Romans 6 - A new life, a new master

Why be good?
A friend of mine was catching a cab a few weeks ago in Sydney, and he got chatting with the driver, and it came out in conversation that he was a Christian. The driver was a Chinese guy, from mainland China, and he was very interested. He said: Do you know, it is always the Christians who are the kind ones. The Muslims, they are not kind; the Hindus, they are not kind; the Buddhists, they are not kind.

My friend said: If that’s true, then it’s a strange phenomenon isn’t it. Because the Muslims and the Hindus and the Buddhists all believe one way or another that being good or doing good things is the way that they earn their salvation, and the more good things they do, the better their chance of going to paradise or having a good reincarnation; and the Christians don’t believe that at all; and yet you say that they are the kind ones.

The taxi driver nodded, and then he said: Life is a severe conundrum.

You’ll be glad to know that my friend didn’t leave the conversation at that, but explained a couple of things about what Christians do believe and put him in touch with a Chinese church in Kogarah which happened to be the very suburb where he lived. But that’s not the point of the story. Nor is the point of the story to try and prove on the basis of one taxi driver’s observations that Christians are kinder than everyone else, though it would obviously be nice to think that!

The point of the story is that severe conundrum that the taxi driver noticed, the conundrum of the relationship between grace and goodness. If God is a God of grace, and if Jesus came not for the righteous but for sinners, and if salvation is not by works but by the sheer undeserved kindness of God, then what is the motivation for pursuing a life of goodness?

That is the question that Paul addresses here in Romans chapter 6.

The triumph of grace (5:20-21)
The context, of course, is the emphatic argument that Paul has mounted right through the first 5 chapters of this letter, to say that salvation is all by grace - that is to say, that the only basis on which we can stand before God accepted and not condemned is the death of Jesus in our place. Romans 3:21 - “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

And then in Romans chapter 5 Paul paints the whole story on an enormous, cosmic canvas, about how the grace of God in Jesus overcame the tragedy of the sin of Adam, and he concludes, verse 19: “just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The question:
Doesn’t grace make sin ok? (v.1, 15)
All of which raises the question that Paul kicks off with in verse 1. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”. Or, as he restates the question in verse 15: “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”. If the logic of verse 20 holds - “where sin increased, grace increased all the more” - then surely if we sin, God’s grace will just cover it. The more sin, the more grace.

It’s possible that the question is being asked by a legalist - by a religious conservative who is opposed to Paul’s gospel of grace because this is where he thinks it will lead - the sort of person that Paul alludes to in chapter 3 verse 8, who slanderously accuses Paul of saying: “Let us do evil that good may result”.

But the way Paul responds to the question here doesn’t suggest that this is the sort of view that he’s interacting with in this chapter. I don’t think the question in verse 1 is being asked by a legalist who hates Paul’s gospel of grace. I think it’s being asked by someone who loves the idea of grace, someone who thinks that grace makes sin OK.

And this is not just a theoretical argument - I think that it’s a real attitude that is not all that unusual. Maybe not in quite as naked and crass a form as you encounter in verse 1, where you say: let’s go out and deliberately sin because that will actually be doing God a favour and allowing him opportunity to be more gracious. You rarely encounter it in that sort of naked crassness. It tends to come in a diluted form - in the form that says it’s ok to be quite casual about issues of sin and holiness because we’re grace people, not like those overly earnest, overly zealous, legalistic types.

When I was at Uni, the Christian group that I was part of - particularly the Arts faculty group that I belonged to - was a group that was intoxicated with the idea of God’s grace. We had discovered grace, and we revelled in the way that grace blew away all the legalisms and ritualisms and moralisms that we had grown up with. And we became quite self-righteously proud of our slackness and our casualness about the things of God. We even developed a little code language that we would use when someone was starting to sound a little bit zealous or earnest or self-disciplined - we would make eye contact and just quietly sniff, which meant: “I smell a works rat; I smell the sweaty odour of salvation by works and not by grace.” And maybe, every so often, that was what we could smell. But most of the time I suspect that the only thing that was making us sniff was our own arrogance and our misunderstanding of God’s grace. And thankfully we kept reading the Bible and God put older and wiser Christians in our path and he enabled us to see the folly of our position.

So what was the folly of our position? How is it that an attitude that revels in God’s grace can coexist with an attitude of real zeal and earnestness and passion and self-discipline in pursuing goodness and righteousness and holiness?

Let’s see how Paul answers the question here in Romans chapter 6.

The answers:
You may have noticed already that Paul actually raises the question twice in the course of this chapter - once up in verse 1, and then once again, half way through in verse 15, and he gives two answers to the question in the two halves of the chapter.

1. You are a new person (v.2-14)
In the first half of the chapter, verses 2-14, he says, “Don’t you understand that Christ’s death makes you a new person?”

Listen again to the way that he argues:

Verse 1: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Notice the way Paul speaks about the death of Christ and what it sets us free from, and notice how what he says here builds on what he has already said in chapter 5.

Christ died for us (5:8) ...rescued from wrath (5:9)
In chapter 5, the language that’s used is the language of Christ dying for us - Christ dying in our place, as our substitute, bearing the punishment that we deserved. And so what he rescues us from is the wrath of God, from the judgement and punishment and condemnation that we would otherwise have faced.

We died with Christ (6:3,4,5,6,8) ...rescued from sin (6:7)
But here in chapter 6, Paul says, that’s not the only way that we can speak about the death of Jesus and how it relates to us and the consequences that it has for us. In chapter 6 the language that he uses is the language of us dying with Christ, and the thing that Christ’s death rescues us from is not only the punishment of our sin but our sin itself.

That only makes sense if you understand sin in relational categories, as a state of existence and not merely as an isolated action of doing something bad. Sin is alienation from God. And so when Paul talks in chapter 5 about Christ’s death ‘reconciling’ us to God, he’s already sowing the seeds for what he is going to say here in chapter 6. Because what Christ’s death achieves for us is not merely a kind of “get out of jail free” card that frees us from punishment - it also achieves reconciliation with God and rescues us from a life where we were strangers to God and alienated from him.

And so in that sense, Christ’s death was our death too. We died with him - or at least our old self did. It was the end of that life where lived as enemies of God. That life, that old life, was really a kind of death. To be alienated from God is to be alienated from life, in the end. The final punishment of our sins in hell is something that grows out of the nature of sin itself. The wages of sin is death, because sin itself is death, if we only realised it. And so when Christ took our burden on his back and went to the cross and died our death for us, he was soaking up all the power and all the dreadfulness of that death in our place, for our sake. He died our death, and so we died with him. If we are in Christ we have died to death - both the future death, the eternal death that is the punishment of sin, and the present death, the living death that is life alienated from God. Christ’s death rescues us from both.

If you are in Christ you are not just the same old person with a get-out-of-jail pass that exempts you from the final judgment. If you are in Christ you are a new person, with a new life, and a new relationship with God.

And so Paul continues, verse 8: “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”

2. You serve a new master (v.15-23)
Because of Christ’s death you live a new life; and secondly, verses 15-23, because of Christ’s death you serve a new master.

Not under law (v.15)
The starting off point this time round is the sentence at the end of the first half of the chapter. Verse 14, Paul writes: “Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” And so Paul asks in verse 15: What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

This is the first time he has mentioned law in this chapter, and it’s an incredibly revealing clue as to how he sees things. As far as he is concerned, the sentence is not: “Sin shall not be your master, because you are under law as well as under grace.” Nor is the sentence: “Sin shall not be your master, even though you are not under law, but under grace.” As far as Paul is concerned, the sentence reads: “Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” If you are now reconciled to God, a friend of God, delivered from a life of sin and alienation from God, then you no longer have the kind of relationship with God that a stubborn-hearted enemy has with a powerful law-giver and judge. Your relationship with God is not a law-relationship.

You are not under law.

But still slaves to someone! (v.16-19)
And yet, verses 16 to 19, you are still slaves to someone. Verse 16: Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”

There is no such thing as spiritual neutrality. When God rescues you out of the kingdom of darkness, you don’t become a stateless person, a citizen of nothing, an autonomous individual who belongs nowhere, a kind of spiritual Peter Qasim. When God rescues you out of the kingdom of darkness he makes you a citizen of the kingdom of Christ. You now become a slave of the gospel - verse 17 - a slave of righteousness - verse 18 - a slave of God - verse 22.

Bob Dylan had it exactly right, didn’t he. I’ve quoted him before on this point and I know you’ll forgive me if I quote him again! Remember the song?

"You may be the ambassador to England or France;
you may like to gamble, you might like to dance;
you may be the heavyweight champion of the world;
you may be a socialite with a string of pearls -
But you're gonna have to serve somebody - yes indeed -
you're going to have to serve somebody;
It may be the Devil or it may be the Lord,
but you're gonna have to serve somebody."


Who’d you rather serve? (v.20-23)
And so the question, verses 20-23 is simply this: Who would you rather serve? Who would your ather belong to? Who do you think makes the better master? Verse 20: “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In my life
So what will it look like in your life and in mine? If we really are people who belong to Christ, who belong to righteousness, what will it look like in practice?

Choosing against sin
On the on hand, it will mean choosing against sin. In a thousand small, repeated ways, it will mean choosing not to go down the paths that belong to our old life, because we know where they head. Paul writes, verse 12: “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness.”

A friend of mine confessed a sin to me the other day. It was a very small thing - the sort of thing that he almost felt silly confessing. But we both knew as we talked about it and prayed about it that it was a tiny little step in the direction of a destination that was very very ugly. We both knew that if he kept on doing little things like this and justifying them to himself, and then slightly bigger things of the same nature, the end result of all that would be cancerous. And so we prayed about it together and we talked about the resolves that he had made to see that it never happened again.

Keep choosing against sin, in the small things as well the big. Don’t let yourself get comfortable with the small deceptions, the little impurities, the subtle ego-trips, the polite unkindnesses. Keep choosing against sin.

Choosing for righteousness
But it’s more than just that, isn’t it. It’s also about choosing positively for righteousness. Thomas Chalmers was right back in the nineteenth century when he talked about the ‘expulsive power of a new affection’. That is to say, if you want to get rid of a sin, you don’t replace it with a vacuum - you replace it with an even stronger passion for something good. So if you want to break a habit of watching rubbish TV, you don’t replace it with sitting around on the lounge feeling bored and sorry for yourself; you replace it with some new and better way of spending an evening. If you want to break an addiction to buying endless new clothes that you don’t really need, you don’t just replace it with nothing - you replace it with spending the money on something you care about more, or with working less hours and spending the time on something that matters more to you.

It’s the same way with sin and righteousness - Paul doesn’t just say, stop using your body as an instrument for sin; he says start using it as an instrument for righteousness. Verse 13: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” For most of us, I suspect, that doesn’t necessarily mean a busier life, but it does mean a more purposeful life. It means living on purpose, living deliberately for the things that matter, for the things that glorify God, and therefore for the things that deliver real joy. You might be able to think about one such change that you could make even today, and talk about it with someone and get them to pray for you that God would help you do it?

Why bother doing it? Why bother when it will be hard, and it will take some discipline and some will power and some sweat? Not because we think it will earn us our salvation; not because we want to retreat from the freedom of the gospel into legalism and moralism, but because we’re learning more and more that we have a new life now, and we serve a new master, and we want to live in keeping with that new existence that we have in Jesus.