Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20040204.htm

APPLYING THE CHRISTIAN'S POSITIONAL RICHES IN CHRIST
Part VI: Applying The Truth That Believers Are Vitally Conjoined To Christ
For The Judgment Of The Old Sin Nature Unto A New Walk'
(Romans 6:1-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. When we trusted in Christ, we were pronounced righteous by God regardless of our past sins, Rom. 3:26.
    2. Yet, as we noted before, we believers still sin sometimes since we still have sin natures, 1 John 1:8, 10.
    3. On the other hand, John writes that we are not supposed to commit sins as believers, 1 John 2:1a.
    4. If we then sin and yet God expects us not to sin, how is it possible to live a godly Christian life in the presence of our sin natures and not sin? This question is answered by considering Romans 6:1-10 (and also see Lewis Sperry Chafer's Systematic Theology, vol. III, "Soteriology," p. 239-240) as follows:
  2. Applying The Truth That Believers Are Vitally Conjoined To Christ For The Judgment Of The Old Sin Nature "Unto A New Walk," Romans 6:1-10.
    1. In answering critics of his doctrine of justification by faith apart from works, Paul responded that he was not implying a believer might continue to perform acts of sin so that God's grace to forgive him could abound, Romans 6:1-2a; Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 461.
    2. On the contrary, Paul noted the believer's unification with Christ in His death and its judgment of the sinful nature, not to mention the believer's unification with Christ in His burial and resurrection make it very unacceptable for believers willfully to sin, Romans 6:2b-6:
      1. Paul noted the believer is "dead to sin," making it improper for him to sin as a believer, Romans 6:2b.
      2. To explain how the believer is "dead to sin," Paul explained when the believer is spiritually baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit when he puts his faith in Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Ephesians 1:13), he is positionally cocrucified, coburied and coresurrected with Christ as God sees it, Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:12. [Dr. Chafer explains "that the death of Christ is so definitely and act in behalf of the believer, that it is a cocrucifixion, a codeath, a coburial and a coresurrection . . ." (Ibid., p. 240)]
      3. So, just as Christ was raised in newness of the resurrection body and unto a new resurrection life, the believer is to view himself as coresurrected with Christ to live in newness of life, Romans 6:4b-5.
      4. Now, this newness of life demands that the believer who is coresurrected with Christ live without acts of sin, for one of the things to which Christ died and which no longer fit His new life was death to man's sin nature by way of Christ's substitutionary death for sin, Romans 6:6a with 2 Corinthians 5:21.
      5. Accordingly, if Christ died to the sin nature that the body of sin might be destroyed (at the rapture or the believer's physical death of his mortal body, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:56-58), and then was raised in a new kind of life now that the sacrifice for sin was completed, it is necessary for the believer not to serve the sin nature any more so as to sin, but to live a righteous life as Christ lives, Romans 6:6b.
    3. One might think those with very ungodly pasts can not live without sin, but the testimony of the one who wrote this section argues that, by the Holy Spirit's power (Gal. 5:16), just the opposite is true (as follows):
      1. Paul was once so bitterly opposed to the Christian faith that he gave himself wholeheartedly to try to destroy it by fiercely persecuting the Christian Church, Acts 9:1-2 with 1 Timothy 1:12-13a.
      2. In fact, when he was first saved and tried to identify with the Christian community, all the Christians so feared him that it took the reputable Barnabas to convince the Apostles his conversion was real before the Church could even dare to relax and rejoice in his salvation, Acts 9:26-28 with Acts 4:36-37.
      3. In fact, Christians came to glorify God for the change from sin to righteousness in him, Gal. 1:21-24, and Paul by God's Holy Spirit has since authored nearly half of our priceless New Testament books!
Lesson: Because Christ so COMPLETELY substitutionally died with and for every believer and his sin and sin nature, and each believer is thus coburied and coresurrected with Him unto newness of life, when one BELIEVES in Christ, he is EQUIPPED by God through the Holy Spirit's enabling power (Galatians 5:16-23) and is RESPONSIBLE to live WITHOUT COMMITTING SINS as a BELIEVER regardless of his background or depths of habitual sins of the past!

Application: May we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and, by God's power, to live without sinning!