10.6.25 – Romans 6

SPEAKER 01 : 0:07

Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:22

Today brings us to Romans chapter 6, another one of these great chapters in Romans, and we’ll listen to it read by our guest reader, Craig Warner, executive director of the Gideons International.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:36

Romans chapter 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin, once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? by no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were freed in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

SPEAKER 03 : 3:48

In 1994, in my journal on Romans 6, I wrote, We can walk in newness of life. We can be dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus. Lord, help me refrain from sin and accept your grace when I do fail. We are creatures of sin, but through Jesus Christ we can get out from under sin and live under grace. I quote verse 15, Sin shall not be master over you. And I quote verse 18, freed from sin. Continued on verse 18, can become slaves of righteousness. And verse 22, become enslaved to God. Results, sanctification, eternal life. 2001, I had kind of a one-line summary of Romans 6, but it’s important. Sin and freedom from it. I would like to believe, quoting verse 14, sin shall not have dominion over you. Then I continued to write, I fight sin and sinfulness every day. In 2001, after reading the passage and writing that in my journal, I wrote my prayer. And I wrote, for my battle with sin, does anything really matter in life? Is it worth fighting and arguing about stuff or just letting everything go? I wrote that question in 2001. That’s a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve got an answer to it yet, though. In 2013, I wrote, As Christians, we walk in newness of life, according to verse 4. I thank God for this. I am not caught up in how I was born or stuff passed on through generations. I am a new creature in Christ. Old things pass away. All things become new. And that’s quoting 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. I continued to write, We are dead to sin, being raised in Christ, alive in Him. Yet, we need to control sin in our flesh and not fall into its passions. We must strive to turn away from sin toward righteousness in the Lord. Sin leads to death, but the free gift of forgiveness, grace, offers us eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thank you, Jesus. In this chapter, Paul asks his audience a question, and he frames it sort of two different ways. He asks the question in verse 1, and then he asks it again in verse 15. In verse 1 he says, Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. And in verse 15 he says, What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means. Sometimes Christians and sometimes non-Christians take sin casually. Because we live under grace and forgiveness, sometimes we have this attitude that, hey, if I sin, it’s okay because God has to forgive me. That is the very attitude that Paul is warning against in this chapter. As Christians, we cannot have a casual attitude towards sin. Just because we’re under grace doesn’t mean we can have a casual attitude toward our sin. And, just because we’re not under the law anymore, doesn’t mean we can have a casual attitude towards sin. Paul warns us in verse 12 that we have to fight against this. He says, Sin is passionate and we want so often to obey its lurings. And then Paul gives us the answer in verse 17. He says, He goes on to say, Leading to sanctification. So how do we get out from under this thing called sin? We go to the Bible, we understand the scriptures, the standard of teaching, which Paul refers to, the standard of teaching to which we must commit ourselves. So though we enjoy the forgiveness of sin and the grace of God, we still must fight off the luring, the passions of sin. Verse 22 says, But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. And then this great verse, Romans 6, 23, says, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is a power verse in Scripture. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God, the free gift of God is eternal life. How? In Christ Jesus our Lord. Father, thank you for providing a way of escape from sin. Thank you for a way out of death. Thank you for the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hallelujah. None of us need to be caught up in sin, though it’s a battle. And you tell us in this chapter it’s our obligation to fight it. We don’t have to lose to the battle of sin thanks to your forgiveness. We thank you too that we don’t have to be bound by generational sin or sins from our past. That we can be forgiven and become new creatures in Christ. Old things pass away and all things become new. Jesus, you forgive. Free us from the clutches of sin and death. And because of that, I pray that I never have a casual attitude towards sin. Help me to become a slave to you, a slave to righteousness. In your name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You know, sometimes we need a plumb line, a true north, a solid basis of truth to live life. We’re not going to find it in the media or in social media or Google or your friends, but it is available right at your fingertips. Pilate asked Jesus in John 18, 38, what is truth? The chapter before, Jesus had answered the question in his prayer to God for his disciples. In the 17th verse, Jesus pleads with the Father, Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. So what would it be like if everyone, everywhere, read the Bible every day? Wow, it might be heaven on earth. What would it be like if every Christian read the Bible every day? Would we be better ambassadors for Christ? What would it be like if everyone in your community read the Bible every day? Would we have greater impact in our communities? And what would it be like if you personally read the Bible every day? Could you use a closer walk with Jesus? Could you use a light unto your path and a lamp unto your feet to walk through this life? Could you use a spiritual power surge in your life? Matthew 22, 29, Jesus speaking to the Sadducees said, You are mistaken not understanding the Scriptures or the power of God. Yes, the Scriptures can give us power to live this life. So I’m going to give you three easy action steps to make the Bible worth your time each and every day. Number one, commit to daily Bible reading. Commit to seek God and His Word daily, every day. And if you miss a day, start again the next day. Change your belief about God’s Word to behavior in God’s Word. Use any of our Ezra Project resources to help you. Visit EzraProject.net to get an Ezra Project Bible reading journal or one of our day-by-day through the Bible books. Commit today and visit EzraProject.net for easy-to-use resources for your daily time in God’s Word. Number two, be intentional. Decide what you want out of your Bible reading. I got to visit the headquarters of Back to the Bible once in Lincoln, Nebraska. And in one hallway down one side, they had scribbled all the reasons people say they don’t read the Bible. On the other side were all the reasons people do read the Bible. And I want to give you some of those to encourage you. On that wall, it said, God wants me to. Yes, God wants you to read the Bible. Do you want to meet with him daily? Because he’ll meet with you every day through his word. Number two, it changes me. Where could you be in one year with more Bible reading in your life? Number three, it improves my outlook on life. Yeah, turn out the bad news and saturate yourself with good news from the Word of God. Number four, it keeps me grounded. Yes, when the storms of life come, and they will, can you stand? Yes, you’ll stand better and more solid because you’re in the Word of God. Next, it keeps my heart soft. Yeah, Nehemiah 8, when people heard the word, they wept and they worshipped. You will do the same as the word softens your heart. Lastly, on the wall it said, it keeps my daily focus on God. Yeah, that’s a great reason to read the Bible. You’ll gain the spiritual power to live life in our secular world. And then thirdly and lastly, feed your soul. Let God minister to your soul. Hebrews 4.12 says the Word of God pierces between your soul and your spirit, between joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart. Nothing else goes that deep. I don’t know where the place is between my soul and my spirit, but I want to put the Word of God there each and every day of my life. I hope you do too. God bless you as you spend time in God’s Word. I know you’re going to like it and want to share it with others.