His one sin plunged the whole human race into sin, because all mankind was in his loins when he sinned.
The Bible tells us that mankind is born into sin, but even if It did not state this, it would not be hard to prove.
Illus: All you have to do is watch a newborn baby. You will see immediately:
• Newborn babies often come into the world displaying a violent temper when they cannot have things their way.
• Newborn babies manifest stubbornness, pressing their little lips together so that they can not be fed.
These selfish and rebellious acts come naturally. We all get that naturally, from “Papa” Adam. We were born in sin. The human race is a LOST RACE.
That is why God’s Word says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Some have come shorter than others, but every one of us has missed the mark.
We all inherited that nature to sin from Adam. Some would have us believe that we came about through evolution.
Illus: This reminds me of the American who was visiting China. He saw a young Chinese boy bouncing rocks across the top of the water in a nearby lake. Each time he would throw the rock, it would make a sound like this; Ching, Chang, Chung! The American said to this young Chinese boy, “That’s strange. What do those sounds mean?” The Chinese boy began to explain that it was a ancient Chinese custom for a young man to do this, because it told him of his family history. He said, “For example.
• My father came from the Ching family.
• My grandfather came from the Chang family
• My great grandfather came from the Chung family.”
The American said, “Do you reckon it will tell me the history of my family?” The young Chinese boy said, “Try it and see.” He picked up a rock, and skipped it across the top of the water, and these sounds came forth; Chim-Pan-Zee.
A lot of folks may think we evolved from the monkey, but the Bible tells us we all came from Adam, the man God created.
Admittedly, the sinful nature that we all inherited makes us act like monkeys sometimes, but the fact is, we are all members of the lost human race that Adam is the head of.
• In chapter 5:12-14, we discovered that Adam is the head of the human race.
• In chapter 5:15-21, we also discovered that Christ is head of the heavenly race.
• From the first Adam we received sin
• From the second Adam we received righteousness
• One SINGLE ACT OF ADAM, plunged the whole human race into sin.
• One SINGLE ACT ON CALVARY, brought righteousness to the whole human race.
Once we have come to know Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we are IN CHRIST, NOT IN ADAM, we are justified by the blood of Jesus. That is, we have been declared righteous before God.
When the Lord Jesus saved us, several marvelous things began to take place in our lives.
WHAT TOOK PLACE?
1. WE WERE JUSTIFIED
That is, we were declared righteous. Christ on the cross took our sins, and His righteousness was imputed to us.
The reason we can be declared righteous, is because now that the Lord took our sins, and His righteousness has been imputed to us, when God sees us, He sees the righteousness of Christ.
But the second thing that took place after we were saved was:
2. WE WERE SANCTIFIED
That is, we are made righteous. Justification takes a sinner and DECLARES HIM RIGHTEOUS because the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to the believer.
But God takes that same sinner, and SANCTIFIES HIM/HER, AND MAKES THEM RIGHTEOUS.
• Justification removes all the GUILT. (We are now declared righteous).
• Sanctification removes the POWER OF SIN IN OUR LIFE.
Illus: I like that song that was written for boys and girls, but also applies to us adults. It is called, “He’s Still Working On Me.” The words of the song go like this, “He’s still working on me -- to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon, and the stars, the sun and the earth, and Jupiter and Mars: How loving and patient He must be, HE’S STILL WORKING ON ME.”
This is true, if you are a born-again child of God, HE’S STILL WORKING ON YOU. As long as we live on this earth, HE IS GOING TO KEEP WORKING ON US, CONFORMING US TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON.
Some folks have the misconception that all God cares about is fixing up the inside. They do not think He cares about the outside.
Illus: Listen, God is an INTERIOR and EXTERIOR decorator.
• He did the interior work when He saved us and declared us RIGHTEOUS.
• But then, every day after we have been declared righteous, He is doing the EXTERIOR job in our life.
In chapters 1 through 5, Paul, very vividly shows the lost man how he is declared righteous.
Now in chapter 6, he shows the saved man how he is made right. We call this process -SANCTIFICATION.
I want to show you the three phases of sanctification that the Bible speaks about:
1. POSITIONAL SANCTIFICATION
2. PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION
3. PERFECT SANCTIFICATION
In this particular sermon we want to look at -
I. POSITIONAL SANCTIFICATION
Look at verses 6:1-5, we read, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”
Notice, Paul was using a figure of speech as he started this section on sanctification.
He asked these Christians who were saved by God’s marvelous grace, “What shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shaIl we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein.”
Grammatically, this question is referred to as a “idiomatic” question.
He asked Christians, “ONCE WE ARE SAVED SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN?” Paul answered his ridiculous question with a strong - “God forbid!” which means, “That is absurd!”
Paul knew a great deal about their sanctification:
• GOD HAD JUSTIFIED THEM
• GOD HAD DECLARED THEM RIGHTEOUS
• GOD HAD REMOVED THE GUILT OF SIN
BUT NOW GOD WANTED TO SANCTIFY THEM, AND REMOVE THE ROOT OF SIN IN THEIR LIVES.
Illus: Some of you love to work in the yard. Have you ever dug something up in your yard that you did not want to be there, but later on, after you dug it up, you looked in your yard and saw it coming back up again?
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? The problem is that when you dug it up, you did not get all the root out, and it came back.
Sanctification is the process that God uses to REMOVE THE ROOT OF SIN IN OUR LIVES!
Paul answered his question about saved people CONTINUING IN SIN, by showing us some things that happened when we accepted Christ.
• We who are saved are no longer IN ADAM, the one we inherited this sin nature from.
• We who are saved are IN CHRIST, and from Him we received the new nature to want to please the Father.
Let me show you several reasons in this passage of scripture why we do not continue in sin.
A. WE DO NOT CONTINUE IN SIN, BECAUSE OF HIS DEATH
Look at verse 3, we read, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into this death?”
Notice that Paul spoke of being, “...baptized into this death.”
One of the first commandments God gives a new convert after he has been saved, is that he should be baptized by immersion.
It isn’t a hard thing today for Believers to follow this commandment, but during the time when our Lord was here, for you to tell someone that you were a Christian might have cost you your life.
• This is why the disciples ran and hid when Christ was crucified, they knew the same thing could happen to them.
• This is why Peter, who was later very courageous, denied the Lord. He saw, from a distance, the sufferings of our Savior, and he did not want to be identified with Jesus at that time. When all the miracles were being performed, and the crowds were screaming in His favor, it was no problem, but now things were different.
The Lord Jesus commanded that His disciples publicly be baptized. They did not go behind closed doors, and sprinkle each other. They went down to a public place, while crowds mocked them from the shoreline.
The believers baptism identified them as believers in Christ.
• When Adam sinned, we were all in the loins of Adam. We are identified with Adam at birth.
• Now, since we are IN CHRIST, when He died on the cross almost two thousand years ago, you and I were there.
Illus: Many have said, “I would like to go to the holy lands and visit Golgotha.”
• It may shock you, but you have already been there. When Christ died there, all who have accepted Him, were IN HIM.
• All those who rejected Him and crucified Him, were IN ADAM.
Every believer was on that CROSS, as much as every sinner was in the GARDEN OF EDEN when Adam sinned.
Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “l am crucified with Christ.” Our position as Christians is that we died to sin IN CHRIST.
One of the reasons we do not continue in sin after we are saved, is because WE ARE IDENTIFIED WITH HIS DEATH!
B. WE DO NOT CONTINUE IN SIN BECAUSE OF HIS BURIAL
Look at verse 4, we read, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Notice, we are, “...buried with him by baptism into death...”
We need to recognize again, that one of the reasons God wants us to be baptized is because we who have come to know Him, should not be ashamed to be identified with Him. We are not IN ADAM any longer, we are now IN CHRIST.
Your sins can be in only two places.
1. They were either on Christ when He died on the cross almost two thousand years ago, because you are IN HIM.
2. They are on you!
In 1 Peter 3:21, we read something that we need to consider. But you need to pay close attention as we deal with this. Peter said, “...baptism doth also now save us...?”
IS PETER TEACHING THAT WE ARE SAVED THROUGH WATER BAPTISM, AS SOME TEACH?
We all know that baptism does not save anyone. The command to be baptized is given to Christians after they are saved, not before they are saved.
Illus: A lot of folks go into the baptistry a dry sinner, and they come out a wet sinner.
To understand this passage, we need to remember that in the preceding verses, Peter had been talking about Noah in the ark.
According to Hebrews 11, Noah was saved by faith like all people who are saved. Noah, a man of faith, was in the ark along with all who were saved from the wrath of God at that time.
In the New Testament, Christ is the Ark, and all who are saved are in Him. When God looks down at us, He does not see us, He sees Christ, because we are in Him, He is our ark.
IT IS IN THIS SENSE THAT PETER SPEAKS OF BAPTISM, IN THAT NOAH WAS BURIED IN THE ARK, AS WE ARE IN CHRIST. When Christ was buried for our sins, we were buried with Him.
We do not continue in sin, because we have died with Christ, and we have been buried with Christ. Since we are not in Adam, but are now in Christ, we are associated with His Death and Burial.
We do not continue in sin, because we are buried in Him Who knew no sin.
C. WE DO NOT CONTINUE IN SIN BECAUSE OF HIS RESURRECTION
Look at verse 5, “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death. we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”
We have skeptics all over this nation, who state, “There is nothing to Christianity. After all, I know many Christians who profess to be saved, but they live a more sinful life than those who do not even profess to be saved.”
The fact is, what these skeptics say is true many times. However, what these skeptics do not take into consideration, is that just because a person claims to be saved, does not mean they are. People can claim anything they want to claim, but it is another story when they have to back that claim up.
Illus: How many of you have ever watched professional wrestling? Have you ever heard those fellows when they are being interviewed? All of them claim to be the greatest. The only problem is - they cannot back up their claims.
We have many today who think they are saved because they have joined a church, or have attend a church, or have lived better than some people they know. However, until they are born-again, they will live like they always lived.
When a person has been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ:
• He died with Christ
• He is buried with Christ
• He has a new, resurrected life in Christ
We do not continue to live in sin because:
• When Christ died, we died
• When Christ was buried, we were buried
• When Christ came forth victorious from the grave, so did we - because we are IN CHRIST, not IN ADAM.
Illus: I do not wish to be disrespectful to the dead, but there is absolutely nothing more unresponsive than a corpse. Satan can place all kinds of sins before it, and it will not respond - BECAUSE IT IS DEAD!
Conclusion:
Does our being in Christ mean that we are perfect? No!
Finally, we will see there are two more aspects of SANCTIFICATION.
In this first message, we have dealt with our POSITION IN CHRIST. The moment we receive Christ, we are IN CHRIST:
• His death to sin was our death to sin
• His burial, was our burial to sin
• His resurrection, was our resurrection to new life
# 1 (Why Christians Do Not Continue in Sin)
I. POSITIONAL SANCTIFICATION (Verses 1-5)
A. WE DO NOT CONTINUE IN SIN BECAUSE OF HIS DEATH
B. WE DO NOT CONTINUE IN SIN BECAUSE OF HIS BURIAL
C. WE DO NOT CONTINUE IN SIN BECAUSE OF HIS RESURRECTION
# 2 (Why Christians Do Not Continue in Sin)
II. PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION (Verses 6-7)
# 3 (Why Christians Do Not Continue in Sin)
III. PERFECT SANCTIFICATION (Verses 8-19)
