Sermon Tone Analysis

The Necessity of Sanctification ()

This sixth chapter of Romans and its proper interpretation is not only imperative for your sanctification, but also for your sanity.

Breaking the chains of bondage of sin.

This sixth chapter of Romans and its proper interpretation is not only imperative for your sanctification, but also for your sanity.

Several years ago I visited a young woman in the psychiatric ward of a Dallas hospital.

As we sat at a table behind the locked doors under the scrutiny of professional attendants, I asked this young woman what her problem was.

She acknowledged that she was totally frustrated in her attempt to follow the teaching of .

She had been striving to follow the formula which many have suggested from this chapter: know, reckon, yield.

She said that she knew that she had died in Christ to sin, and she was trying as hard as possible to reckon it to be so and to yield herself to God.

But somehow it always resulted in failure.

Her frustration had finally led to a complete nervous breakdown.

Much of her problem, I believe, was in failing to understand this chapter in proper relationship to chapters 7 and 8.

And so, as we begin to study , urge you to study it carefully, not only for the sake of your sanctification but also for your sanity.

Anyone who interprets chapter 6 as the method for experiencing the normal Christian life is bound for trouble in my opinion, for this sixth chapter is the introduction to Paul’s section on the process of sanctification.

It does not give us the full solution to the problem of sanctification; it merely presents the need for sanctification.

To put this in different words, it does not deal with the method of sanctification (know, reckon, yield), but with the motive for sanctification.

So in this sixth chapter of Romans we turn to the matter of the revelation of God’s righteousness in the life of the Christian, with the spotlight not on the ‘How’ of the spiritual life, but on the ‘Why.’

A Definition of Sanctification

Since we are speaking of sanctification in chapters 6, 7, and 8 and will not have a full view of it in chapter 6 alone, it would be wise to pause briefly to define sanctification.

Justification is the Process whereby God declares a person to be righteous on the basis of faith in the Person and work of Christ.

Justification is the activity of God which liberates a person from the guilt of sin.

Sanctification is the activity of God which liberates the Christian from the power of sin.

Justification imputes the righteousness of God to man.

Sanctification imparts the righteousness of God through man.

Traditionally, sanctification is categorized into three aspects.

(1) Positional sanctification is that state of holiness imputed to the Christian at the moment of their conversion to Christ.

It denotes not so much one’s spiritual condition as his spiritual position.

The Corinthian believers could thus be called ‘saints’ even though they were in a carnal state ().

(2) Progressive sanctification refers to the process in our daily lives by which we are being conformed to the image of Christ.

It is the process of becoming what we are in Christ.

This involves the putting off of the old habits of lying, stealing, backbiting, etc., and putting on the Christ-like qualities of honesty, mercy, and love (cf.

.).

(3) Ultimate sanctification is that state of holiness that we will not attain to in this life, but will realize when we are finally in the presence of God: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be.

We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” ().

Sanctification, the putting off of the old man, and the putting on of the righteousness of Christ, is three dimensional: positional, progressive, and ultimate.

The argument of the apostle Paul in is that we are obligated to experience progressive sanctification because of our positional sanctification accomplished on the cross of Calvary.

The Question Raised

(6:1-2)

The sixth chapter begins with a question: “What shall we say, then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?”

().

This question is somewhat prompted by Paul’s statement in chapter 5: “… but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” ().

This question probably is best understood as arising out of the entire preceding section on justification by faith alone.

This question would surely occur to the opponents of Paul’s gospel: “If salvation is all of God, all of grace, and appropriated on the basis of faith alone, without any human effort; if all of our sins necessitate and promote the grace of God—then why not continue to live as we always have (in sin), so that God’s grace may continue to abound?”

Paul’s summary answer is contained in verse 2: “May it never be!

How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

().

When the expression “May it never be” occurs in Romans, it is Paul’s vehement response to an improper conclusion based upon a proper premise.

We are not to continue the life characterized by sin at the time prior to our conversion.

The reason is because such a practice would be inconsistent with our position in Christ.

In Christ we are dead to sin.

How, then, could we continue to live in sin?

Such a practice would deny our position.

Once upon a time there was a baby eagle called Eddie.

Eddie had entered this world by violently forcing his way out of an eggshell, to discover himself sharing a nest with his brothers and sisters at the top of a very tall tree.

One day a strong wind blew up, and the nest was rocked wildly from side to side, at one point rocking so far that poor little Eddie was tipped out.

Not yet old enough t fly down he fell, down, down through the branches, and amazingly right down into a rabbit burrow at the base of the tree.

When he got to his feet Eddie found himself among a group of bunnies born around the same time as he.

Now rabbits may be good breeders, but they’re not exceptionally smart, so no one realised Eddie was in fact a baby eagle.

They all assume dhe was just an odd-looking rabbit.

So Eddie was adopted into the family and grew up learning to live as a rabbit.

He hopped and jumped, lived in the family burrow and lived on a diet of grass and lettuce.

Of course, all his life Eddie struggled with a sense of terrible inferiority.

He didn’t look like the other rabbits, he was always the last one chosen when it came to hopping games, and he was often sick from eating grass.

Then one day his life changed.

Eddie and his rabbit siblings were out in a field playing, when a dark shadow spread across the ground.

The rabbits looked up and there hurtling towards them was a mighty eagle.

With squeals of fear the rabbits ran as fast as they could for the undergrowth.

Eddie knew he was a goner.

He couldn’t run as fast as the others and saw them all reach safety while he was still hopping like crazy out in the open.

The mighty eagle drew closer and closer, until Eddie could feel its shadow right above him.

Eddie braced himself for the inevitable when he heard the eagle cry, “What are you doing hopping around on the ground like a rabbit?! You’re an eagle.

Spread your wings and fly!”

Startled by the shock of what had happened, confused by the eagles words, Eddie started to move those useless things at his side.

He stretched them out and began flapping until he found himself lifting up from the ground, then soaring effortlessly through the heavens.

That day Eddie discovered he wasn’t made to hop along the ground but to soar through the skies.

The same is true of us.

God created us with enormous dignity and honour, to be his image on earth.

We grow up in societies that tell us that we are something other than magnificent creatures made to image God, but when we discover our true nature, we are able to soar through the skies, becoming everything we were created to be.

Living in Sin—A Positional Prohibition

(6:3-14)

If you have come to looking for water, you will be disappointed, for Paul appeals to the position of the Christian as it is achieved by Spirit baptism as a reason why the Christian cannot live in sin as he formerly did.

Paul begins, “or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” ().

We should not expect to find water every time the word baptism occurs, for there are numerous examples of ‘waterless baptism.’

John the Baptist declared, “As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” ().

Paul wrote, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” ().

In secular Greek, the verb ‘ baptizo’ meant not only ‘to immerse’ or ‘to dip’ but also to “cause to perish (as by drowning a man or sinking a ship).”23

The baptizing work of the Holy Spirit joins us to the Person and work of Christ in such a way that we participate in His work on the cross.

We died with Him.

So far as our justification is concerned we were joined to the Person and work of Christ so that we participated in the death of Christ for our sins.

He died in our place as our substitute.

But with reference to our sanctification, Christ died to sin.

In Christ’s work of justification, He delivered us from the penalty of sin; but in the death of Christ was also accomplished our sanctification whereby He delivered us from the power of sin.

This is the point Paul is making in verses 3-11.

rom 6.

romans 6.

romans 6.12-14

Water baptism does not secure either justification or sanctification, but it does symbolize it.

When we are submerged into the baptismal water, we symbolize the fact that we died and were buried with Christ.

Just as we participated in the sin of Adam and its consequences many years ago, so by the baptism of the Holy Spirit we have participated in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

Our old self, what we were as a son of Adam, died to sin.

That is, sin no longer has any claim or authority over us.

Just as the Law has no authority over a dead man, just as collection agencies do not harass a corpse, so sin no longer has a claim on the one who has died.

As the sin-bearer of the world, sin had a just claim on Jesus Christ.

Sin had a debt to collect.