Sanctification Romans 6:1-14
I’ve said before that I love Paul’s letter to the Romans. When I’m having a hard time this is where in the Bible I go. I find the whole letter is just so uplifting and I absolutely can read it over and over again. Romans 8 is my favorite chapter but Romans 6 is a very close second. Verse 2, “We are those who have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?”
In Paul’s way of thinking and writing to say you are dead to something means you are no longer influenced by it; it no longer controls you. Even today ff you say to someone “you are dead to me” you are not condemning them to a physical death, you are letting them know that they no longer have any influence over you, and there’s a finality to it; don’t come around, don’t call, you are nothing to me.
Paul uses this analogy in his discussion of sin in our lives. Through our faith, trust and belief in Christ and the cross sin is dead to us. Sin no longer influences us. Now yes we all sin, being Christian doesn’t mean we suddenly become perfect, but it does mean sin doesn’t influence our standing with God. If we go back to Romans 5:20, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” This is important to us because some are taught that even after you accept Christ god will punish you for your sins. Some people worry if some of the problems in their lives are caused by God for something they did wrong.
I feel there is one area that Paul is a little weak on. He doesn’t explain that if we sin we may have to face human consequences. If I steal from Target I may have to go to jail. I understand Paul is entirely concentrating on spiritual consequences; if I steal from Target I am forgiven by God. Where sin increased grace increased more literally means you can never do anything that God cannot and does not forgive if you believe in and accept his son.
Verse 4, “…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” I’ve heard some say this verse refers to our life with Christ in heaven but I think it refers to our life here on earth because later we will see where he writes about our life after this life.
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God, and that same glory is given to us when we come into Christ. God doesn’t make us wait to see his glory; it’s given to us immediately. When you commit your life to Christ your life changes. When I committed my life to Christ a great peace came over me. A peace that I no longer am being judged for my every action, a peace knowing God lives in me and a peace from knowing I can turn to him in all my need.
When we were introduced I prayed over what direction to go. When Jen was hurt I prayed for her relief but also mine from the anxiety and worry. When my son and father died I prayed for comfort. All these times and many more I have found peace in my heart knowing God has my back and is listening to me.
When I gave my life to Christ I started to think about what I was doing more often. I don’t mean I sat and gave deep thought to each decision but I found that it just started to come naturally that I thought about what my actions meant for me and what they meant for those around me. I started to notice those around me more. I started to enjoy where I was and not always focus on things in the future. My life became happier. God wants us to be happy, not live a life of turmoil and worry. The more you turn to God the more his grace is poured into you. So I believe Paul writes about our life on earth
It’s in the next verses he writes about our life in heaven, verses 8 and 9, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead he cannot die again.”
If we died with Christ, what exactly does this mean? Christ died to this world, his was a physical death. By our acceptance of him we die to this world in a spiritual sense. Remember what we said earlier about what “die” means in Paul’s writing. By dying in Christ the world’s sin and desires no longer affect us in God’s eyes.
Verse 10, “The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.” Going back again to those who think God may still punish you. Jesus died once for all sin, if God punished all sin with Christ’s death he cannot punish you again for what was already punished. You will not be punished for sin by God ever once you accept his son as your savior.
Verse 5, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Not only will our acceptance of Jesus as savior affect our life now, through our trust in the cross we will be physically raised from death just as Jesus was on that first Easter morning. We will have a solid body that breaths and has a beating heart and it will never hurt, be diseased or die again for all eternity.
Verse 14, “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law but under grace.”
These verses are used to show us what happens when we accept Christ and are under God’s grace. Forgiveness of sins, redemption and restoration of a relationship with God happen, but so I does sanctification.
Most people understand forgiveness and relationship but sanctification sometimes confuses us. The Greek word we translate as sanctify is hagiasmos, literally “to make holy.” In one sense only God is holy yet when we accept Christ our lives move in the direction of holiness.
God forgives, God reestablishes our relationship; these things are done for us. Sanctification is a little different; sanctification takes effort on our part.
For one thing sanctification is personal. God forgives because he wants to, God restores our relationship because he wants to, sanctification, living a life closer to God is your decision. God isn’t going to force you, and if you decide to follow Christ Satan can’t stop you. Following the Lord is a totally personal decision.
Sanctification is positional. Last week we read Romans chapter 8 verse 9, “…the Spirit of God dwells within you.” If we do not accept Jesus as our savior than we cannot be sanctified. We cannot move our lives closer to God’s ways if we are still controlled by sin. We must position our lives in the proper place. Only accepting Christ and being in the position of having him live in us can sin’s control be removed and we can move closer to God.
Sanctification is progressive. I’ve said several times that Congregationalists recognize each individual is on his own walk with Christ, a series of steps; a progression from one level of spiritual maturity and understanding to the nest. We do not require someone to do certain things or be in a certain place before they are accepted into our family.
Think of the apostles, even they had to progress. John and James wanted to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritan village, they needed to progress to a place of love and mercy. Peter boasts of his faithfulness to Jesus, even to follow him to death, and then he denies Jesus three times. He needed to learn how to be totally committed and how to lose his fear of what others will say or do if they knew he followed Christ.
We are all on this same journey as the apostles. All of can be more merciful and live a life of love for others. All of us can feel afraid of others reactions if we bring up our faith and Jesus in conversations. There’s no condemnation in this, I struggle with all this too. Like Paul admits in Romans 7:18, “For I have the desire to what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” The thing about turning our life over to Christ is as we progress in our sanctification journey, the less we sin.
And because sanctification is a progression, sanctification is participatory; our conduct, our behavior, our manner of living is ours to control. We are not saved by any of these things, but by actively working on them and moving them in line with God’s way, that is our participation in our sanctification.
There’s a Christmas special where one character sings “Put one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walking across the floor.” If you don’t move forward you will never advance in life. If you do not work on your life, work at living your Christian ideals you will never move forward into sanctification and holiness.
Hebrews 2:11-12, “Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says ‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters, in the assembly I will sing your praises.’”
Through our faith we are made holy. By living a life in accordance with God we are sanctified; reserved for God to use.
All this shows us that Christianity is a two sided coin. On one side our faith is deeply personal choice to follow Christ; it is a personal relationship between you and God. But on the flip side, Christianity is corporate. By our work in the world in Christ’s name we bind together the body of Christ and help shine the light of the Gospel into every part of the world. We are at one and the same time individually responsible to live a sanctified life and corporately responsible to help and encourage others to do so.
Amen.