Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20071209.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Romans: Charter Of God's Salvation Grace
Part IV: The Sanctification Of The Justified By Faith Through Grace, Romans 6:1-8:39
A. Understanding The Doctrinal Basis For Living The Christian Life Without Sinning
(Romans 6:1-4)
  1. Introduction
    1. Not only are we believers "pronounced righteous" by God when we trust in Christ as Savior from sin, we are also put into a relationship with God where we are expected to live without sinning.
    2. Many believers today are not aware that this is either expected of them, or if it is even possible, but Paul's doctrinal basis for sanctification, or living apart from sin in the Christian life, clarifies it in Romans 6:1-4:
  2. Understanding The Doctrinal Basis For Living The Christian Life Without Sinning, Romans 6:1-4.
    1. After finishing his discourse on justification by faith, Paul anticipated his readers might oppose his "justification by grace" claim by taking a cue from his Romans 5:20b statement that God's grace abounded more where sin abounded, all to assert Paul implied we should sin for God's grace to abound all the more!
    2. Thus anticipating this criticism, Paul asked his critics' question for them, writing in Romans 6:1 KJV: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?"
    3. In response to the question, at Romans 6:2a, Paul wrote, "God forbid" (KJV) or "By no means!" (NIV, ESV), the Greek expression, may genoito that means, "may it not be", a "strong negation" in Greek, U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966 ed., p. 543; Arndt & Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the N. T., 1967, p. 157.
    4. This negation reveals that a Christian not only does not have to sin, but that it is expected that he NOT sin, a position that is doctrinally explained as to its basis in Romans 6:2b-4:
      1. When a person expresses faith in Christ for salvation from sin, he is positionally made dead to sin, leaving it doctrinally improper for him to live any longer in sin, Romans 6:2b.
      2. To explain, Paul noted that, in God's view, the believer is positionally so identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, that for the believer to continue to sin is an absurdity, Romans 6:3-4:
        1. Paul claimed that the believer had been baptized into Christ Jesus, meaning he had been baptized into His death, Romans 6:3, and those who believe that by water baptism one is justified believe Paul here referred to water baptism in support of such a view, cf. Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 461.
        2. However, this interpretation greatly errs as follows: (1) Nowhere in his treatise on justification in Romans 1:18-5:21 did Paul hint that water baptism saved! (2) Indeed, he never mentioned baptism there, and (3) Paul even argued there for justification by faith apart from works, Romans 3:21-27. (4) Also, Paul revealed that water baptism does not save when he declared in 1 Corinthians 1:14-16, 17 that Christ had not sent him to baptize with water, but to preach the Gospel of Christ!
        3. Rather, in Romans 6:3, Paul must have alluded to spiritual baptism as he did in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Thus, the instant one puts his faith in Christ for justification, one of the many positional truths that immediately become true in his behalf is the fact that he is spiritually baptized, that he is identified with Christ in His death to sin on the cross of Calvary, Romans 6:3-4a.
        4. Then, since Christ also then arose from the dead by the glory of God the Father in newness of the resurrection life, even so the believer's identification with Christ at the cross by God places him in a new sphere of "newness of resurrection life", Romans 6:4b; Ibid., p. 461-462.
        5. The Greek word for "newness" (KJV) is kainoteti, and refers to a life "that has a new or fresh quality," Ibid., p. 462. In other words, Christ was not just "resuscitated" into His former life, but raised into a new form of life, creating a new basis for a life lived apart from sin for the believer who is positionally identified with Christ in His own "newness" kind of living! (Ibid.)
Lesson: If we have believed in Christ and are thus pronounced righteous by God, we are so closely identified with Christ in His death to sin and the former life and His resurrection to a new kind of life, that we believers not only NEED NOT sin, we SHOULD NOT do so! (1 John 2:1a). [We will learn in Romans 8 that such practical sanctification is POSSIBLE ONLY as we rely upon the Holy Spirit.]

Application: May we "justified" ones NEVER resign ourselves to a life of sin: our position in Christ makes doing so ILLOGICAL and IMPROPER as we belong in the "newness" of Christ's resurrection!