Not Under Law? (Romans 6:14b, cont'd)

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents the fundamental point from Romans 6:2a: believers have 'died to sin,' and therefore cannot continue to live in it. He uses an analogy of physical death to…

Martin uses the analogy of physical death separating a person from their former 'universe' of people, things, and activities to explain how believers, having died to sin, are separated from sin's former dominion.

When we die, we are separated from the realm, the universe of people and things and activities in which we lived. And whereas sin was our universe of thought and desire and activity, having died to sin, how shall we live? How shall we live any longer therein? So there we have a blunt statement of the fundamental point.

9:47 - 10:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes Stuart Elliott's parable of a slave under a tyrannical king, who is crucified and then raised by a gracious king. This vividly illustrates the believer's death to…

Martin quotes Stuart Elliott's parable of a slave under a tyrannical king, who is crucified and then raised by a gracious king. This illustrates the believer's death to sin's dominion and resurrection to serve God, their new Master, clarifying the meaning of dying to sin and being alive to God.

And then the Apostle explains carefully what that means. And in order to just give a distillation of that explanation, I was laboring away on a parable to try to clarify it, when lo and behold, in studying one of the commentators, I found someone had already gone before me and done a better job. And now I quote from Stuart Elliott's book, The Gospel As It Really Is, his commentator, Arianne Romans, and he gives this parable. There was once a poor slave who was kept as a prisoner in the castle of a tyrannical usurper king.

13:09 - 13:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Reckon, count on the reality of yourselves indeed being dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. You must count on the fact that through death you have been taken out of the realm where sin reigns.

He uses the analogy of tipping a glass of water and reckoning on the law of gravity to explain what it means to 'reckon' oneself dead to sin and alive to God – it's about counting on established realities, not feelings.

If I raise this glass of water and begin to tip it, I count, I reckon, on the present operation of the law of specific gravity. I don't need to experiment as to what will happen if I keep tipping this glass and tipping it and tipping it until the water comes over. To the edge. It's not going to go out that way and land on your head.

19:45 - 20:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts thereof.

Building on the slave parable, Martin introduces the metaphor of 'beepers' embedded under the skin by the former tyrannical king (sin) to represent the lingering lusts and temptations in the mortal body, even after death to sin's reign.

Knows that you're now alive has reached his ears to go to the parable that Mr. Alviatt lays out in his commentary on Romans. In fact, a strange thing has happened. While we were his servants, he embedded under our skin beepers.

22:56 - 23:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Powerless, guilty, condemned, galled into sin, exposed as a sinner, no way of forgiveness, no way of breaking my chains. That's what it means to be under law.

He uses the example of a 'wet paint' sign provoking someone to touch the paint, illustrating how the law, by forbidding, can actually incite the human heart to sin.

The very fact that God says, thou shalt not, the human heart being what it is, is stirred up to do the very thing God forbids. You may walk by a park bench that seems to have shining lights, any new paint on it, day after day, and you're never tempted to touch it, let alone sit on it. But one day when you go by and a sign says, wet paint do not touch, what happens? You stop, and you go over, and you touch it.

32:44 - 33:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Powerless, guilty, condemned, galled into sin, exposed as a sinner, no way of forgiveness, no way of breaking my chains. That's what it means to be under law.

He uses the analogy of pure sunlight causing a dunghill to stink to explain how the pure, holy law of God, when it comes upon the human heart, can stir it up to more sin.

It provokes disobedience. That's how the law functions. And just as the pure rays of the sun cause a dunghill to stink, so the pure holy law of God coming upon the human heart actually stirs it up to more sin. That's what the law does.

33:13 - 33:35 Read in full sermon