Um, you have a little sin residue on your face …
If you’re in the northwest Chicagoland area, and you’re available Wednesday nights, you should really come out to Church in the Word at 7 PM. We do a little bit of worship, and then Dennis picks apart the book of Romans. My notes are here.
Last Wednesday: Romans 6:1-14
Chapter 6 starts with a question that enables hypocrites to this day:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Paul says, “Heck no” (my paraphrase) in verse two, and makes a pretty strong statement when he says,
How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
If we’re born-again, we have died to the “old man” that we used to be – the one who liked sin. We know that we’re accepted by God in Christ, so we don’t resist sin to “earn” salvation, we resist sin because we’re new people. People who don’t enjoy sin anymore.
That sounds strange to the world, but verse three discusses our baptism “into Christ Jesus” (which is different from water baptism). If Jesus is dead to the power of sin, then so are we who are born-again/baptized into Him.
None of which is to say that we’re suddenly perfect. We still make mistakes, but it’s not because we’re slaves of that “sin nature” that we inherited through Adam. We’re free from that.
We still mess up because our minds are still being renewed (Romans 12:2); we’re here with the same physical bodies and the same souls we’ve always had. We have a new Spirit alive inside of us, but, as verse six suggests, it’s only as good as we know it is. We have to know it, believe it, and act like it before that new life inside of us becomes evident on the outside.
What does this mean? You and I have no excuses. If we’re still living as slaves to sin it’s because we choose to be.
If you’re born-again, baptized into Christ, you have no “sin nature” that you can blame Adam for. You are not suffering from any “generational curse.” You and I sin because we choose to.
Tempted? Of course. But God does not allow temptation stronger than what you are able to bear, and He always provides a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).
So what do we do? First, we own our mistakes. Then, we get serious about renewing our minds – reading scripture, attending church, submitting to accountability partners, and stop ingesting things that will keep our minds in the world.
The Esther Project 
Good ol’ Chapter 6! The entire chapters of five, six, and seven all tie in to make a powerful explanation of sin–or Adam–vs. Jesus–freedom–. We start off with verses 1&2 which show Paul making a logical defense for the statements he had just made, so this makes it clear that he during his ministry has come to this lame question once or twice. The idea, “Are we to CONTINUE in sin that grace my increase?!” is just ludicrous to Paul. The stress, on the word continue, is because that’s what we would be doing if we kept sinning, it’s not let us go on. Let us say we are citizen of the USA yet we move to a different country and want to become a member of that country what do we do? We forfeit our citizenship of that country so that it is no longer a part of who we are. Same idea with sin, we have become members of a different citizenship so that we can no longer continue living as if we are citizens of the law and sin, but become citizens of Christ and grace. Now Paul moves on to explain the importance of sharing in Christ’s death, by saying in verse five, “if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Our future hope is set in that we are to share in his resurrection because we have shared in his death; this is an amazing hope to have for all believers. Then verse seven is amazing, “For he who as died is freed—acquitted—from sin.” Here is showing both when sin and law lose their power over people, so that when we die we are no longer held in the dominion of sin. But because of Christ though we are still living have died with him, so that the sin dominion is no longer valid for we are now acquitted from it via our Justifier!
that was me I was just sign into my wordpress account. Don’t even know how that happened havent used it in a while.