The result of resurrection with Christ

[Romans 6:1-14]

                Look at Romans 6:12-14: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”  Here, the word “you” (v. 12) occurs seven times in Romans 6:1-14.  Here, “you” refers to those who were baptized with Jesus, died and were resurrected with Jesus.  Here, we can think of those who were baptized into four categories: (1) Those who were baptized with the Holy Spirit and then water baptized, (2) Those who were baptized with water and then baptized with the Holy Spirit, (3) Those who received only the baptism of the Holy Spirit. , and (4) Those who have only been baptized with water.  Of these four, I would like to think about those who were baptized with water after being baptized with the Holy Spirit.

                What is “the baptism of the Holy Spirit”?  The Bible speaks of the baptism of the Holy Spirit when a sinner is saved and grafted into Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).  Therefore, the baptism of the Holy Spirit has the same meaning as the traditional theological term for rebirth (regeneration).  God raises the souls of those who have died in sin through the gospel.  When a sinner hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit works by opening his closed heart to repent and receive the Lord (Acts 16:14).  In this way, He makes him a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).  As such, the baptism of the Holy Spirit cannot be repeated because the Holy Spirit raises the dead from sin.  The believers are baptized with the Holy Spirit only once in their lifetime.  To ask a believer who has already been born again to be baptized with the Holy Spirit is the same as saying to be born again.  It is like begging Lazarus to come out of the tomb and earnestly say, ‘You must open the door of the tomb once more and come out!’  Those who are once grafted into Christ need not be grafted into the Lord again.  It is because no one can snatch a believer out of His hand (Rom. 8:38, 39) (Internet).  The full of the Holy Spirit is different from the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  In other words, if the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a one-time thing that means the work of the Holy Spirit at the time of first confession of Jesus (1 Cor. 12:3, 13), the full of the Holy Spirit is the state of continuously bearing beautiful fruits of life under the full control of the Holy Spirit (Internet).  If there are people who have only been baptized with water right now, please pray earnestly in faith to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  I hope and pray that all of us will be baptized with water and then baptized with the Holy Spirit.

                Romans 6:12 begins with a conjunction “Therefore”.  Since this conjunction is related to Romans 6:11, we need to think about verse 11: “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Here, the conjunction “Even so” is related to verse 10: “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”  That is, just as Jesus Christ died to sin once for all and lives for God forever (v.10), so we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Jesus Christ died for sins once for all (v.10).  Therefore, we who were baptized into Christ Jesus and died (v.3) must also believe and count as dead to sin once for all (v.11).  Jesus Christ lives forever for God (v.10).  Therefore, we who died with Christ Jesus and were raised (regenerated) with Him (vv.5, 8) must also be considered alive to God (vv. 10, 11).  However, the Bible does not end with “consider” (v.11), but actually tells us to live as one living toward God in Christ Jesus (vv.11-14).  First, to live as alive to God in Christ Jesus means to live as dead to sin (v.11).  What does it mean to live as dead to sin here?  Romans 6:12-13 says three things:

            First, we must not allow sin to have dominion over our bodies.

                Look at Romans 6:12a – “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body ….”  Sin is vicious and seeks to rule us.  However, since we are already dead to sin once for all (v.11), sin does not have dominion over us nor shall be our master.  Therefore, we must not allow sin to have dominion over our bodies (v. 12).  We who were once dead to sin do not sin.  Look at 1 John 3:6, 9: “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.  …  No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”  What kind of sin is the Bible referring to when it is said that we do not sin (v.6) and we do not practice sin (v. 9)?  We can think of it in three ways:

(a)    Presumptuous sins:

Look at Psalms 19:13 – “Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.”  

(b)   Accustomed to sins:

Look at 1 Corinthians 8:7 – “However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.”

(c)    Sins of conspiring (planning) with determination:

Look at Acts 5:1-4: “But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife's full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet.  But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?  While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?  And after it was sold, was it not under your control?  Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart?  You have not lied to men but to God.’” 

If we still sin presumptuously, habitually, or deliberately, it is not the life of a resurrected person with Christ.  Therefore, we must confess our sins to God and repent.  We must repent like David.  Look at Psalms 19:7-9: “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.  The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.  The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.”  In other words, like David, we must repent of our sins through the word of God.  As we earnestly seek and meditates His word that is the perfect word of God, the word of God that revives the soul, the word of God that makes the fool wise, the word of God that rejoices our hearts and brightens our eyes, the word of God that is pure and endures to eternity, the righteous word of God, more and more we must repent of our sins to God.  Look at Psalms 19:13 – “Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.”  In other words, we must repent of our sins as we earnestly pray to God like David.

                The devil is wicked and vicious.  The devil is angry because the devil has no more dominion over us because we died with Jesus Christ and rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit dwells in us.  Therefore, the devil is trying to infiltrate into us by any means.  But we must obey God and resist the devil.  Then he we will flee (run away) from us (Jam.4:7).  How should we resist the devil?  Look at Philippians 2:12-13: “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  We must always work out our salvation with fear and trembling in submission to God.  It is God the Holy Spirit who works in us who makes this possible.  In other words, God the Holy Spirit puts a desire in us and works in us, empowering us to resist and defeat the devil.  We commit many other sins in addition to presumptuous sins, habitual sins, and conspiring sins.  We must hold on to the promise of 1 John 1:9 and confess and repent our sins: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  

            Second, we must not obey the lusts of the body.

                Look at Romans 6:12 – “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.”  Here, the original Greek word for “lust” has been translated into eight different ways.  The most translated word is “lust.”  Others include “greed”, “covetousness”, “lustful passion”, “desire”, “zeal”, etc.  We have an old, sinful nature to do what the Bible forbids us not to do.  We must not obey the desires of that old nature.  We must not obey the desires of the heart or the lusts of the body.

            Third, we must not present the members our our body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present our members to God as instruments of righteousness to God alone.

                Look at Romans 6:13 – “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”  Here, “the members” can be thought of, for example, various parts of our body (eyes, ears, mouth, feet, hands, etc.).  Also, the term “the members” here includes the power of thought and other things.  Here, “instruments” means a tool.  The Bible says that we who have been resurrected with Christ must not yield our members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.  When sin uses the members of our body to sin, then we sin.  For example, sin tempts our feet, a member of our body, and makes our feet stand in the way of sinners (Ps. 1:1).  Another example is that sin tempts our eyes and leads us to the lust of the eyes (1 Jn. 2:16) to sin with the eyes and adultery with the heart (Mt. 5:28).

                The Bible tells us to live as those raised from the dead.  Then how do those raised from the dead live?  We must live as those who have been resurrected with Christ.  We must live worthy of it (Rom.6:13).  We must present ourselves to God (v. 13).  We are to present our body members as instruments of righteousness to God (v. 13).  Look at they hymn “Take My Life, and Let It Be”: (v. 1) Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.  Take my moments and my days; Let them flow in ceaseless praise.  (v. 2) Take my hands, and let them move At the impulse of Thy love.  Take my feet, and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee.  (v. 3) Take my voice, and let me sing, Always, only, for my King.  Take my lips, and let them be Filled with messages from Thee.  (v. 4) Take my silver and my gold Not a mite would I withhold.  Take my intellect, and use Every pow'r as Thou shalt choose.  (v. 5) Take my moments and my days.  Let them flow in endless praise.  Take myself, and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee.  Amen.  Since we know that God is righteous (1 Jn. 2:29), as those who were justified by the death of Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1-11), we must practice righteousness (1 Jn. 2:29).  We must live righteously (v. 29).  It means that we live righteously, that, as the righteous Lord, we purify ourselves (3:3) as righteous men (v.7).  Also, we love one another according to the Lord's commandment (vv. 11, 23, 24).  By offering our members who do righteousness in this way to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom.6:13), as we purify ourselves like the Lord, we love one another according to the Lord's commandment.  Look at Romans 6:14 – “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”  The Bible says that sin has no dominion over us.  It is because we are under God’s grace, not under the law.  God's great grace is the grace that can cover all our sins.