Sanctification, pt. 1

Romans 6:1-10

ill.--imagine 2 fields w/ a road in-between.  Both fields need to be worked and cultivated. 

One belongs to Satan and the other to God.  Before you got saved you were working in the devil's field...and had no choice about it.  You were his slave. 

But when you turned to Christ by faith and got saved, God rescued you over to His field, and there you plow...but as you do, Satan is across the way in his field trying to lure you back over w/ him. 

You don't go back over because you have to, but often, because you want to.

Paul uses the outward act of baptism as an illustration -- of how we should change after salvation.  Chapters 4-5 were all about justification, and now he talks about sanctification.

It's like this:  We are sinners, now forgiven, but sinners still...still being forgiven, forever forgiven, but shouldn't this inward decision affect an outward change?  If God can powerfully do so much on the inside, what can He now do on the outside?  He has made an eternal difference...can He make a present one?

Some people hear 'forever forgiven' and translate it as "I can live however I want."  It's a sure sign of one who hasn't been saved at all!  The salvation experience is supposed to change us inside and out, and make us servants of the Lord Jesus Christ...getting victory over sin and moving on unto holiness and being different...making a difference.  If you want to make a difference, you gotta be a little different.  Not strange as 2 left thumbs...just walking to the beat of a different drum.  A distinction.  Not holier than thou in attitude, rather loving our fellow man and seeing life thru a different set of goggles, having different standards, gauging priorities from a heavenly perspective.

Matthew 1:21
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

He saves us FROM our sins...not IN our sins.  The prodigal left the hogpen and returned to his father's house.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

I am seriously concerned for anyone who professes Christ and shows no evidence of that fact.  Jesus said by their fruit ye shall know them.  We are not talking about being sinless, but sinning less.  Not about works salvation, but the work of sanctification carried out by the One who did the justification!

Not about perfection, but progress.  We're all at different stages of the race.  But are we growing and being sanctified?

If nothing happened to you after you walked the aisle, nothing happened to you WHEN you walked the aisle! – Adrian Rogers

Justification and sanctification should not be separated in our minds so much.  You shouldn't have one without the other.  He who began the good work in you wants to complete it. [Philippians 1]  God never abandons a building project!

Our God is both an interior decorator and an exterior re-designer!  A lot of Christians today overdose on liberty and say the inside is all that matters...that's a lame excuse for living a careless Christian life...it's salvation without repentance, and I wouldn't bank on heaven w/ salvation w/out repentance!

At justification God declares us righteous, at sanctification God truly makes us righteous.

Justification is an instantaneous act, sanctification is a lifelong process.

Justification removes the penalty of sin from our lives, sanctification removes the power of sin over our lives.

Justification removes the guilt of sin, sanctification removes the growth of sin in our lives.

At justification righteousness is imputed, but at sanctification it is imparted...made a literal part of my life.

Justification is a transaction, sanctification a transformation.

Justification is a matter of receiving divine life, and sanctification is a matter of learning divine living.

v. 1          Can I use Jesus as a way of escaping hell, but still live my life of sin?

v. 2          Perish the thought!  Not!

These verses contain 3 key words that tell us how to be sanctified:

Know - Reckon - Yield

Let's just take the first word:  Know.

vv. 3, 6, 9, 16 - first words!

I'm thankful that sanctification is not based on what I do but what I know!

Do you want to live for Jesus?  Do you struggle with some sins?  Here's some things you need to know to make the difference:

1.     Know that you are dead to sin.

v. 2          Does that mean my old nature is now dead?  No.

Baptism is the illustration.  It's not teaching we are saved by being baptized.  It is reminding us that by baptism we were identified w/ Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection.

vv. 3-5     Before salvation we were identified w/ Adam.  After salvation we are identified w/ Christ!  When He died, we died, when He resurrected, we were too...to walk in newness of new life, born again!

Because of this truth we have a totally new relationship to sin. 

v. 4a                When Christ was buried, our sins were buried [the old man/nature]

When I baptize someone I explain that it illustrates 2 things:

• The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
• Their salvation experience of dying to sin and being born again into a new life to live for Jesus!

Continuing v. 4 and into v. 5, it is about the resurrection.  Jesus was laid in that tomb and the Roman Empire guarded it, but on the third day He arose, conquering death, and I am identified with that, with a brand new life!

I am not a reformed sinner, but a transformed sinner!

I don't have a cleaned up version of the old me, but a brand new me!  And so we are to walk in newness of life.

vv. 6-8     We were there with Him in those hours on the cross.  Our sins were laid upon Him, and we were in His heart.

Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

v. 6          "that the body of sin might be destroyed" = rendered powerless.  The old nature is still there, but its domination over you and reign over you has ended.  It doesn't mean you won't sin, just that you don't HAVE to.

        The lost person has to sin.  They are a slave to sin...a puppet on a string.  They are still the old man...your old man has been crucified w/ Christ and you have a power source to plug into if you will!

ill.--imagine yourself a prisoner of war, being marched thru the jungle w/ a gun at your back.  Your enemy trips and falls on his face, his gun at your feet.  You pick it up and point it at him.  My oh my how the tables have turned.

        Before you came to Christ sin had the power and we were the prisoner.  Now we have the power and sin is the prisoner.

For the truly saved, slavery to sin should no longer exist!  You've got to know that to be sanctified.

v. 7          Jesus will save His people FROM their sin.

vv. 9-10   Sin has no dominion over Christ - we are in Christ - so it has no dominion over us!

The devil has some of you hoodwinked into thinking you cannot get victory over some certain sin.

ill.--Elephant chained to tiny stake and doesn't pull it out...because as a baby they drove a much bigger stake into the ground and he couldn't get away, and eventually gave up trying.

        God has broken your chains, but the devil wants you believe you can't.

Identify with Christ, and the truth sets you free!