my opinion) was never saved to the Kingdom but was gobbled up by the wicked before.
Then He says:
20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and filled with joy receiveth it;
This describes someone who believes. Then
21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
They loose friends and family, jobs, popularity, social status because of their allegiance to the Word (made flesh or in writing) and they become offended.
22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world (meaning to me the struggles with making it), and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
Now listen to how Jesus describes the seed planted on good ground:
23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Being a Christian – not becoming a Christian, but being one, my friends, is ALL about bearing fruit. I have no other way to say it. But the trick is to bear the fruits of love He wants us to bear, not to bear the fruits of Man that they want us to share – this comes by freely abiding in Him the vine, yielding, dying, putting on, living in the third and fourth dimension, putting out hand to the plow and not looking back, not trying to serve two masters, and so on.
And Paul goes on. And in the very manner he attempts to explain the principle of yielding to a new Master, we learn a Key to being a Christian and bearing genuine fruit unto our King as He says:
19 “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”
Here Paul uses a common Greek phrase –
Which is in the Latin, “Ad Captum Vulgi” – “I speak after the manner of men.”
What he is saying is “I make use of metaphors and figures connected with well-known natural things to help you understand these heavenly and/or spiritual concepts.”
In other words, Paul reached into what he knew, what he possessed as a man, and applied it to helping us understand his message on yielding to our New Master and not yielding to our former.
So, making use of metaphors and figures connected with well-known natural things, he says at verse 20
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Let’s look back in our minds to the forth dimension Christian model. Recall the realm of happiness separated from the Spirit realm of Joy. Paul is speaking to life in that realm and makes an interesting point, saying:
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
I think this means that prior to being saved, we were incapable of being or producing righteousness or righteous things.
Jesus said, “We cannot serve God and Mammon,” and from this we can see that no person can serve Christ from a filthy position. Remember the context of the teaching is – “What do we yield ourselves to.”
All Paul is trying to suggest is that we cannot consistently, as true believers, yield to both our Old Man (or the sinful flesh) and the New (or the Master of our souls).
To try – though many of us have – is to be double-minded. And what does James 1:8 say?
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
The instability of our walk is produced by trying to live in both worlds, trying to please two masters. Not possible. Cannot rightly produce good fruits in this environment for a tree either offers up good fruit or bad, not both.
Show me a plant with unstable roots and I will show you a plant with unstable, limited or damaged fruit.
So Paul is repeating the need to be grounded in the Lord of love and to make Him our Master. We’re hot or cold, but forget lukewarm because where hot sterilizes and cold refreshes, lukewarm does nothing but breed germs.
Paul goes on, taking us back to our former lives and asks (in verse 21):
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Think about it, my friends. Really. What did we do in our lives before Christ? What did we produce of real merit and value?
I am fascinated by men and women who extol the virtues and value of their secular accomplishments. I really am. The whole scene is utterly fascinating.
Let me tell you something – no matter how impressive our earthly accomplishments are WHEN compared to the eternal perspective they are dross. And here is yet another characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit – it will always bears the mark of eternal significance.
Listen to Paul reflect upon his former life, upon his “Old Man” in Philippians 3
4 If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.
Here in verse 21 Paul reminds us all that whatever accomplishments we had when in slavery to the flesh “the end is death.”
But the genuine fruits of love produced by our Master in us have eternal merit.
Dark works die.
Works of light carry on.
Works of the physical will all fade.
Works of the Spirit will live on.
Invest in agape love, which is the fruit of the Spirit through faith and Christ and you will have deposited into a heavenly account that lives on while everything else will fade.
This is what Paul is trying to get us to see. And it is why he has spent so much time on dying, putting off, not yielding and living, putting on, and yielding to our Master.
I am nothing but a teacher. Not a prophet, not a seer. But I want to boldly make a promise to you – you may regret many of the things you spent your life doing but you will never regret, but will forever rejoice, in the things you allow Christ to do through you.
At verse 22 he brings us back to the present, to the New man with the New identity and the purpose of the Gospel in our lives:
22 But now “being made free from sin,” and having “become servants to God,” ye have your “fruit unto holiness,” and “the end, everlasting life.”
Just listen to the tense of the words Paul uses here:
But NOW being MADE free from sin and BECOME servants to God ye HAVE your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.
Again, this takes us right back to who we ARE in Him – NOT who we want to be, NOT who we are striving to be, NOT who we hope to be – who WE ARE.
It is a sign of FAITH and TRUST in the Lord and His promises when a person who fails in their flesh lets it go, looks immediately to who they ARE and quickly operates by that person in humility and it is a sign of faithlessness and frankly selfishness when a believer focuses on the failures of their flesh.
Show me a religion or a pastor who insists that a person who has “committed sin” “sweat out their repentance,” pay in terms of time, or who suggest that God has not forgiven them (when God forgave them long ago) and I will show you an approach of faithlessness and religion.
Paul says, “But now being made free from sin.” Listen, being “made free from sin” is as much of a concept as being “free from righteousness ” which he said we once were, right?
So, Paul says, “now being made free from sin, and having become servants to God.”
Moving from slavery to one and humble freewill bondage to another we are now engaged in the service and errand of God.
We ARE . . . forgiven.
We ARE . . . called to bear fruit.
We have been . . . saved.
So then be these things! Be fruit bearers. His servants! Trust in it. Never let anything or anyone get in the way of it – not disbelief, not Law, not weakness, not faithlessness, not man, not religion.
I have to re-read this passage again because we all have to hear it – really hear it, as His children.
Ready?
22 But now “being (1) made free from sin,” and (2) having “become servants to God,” and (3) ye have your “fruit unto holiness,” and then he adds “the end, everlasting life.”
Three present tense facts – one promise that will arrive at the end – “everlasting life.”
But again, what are the three present-tense facts Paul uses to describe the believer?
now “being made free from sin,”
having “become servants to God,” and
ye have your “fruit unto holiness,”
Silence
Paul summarizes his message in the last verse of the chapter when he adds.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There are several amazing facets to this passage of scripture. Let’s take a look at them one by one as we wrap up our time together today.
First, it reads:
“The WAGES (of sin) is death.”
Wages. Earnings. Compensation for the dead works, missing the mark, earthly carnal efforts and labors that we have done in our former man or woman.
The payment or wages for such is death.
“What we sow is what we’ll reap.”
“He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.”
“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses His soul?”
Now here’s the key: God is just. For him to reward those who sow in death would be a travesty of His justice and fairness. It would be wrong – so even if He has extended forgiveness to man by way of His Son’s payment for their sins and is merciful to all – to reward workers in death makes no sense. He rewards fairly.
Hang with me now – this is important – if the wages or payment of sin is death, and sin is made manifest by the presence of the law, I believe that we could replace the line:
“The wages (or earnings ) of sin is death”
With, “The wages of the Law is death.”
Why do I make this point? We’ve all sung it or heard it, right? Romans 3:20
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Are you starting to see you get the horrific results of either demanding conformity to the law and/or mixing in demands of the Law with the Gospel of Grace?
So, in the first line of the last passage of verse 23 we have the idea of wages – of earnings. And the promise is that the wages of sin (whether it be one uncovered sin or twenty billion uncovered sins) is death – when placed before God almighty who sent His Son to make payment for them all.
But take a careful look at the second part of verse 23:
But . . . HOWEVER . . . HEY READER, DON’T LOSE HOPE, (Paul seems to say) But the gift of God is eternal life through (all through, always through) Jesus Christ our Lord.
And we can see that Paul compares earned wages (which is death) to the GIFT (unearned blessing) of God. Which is Eternal life (again) through Christ Jesus our lord.
It is possible to merit death. But it is impossible to MERIT eternal life. It can only come as a gift THROUGH Christ Jesus our Lord.
Receiving and believing on Him, being planted with Him in the death of our former man, being raised with Him to new life, and abiding in Him as our master to bring forth fruit for God.
We will stop here.
Questions/Comments
PRAYER
