This week, we continued in the “Oil & Water” series.
We have been studying 8 specific stark contrasts between the Old Covenant of
the Law and the New Covenant of God’s Grace. This week’s study was:
6)
OLD COVENANT: Obeying law did nothing to give power to overcome sin. It made no
one holy, just or good.
NEW
COVENANT: Sin has no dominion over the believer (Romans 6:14). Consciousness of
righteousness in Christ IS the power to overcome (Romans 4:6).
We
did a verse-by-verse study of the first half of the sixth chapter of Romans in
order to illustrate this point. First of
all, in the first couple verses it talks about being dead to sin. What does it
mean to be dead to sin? Does it mean you no longer sin? Perhaps you’ve been led
to believe that, but if that were the definition, no one on earth could claim
to be dead to sin. Being dead to sin means that you no longer live for sinful
ways. Your life is not guided by sinful desires.
We
must also remember that when we become “born-again” we are no longer firstly a
physical being. We are spirit – alive in Him. You are spirit. You have a soul
(mind, will and emotions), and you live in a body. When you are born-again, you
are alive in spirit and, therefore, dead to sin. You can’t be alive in both.
Many have used even this definition to try and make people feel that maybe they
were never saved if they sin, but that
is not the way to look at it. You ARE
spirit and you are saved. Your flesh will always desire sinful things – some
blatant and some that just simply fall short of God’s best. Your soul is
what is being constantly renewed. Remember that last week we looked at a
scripture in Hebrews 10 that pointed out that we have been made perfect (spirit)
and are continually being made holy (soul).
In
later verses in Romans 6, Paul begins using an illustration based on slavery
and freedom. Before we knew Christ, we were slaves to sin and, if you put it
together with many other illustrations he used, slaves to the law. Understand
that, as a slave, the only way out of slavery was death. Jesus died to the slavery of sin and the law
for us. We are resurrected with Him. Remember, if we died with Him at the
cross, we also were buried with Him and resurrected with Him – the complete
package. We are no longer, by the spirit, slaves to sin. We died to that. Now
we are alive in Him!
Verse
11 tells us to count ourselves dead to sin. That is a big part of this. When
you received the gift of salvation, God counted you dead to sin, but you must
count yourself dead to sin or you will continue to live like a sinner – and a
dead, smelly one at that! The only way we will be confident in counting
ourselves dead to sin is by having faith in His work and not faith in OUR works.
Then
Paul does on to remind us not to let sin reign in our lives and make our bodies
instruments of evil. What is defining what you do and controlling your
decisions? That is what is reigning in
your life. Realize that you are going to
sin, but do not let sin rule over you. You are no longer its slave, and it is
no longer your master. It will try to rule you if you let it, but don’t let it.
When you allow yourself to feel condemned when you sin instead of running to
God for forgiveness, you let sin reign.
Finally,
in verse 14 he says that sin shall not be your master if you are under grace
and not under law. So, by examining what he said, he is also saying that, if
you are under law, sin will be your master.
It is the grace of God alone that empowers your to RULE OVER sin. Law
will not allow you to do so. You will remain a slave. Receive that grace and
get revelation knowledge of the fact that you ARE righteous in Christ.
To
listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
