We Who Died to Sin (Romans 6:1-14)

In this part of the sermon: After noting the conference context and recommending Lloyd-Jones's Banner of Truth exposition of Romans 6, Donnelly reads Romans 6:1-14 and introduces the sermon's controlling…

Donnelly opens by commending Martyn Lloyd-Jones's Banner of Truth exposition of Romans 6 as 'one of the most thrilling and helpful books which I have read,' setting the scholarly and pastoral context for the sermon before reading the text.

Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones has published a series of expositions on Paul's letter to the Romans, and the volume dealing with Romans chapter 6 is one of the most thrilling and helpful books which I have read. And I would urge you all, if you haven't got that volume, I can't remember the specific title, but it's Lloyd-Jones' exposition of chapter 6, published by the Banner of Truth. I would urge you to get and to read and to digest that excellent volume.

0:47 - 1:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Our great problem is not lack of effort, but unacquaintedness with our privileges.

Owen's maxim -- 'Our great problem is not lack of effort, but unacquaintedness with our privileges' -- is introduced as the sermon's controlling lens. Donnelly admits he cannot locate the exact source (believed to be Works, volume 7) and has hunted for it for 15 years, appealing to the congregation for help.

I think it's in volume 7 and if anyone can find it, I will be most indebted to them. And what Owen wrote was this, and this is our special, special, special for today. Our great problem is not lack of effort,

6:18 - 6:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: in one cute, trite little phrase, it sweeps away all the struggles for holiness, all the yearning for godliness, all the quest for likeness to Christ.

The popular evangelical slogan is critiqued as sweeping away all struggle for holiness in one cute, trite phrase. Donnelly notes it is available on a card ornamented with pink teddy bears -- making the cultural accommodation both vivid and darkly comic -- and documents its poisonous effect on evangelical morality.

Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven.

11:50 - 11:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: in one cute, trite little phrase, it sweeps away all the struggles for holiness, all the yearning for godliness, all the quest for likeness to Christ.

With ironic qualification about the reliability of statistics (referencing the morning's session), Donnelly cites that professed evangelicals have nearly as high rates of marriage breakdown, addiction, and financial misdeeds as non-Christians, and are not notably kinder -- concrete evidence that cheap grace has lowered evangelical life to worldly levels.

And I'm told that that slogan is now available on a card ornamented with pink teddy bears. Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. And that has poisoned the professing Christianity of our day. I was going to say, statistics show, but after this morning, I say statistics profess to show that there is almost as high a rate of marriage breakdowns among professed evangelicals as among people who make no profession of Christian faith.

12:31 - 13:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Cheap grace is not only a conscious theological position; it is an atmosphere. Believers can be imperceptibly damaged by it through prolonged exposure to evangelical culture that has normalized spiritual mediocrity, like…

The cheap-grace atmosphere of contemporary Christianity is compared to a smoke-filled room: initially oppressive and noticed, but after an hour or two the person inside becomes acclimatized and no longer senses the damage being done. Believers can absorb antinomianism without realizing it.

And yet, that poisoned atmosphere can affect us without our right, without our right to realizing it. You go into a smoke-filled room. For the first five minutes, the atmosphere is unpleasant and oppressive. And you notice it, and you wish you weren't there.

14:21 - 14:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Under the first heading, Donnelly unpacks what it means that Christians are constitutively 'we who died to sin.' A Christian is one transferred from Adam into Christ (Colossians…

Donnelly paints a sustained portrait of Christ surrounded every day by sin in first-century Palestine -- tempted, mocked, criticized, hated, bearing the stigma of his birth -- to make visceral what it meant that Christ 'died to sin once for all' and will never return to that world. The vividness prepares the union argument: if he died to it, and we are in him, we too have died to it.

The Lord Jesus Christ lived, and let us never forget it, he lived in this world of sin. He lived surrounded by sin. First century Palestine was an immoral, depraved, wicked place. And every day of his life he saw and heard sinful things.

21:15 - 21:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Our leader, our giant, the one on whose belt we hang, has died to sin.

Donnelly enumerates six occurrences across seven verses (vv. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) where Paul repeats the truth of the believer's co-death with Christ: 'We died, we died, we died to sin. It couldn't be clearer.' The cumulative rhetorical force demonstrates that Paul is not making a subtle point but hammering home an identity-defining reality.

Not only did Jesus die for us, we died in him. And again, as he did in the previous chapter, Paul places tremendous emphasis on this. Six times in seven verses. He underscores this truth.

24:26 - 24:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Under the first heading, Donnelly unpacks what it means that Christians are constitutively 'we who died to sin.' A Christian is one transferred from Adam into Christ (Colossians…

The finality of dying to sin is compared to the irreversible relational break that human death brings: no more phone calls, birthday cards, or face-to-face meetings. Death severs the old relationship with sin just as surely as physical death ends human bonds -- making the question of 'continuing in sin' as nonsensical as calling someone who has died.

When someone dies, relationships end.

25:34 - 25:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Under the first heading, Donnelly unpacks what it means that Christians are constitutively 'we who died to sin.' A Christian is one transferred from Adam into Christ (Colossians…

A sailor newly assigned to a submarine asks his shipmates if anyone fancies a walk outside -- illustrating the sheer absurdity of the question 'shall we continue in sin?' for someone who has been transferred into a completely new existence. The air hostess variant (inviting children to play outside the plane in mid-flight) extends the comic impossibility.

And already at the beginning of our study the question sounds foolish. It sounds absolutely ridiculous. Think of a sailor who has spent all his career. So far on a land base and he's transferred to a submarine.

28:58 - 29:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the fact that you even ask me that question tells me that either you have never been married or you know nothing, nothing of what marriage is.

A happily married Christian businessman, asked by a colleague whether there is technically anything to stop him cheating on his wife, responds that the question reveals the colleague has never understood what marriage is. He describes how he would go to his hotel room, look at his wife's photograph, and 'reckon himself married to her' -- at which point the suggestion becomes ridiculous. The parallel to Paul's 'reckon yourselves' is explicit: identity, not external surveillance, makes faithfulness certain.

Or imagine for another illustration, a Christian businessman who's very happily married. He and his wife have a strong, good relationship. They love each other deeply. They've been completely faithful to each other.

31:10 - 31:24 Read in full sermon

The point: The regulative principle, confessional subscription, and scrupulous obedience are good things, but conscientious obedience can drift over the line into legalism. Reformed believers must examine whether faith and grace ar…

Donnelly rehabilitates the Pharisees from caricature: their ancestors had been martyred for the word of God less than 200 years before Christ. They were conscientious men and women who lost faith, grace, and covenant, and good obedience curdled into legalism -- a direct warning to Reformed believers with their rediscovery of the regulative principle.

We need to be careful. In recent years, there has been a response a rediscovery of the regulative principle the importance of scripture of being governed by the word of scripture of god in our worship in our government in our doctrine in our practice there's been a welcome rediscovery of the place of scrupulous detailed obedience to the law of god my dear brothers and sisters it is perilously easy for conscientious obedience to drift over the line into legalism into legalism we need to sympathize more than we do with the pharisees we know who the pharisees were they were the baddies they were ...

40:57 - 42:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Are your children getting an impression of harshness, strictness, and duty at home? Where is the God of mercy, grace, and kindness who would enfold them and change them? Examine your household culture for legalistic patt…

Calvin Coolidge (30th U.S. President, famous for New England brevity) returns from church. His wife asks what the minister preached about. 'Sin.' What did he say? 'He was against it.' The anecdote satirizes duty-driven, law-only preaching that has no gospel, no grace, no Christ -- the homiletical equivalent of moralism.

do do do don't don't don't this is your duty this is not your duty that's not gospel preaching that's legalism that's moralism calvin coolidge the 30th president of the united states was a new englander apparently new englanders have great economy of speech they don't waste words we're told and one day he came home from church his wife said what was the minister preaching about today and coolidge said sin his wife wanted a little bit that teased out a little bit and she said well what did he say coolidge said he was a guinea could anybody ever come home from one of our worship services and say...

43:35 - 44:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen to yourself at family worship. Have you said anything like 'if you're a good girl, you'll go to heaven'? Catch the legalistic formulations and replace them with the gospel: God's purpose is that his Spirit will wo…

Donnelly confesses that he has heard himself say at family worship, 'If you're a good girl, you'll go to heaven' -- unconscious legalism that leaves out faith and grace entirely. He offers this self-indictment as evidence that 'we've all been Pharisees' and the problem is not limited to obvious legalists.

we've all been pharisees i've often i've i've listened to myself talking to my children at family worship if you're a good girl you'll go to heaven what what have i said you don't go to heaven if you're a good girl that's legalism you see focus is wrong faith is left out grace is left out god is left the most important thing in your life is that god's purpose is that you will be like his son and that his presence will be like his son and that his presence will be like his son and that his presence by his spirit is with you working and because this approach is wrong it doesn't work i see young ...

46:15 - 47:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Young pastors who enter congregations determined to give the people law, law, law -- hammering and kicking, wounding consciences -- will find it does not work. The conscience cannot be bullied into lasting holiness. Prea…

Donnelly describes the recognizable type: the young pastor convinced his congregation needs 'a good kicking and a good hammering,' who puts on his hobnail boots, gets his knuckle-dusters, and gives them law, law, law -- packing and beating them down, wounding their consciences. It doesn't work. The image is vivid and self-aware.

wound their consciences it doesn't work doesn't work diligent effort and we've all had it in our christian lives times in our lives when we tried so hard to please god and for a few weeks or months there was a degree of improvement we made a little bit of progress but then it all came to nothing and it fizzled out and we fell back and we were just where we were at the beginning and then we tried again and we tried again and we tried again and we tried again and we tried again and we tried again lots of effort but it was in the wrong context i think of the game of golf i don't play very often b...

47:33 - 49:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Young pastors who enter congregations determined to give the people law, law, law -- hammering and kicking, wounding consciences -- will find it does not work. The conscience cannot be bullied into lasting holiness. Prea…

Many believers have had seasons of intense effort to please God, brief improvement, then collapse back to where they started -- then tried again and again with the same result. This repeated cycle is used to demonstrate that effort in the wrong context (flesh rather than faith and grace) cannot produce lasting holiness, however sincere.

wound their consciences it doesn't work doesn't work diligent effort and we've all had it in our christian lives times in our lives when we tried so hard to please god and for a few weeks or months there was a degree of improvement we made a little bit of progress but then it all came to nothing and it fizzled out and we fell back and we were just where we were at the beginning and then we tried again and we tried again and we tried again and we tried again and we tried again and we tried again lots of effort but it was in the wrong context i think of the game of golf i don't play very often b...

47:33 - 49:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Young pastors who enter congregations determined to give the people law, law, law -- hammering and kicking, wounding consciences -- will find it does not work. The conscience cannot be bullied into lasting holiness. Prea…

Donnelly describes his own golf game with comic self-deprecation: veins standing out, sweat lashing, every muscle tensed, hitting the ball well over 100 times on a 5,000-yard course -- and walking 15,000 yards in the process -- while scoring terribly. An old man of about 80 gives the ball 'a little tap, 150 yards, straight as a die, seven iron, a little tap onto the edge of the green, two putts, down in four.' If John Owen were the golf coach, he would say: 'Brother Ted, your great problem is not lack of effort, it is divine.' Effort without the right context is futile.

only hit the ball 70 or 80 times i have no time for that let me assure you i hit it well over a hundred times no half measures with me and the veins stand out in my head and the sweat lashes off me and every muscle is tensed and i'm gritting my teeth and giving it my all and there's an old man of about 80 who makes me sick he totters out onto the tee and takes his club back to about here and gives it a little tap 150 yards straight as a die seven iron a little tap onto the edge of the green two putts down and four it's not fair and if john owen was my golf coach he would say brother ted your g...

49:00 - 50:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Young pastors who enter congregations determined to give the people law, law, law -- hammering and kicking, wounding consciences -- will find it does not work. The conscience cannot be bullied into lasting holiness. Prea…

Walter Marshall, in 'The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification,' is quoted: 'We must first receive the comfort of the gospel, that we may be able to perform the duties of the law.' The right order -- gospel comfort preceding legal duty -- is the structural antidote to legalism and the reason 'reckon yourselves' comes before 'refuse' and 'rededicate.'

And because he has, therefore I can, by his strength. Walter Marshall, in his book, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, says, We must first receive the comfort of the gospel, that we may be able to perform the duties of the law. Receive the comfort of the gospel, and then we'll be able to perform the duties of the law. Faith is not insubstantial.

50:41 - 51:15 Read in full sermon

The point: When the old self presents itself -- when temptation calls back to a former identity -- say with Augustine: 'It is not I.' You are not who you were. You have died. You are a new person in Christ. Reckon it so and the tem…

After his conversion, Augustine encountered a woman he had known sinfully before his faith. She approached boldly and said, 'It is I, Augustine.' He replied, 'Yes, but it is not I, Augustine.' He was not who he had been; he had died and was a new person in Christ. The story is the most vivid verbal illustration of reckoning one's new identity in the sermon.

The story is told of Augustine, that sometime after he'd been converted, he saw a woman whom he had known too well in the years before he came to faith. And she walked over to him with a bold, brazen look on her face and stood and...

53:32 - 53:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second exhortation (refuse) calls believers to actively say no to sin as an alien power -- a king, general, master, and employer who has no further claim. Christ is our Savior…

A naturally gifted, insensitive father demonstrates athletic skills to his small, uncoordinated son -- who cannot replicate them no matter how hard he tries. The father's perfect example is not a help but a crushing burden. This illustrates why Christ as merely a moral example would be soul-destroying: a perfect model we cannot live up to only condemns rather than helps.

A good example can be a curse. A good example can be a burden. A good example can be a destructive, soul-destroying thing. Take a little fellow of nine or ten years of age.

57:22 - 57:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second exhortation (refuse) calls believers to actively say no to sin as an alien power -- a king, general, master, and employer who has no further claim. Christ is our Savior…

A girl of average academic ability spends her entire school career under the shadow of her outstandingly brilliant older sister who got double A's in everything. The example is soul-destroying, not inspiring. Parallel to the athletic father: a perfect example without a Savior who empowers is not good news but law.

She's reasonably intelligent. She comes in the middle of the class at high school. She does well. But her older sister was outstandingly brilliant.

58:26 - 58:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A due sense of deliverance from the dominion of sin is the most effectual motive unto holiness.

Owen's second quotation, this time with known attribution (Works, volume 7): 'A due sense of deliverance from the dominion of sin is the most effectual motive unto holiness.' Grasping our liberation in Christ, not the whip of duty, produces genuine holiness -- the positive argument underlying the whole sermon.

Owen says, A due sense of deliverance from the dominion of sin is the most effectual motive unto holiness. A due sense of deliverance of being in Christ. That's the most effectual method. The most effectual motive unto holiness.

59:52 - 60:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A due sense of deliverance from the dominion of sin is the most effectual motive unto holiness.

An emancipated slave, now free in the North, sees his old master across the street. Habit takes over and he starts walking toward him -- then stops halfway: 'He's not my master anymore. I never should have belonged to him. I'm a free man.' He turns and walks away. Donnelly applies it directly: the devil is the old master who clicks his fingers and calls; the believer who reckons turns his back and refuses.

Lloyd-Jones in his exposition of Romans 6 uses the illustration, I'm sure you've heard it, of the emancipated slave in the United States in the middle of the last century. He'd run away from one of the states where slavery was practiced. He'd gone up north. He was a free man.

60:13 - 60:31 Read in full sermon

The point: The path to holiness is not introspection, picking the scabs off yourself, or morbid anxiety. It is active service: throwing yourself wholeheartedly into obedience to your new master. Activity and busy service, not self-…

The preacher's mother used the saying 'Satan has some mischief still for idle hands to do' as a household motivational force, ensuring the children never claimed to be bored. The point for holiness: the path is not idle introspection or morbid self-examination but active, busy service to the new master.

Doing all we can to please him. The best way to be holy is to be busy serving God. When we were small, my mother had a phrase, some of your mothers may have used it too, which struck a chill into our hearts every time we heard it. And stirred us into frenzied activity.

63:05 - 63:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Romans 12:1 says we present our bodies 'by the mercies of God' -- by means of them, through them, with them as the vehicle. We do not obey first and then appeal to mercy; we live and serve inside the mercies of God in Ch…

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, after 50+ years as a preacher, said of Romans 6: 'This chapter has been to me, since I came to understand it, the most liberating in my whole Christian experience.' He came to see he was not under law but under grace, not in Adam but in Christ -- a discovery that set him free after decades of ministry.

We shouldn't even say that. A great preacher of the last century was Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd-Jones says of Romans 6, This chapter has been to me, since I came to understand it, the most liberating in my whole Christian experience.

66:21 - 66:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Romans 12:1 says we present our bodies 'by the mercies of God' -- by means of them, through them, with them as the vehicle. We do not obey first and then appeal to mercy; we live and serve inside the mercies of God in Ch…

Donnelly unpacks the preposition 'by' (dia) in Romans 12:1 -- 'by the mercies of God' -- as meaning 'by means of, via, through,' not merely 'because of.' God's mercies in Christ are the vehicle that carries our self-presentation; we present our bodies in Christ, not merely because of Christ. We live, suffer, and serve inside the mercies of God as the medium of our obedience.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, here's the preposition, by the mercies of God. That preposition means by means of, via, through. It does not mean just that because God has been merciful to us, we should therefore present our bodies. It means that the mercies of God are, if you like, the vehicle which carries our bodies as a living service.

67:29 - 68:09 Read in full sermon