Me? A Saint? A Study of Definitive Sanctification

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Well, we continue our study tonight, returning to all that the Bible teaches about the great subject of salvation. Tonight, we come to what is often been called positional sanctification or definitive sanctification - and we'll talk about all that means in a few minutes.

There's a rush in the Roman Catholic Church to make John Paul II a saint. How exactly does that happen? What are the steps to becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic tradition? Well, according to the Catholic encyclopedia, you first have to reach an intermediate step which is really the hard part. And there are 20 steps to reach a state of blessing, where you can be publicly venerated, and you can be publicly blessed. Twenty steps. For example, first someone has to take up your cause. And then, that person initiates inquiries into the man or woman's manner of life and any miracles that they may have performed. Then they have to find out if the person was a good Catholic by investigating his writings and associations. And then all of that evidence is put together and sent to Rome, if necessary, translated into Italian. And it's distributed to the cardinals who, if they determine that that candidate hasn't said or written anything contrary to the teachings of the church, they then form a commission to decide whether or not this person can even be considered for the intermediate step of veneration (public veneration). Finally, after a lot more red tape, there has to be a final test to prove if in fact the person did miracles, because that's a requirement. If the cardinals were satisfied that that really did happen, then they send their recommendation to the Pope who does the honors at the Vatican. And from that time on, the individual is called "blessed" or can be venerated publicly. After that, there must be at least two posthumous, verified miracles. Posthumous is the keyword. They're dead, and yet, they're still working miracles that occur as the result of the veneration. And then once that takes place, the road to sainthood can continue - after the recognition of the miracles, the cardinals recommend canonization to the Pope, he commands the public worship of the saint. All of this according to the Catholic encyclopedia.

None of us stand any chance of ever being a saint if those are God's requirements. Fortunately, they are not, because the Bible teaches us that every genuine believer is a saint. If you are in Christ, you are a saint. Now, how is it that all of us, who still struggle constantly with sin, can be called saints? It's because of something that happened at the moment of your salvation called definitive sanctification.

Now, let me just remind you of where we've been. I promised you (those of you who've been with us) that if you stayed with me, eventually, this would make sense. And I hope it's beginning to come into form. The ordo salutis is simply a Latin phrase for the order of salvation. From left to right, you can see the order of salvation. Election occurred in eternity past when God chose you to be His own. Then, in time, at the very moment of salvation, a number of things happened in this order. There was effectual calling. There was regeneration. There was faith and repentance. Positional sanctification - which we'll look at tonight. Justification and adoption. All of those things occurred chronologically, at one moment in time, at the moment you came to faith in Christ. But logically, as we try to sort of take that moment apart and look at it, they occurred in this order. And then, through the rest of life on this earth, there is progressive sanctification - the process whereby we are made more holy, we're made more into the image of Christ. And perseverance, that is, we continue to persevere in the faith, to remain committed to Christ. And finally, at the second coming, there is glorification.

Now, as we look at these acts, it's important to remember that there is a difference between those acts that are strictly acts of God, versus those in which God and we act together. Tonight, we come to a series of divine acts that occur at the moment of salvation - positional sanctification, justification, and adoption. Those happened at the moment of your salvation, and they were acts of God in your life.

As I said, tonight we want to come to positional or definitive sanctification. You'll see that, logically, it follows faith and repentance. Chronologically, it happens at the same moment. Let's begin by looking at the words the Bible uses about this reality.

First, when we look at the Old Testament, the Hebrew word is kadosh. It simply means to be consecrated or holy. It comes from a family of words that probably means to cut or to separate. Sometimes, the Old Testament word is used in a moral sense. A person is morally holy. For example, in Leviticus 19:2: "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy", God says. And then He lays out this series of very practical commands of ethical, moral behavior. But most often in the Old Testament, it's used in a ceremonial way. For example, persons in the Old Testament can be holy. Angels, priests, prophets, Israel itself - those in the Old Testament are designated as holy, not in the sense of moral, but in the sense of set apart from the everyday, common use to the special service of God. The same thing is true with places can be holy – Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, Israel's land, it's total territory. It's also used of objects - the Tabernacle is called holy, the alter, the sacrifices, the temple are all called holy. So, you see that this word has in it the idea of something that was used to certain way, and now it is taken and remove from that use and set apart for a very specific high calling, a high purpose.

When we come to the New Testament, the primary word is hagios. It's used some 225 times in the New Testament. It simply means to consecrate, to make holy, or to be holy. There is some ceremonial usage, like the Old Testament, where something is set apart and that's used of the law, for example, in Romans 7:12 - it's called holy, that is, it's set apart unto God and special use. But the primary usage in the New Testament of this word and this word group, is moral or ethical. It has to do with our behavior, with behavior that conforms to the holiness of God. It means to be saints, to be set apart.

Now, when we think of the word "sanctification" (and we're calling this definitive sanctification), normally we think of only progressive sanctification - that process through which, all of life, we're being made more and more holy. But the Bible really talks of three stages of sanctification.

The first is an event at salvation. This is called, as we are tonight, definitive or positional sanctification. You see it in many passages, as we'll look at tonight, but 1 Corinthians 1:2 says, "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who [already] have been sanctified in Christ Jesus..." It was an event. This kind of sanctification was an event that occurred at the moment of salvation. It has its ultimate grounds in the death of Christ. In Colossians 1:2, Paul writes, "To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ..." It all is ours because we are in Christ.

Turn to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10:10. Here you find the same use of something that happened already to us and it happened at the moment of salvation. He says, "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." This is an event that occurred in the past and the grounds of it comes to us through, you'll notice in verse 10, the sacrifice of Christ. We can be definitively sanctified, that is, at the moment of salvation we can be set apart because of what Christ accomplished on our behalf. Notice in Hebrews 13:12: "Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate."

But definitive sanctification has its immediate grounds, not in the death of Christ, but in our being united with Christ, in our union with Christ, something that occurs at the moment of salvation. Notice in Romans 6:6, our old self... We'll come back to this verse several times tonight. In fact, I want to eventually go to Romans 6 and look at it in detail. "...our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin..." When we were crucified with Christ, as it were, when we were united with Him in His death, when at the moment of salvation God reckoned us as having died with Christ, that was the grounds on which He could say, "We are holy. We are saints."

So, it's an event at salvation. But sanctification is also a process that's occurring right now. It's ongoing. This is what we call progressive sanctification. This is being made like Jesus Christ gradually, day by day, throughout our lifetime. If you're still in Hebrews 10, look at verse 14 because here the word is used in this sense. "For by one offering He has perfected for all time..." And the translation here cloud a little bit of what the Greek text says. "...He has perfected for all time those [the ones that are being] who are sanctified. The ones who are being sanctified. In fact, if you have a version of New American Standard that has footnotes or notes out in the margin, you can see that that translation is offered there. That's literally what it says. It's a process. It's an ongoing process in our lives. We're being made like Jesus Christ.

But it's also an event in the future. Sanctification not only happened at the moment of salvation, we were set apart to God. It not only is a process through which we're being made holy now, but it's also an event in the future. This is called ultimate sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 5:23: "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely [when does this happen?]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." There is coming a time when we will be ultimately, completely sanctified.

What we want to look at tonight is the first of these stages, and that is, the event that happened at the moment of salvation. Now, let me give you the biblical arguments for such a thing. How do we know it even exists? Well, there's several...there are three arguments, to be specific.

The first argument is the Bible is very clear and constant in calling us saints. The word "saints" is simply the noun form of the word for holy. It means holy ones. We are the holy ones. It's used of Old Testament believers in several places. Christ, in His resurrection - you'll see there the Matthew references to the Old Testament believers that were resurrected, the saints that were resurrected at the death of Christ. So, it's used of Old Testament believers.

It was also used...it is used, I should say, constantly of New Testament believers. Romans 1:7. Paul writes to the church in Rome and he says, "all who are beloved of God in Rome". Who is that? That's every believer - "called". And the word "as", you'll notice, is in italics - it's added by the translators to clarify. In this case, I think it only clouds. But "to all who are beloved of God [that's every Christian] called as saints." Romans 8:27: "...He intercedes [that is, the Spirit intercedes] for the saints according to the will of God." Who is it that the Spirit intercedes for? All believers. And we're called saints. It's another name for believers - holy ones. 1 Corinthians 1:2: "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling..." Ephesians 1:1: "To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus..." - to the holy ones. Ephesians 4:12 - God has given gifted men to the church to equip the saints for the work of service. That's you. That's me. We're saints. We're holy ones. Philippians 1:1: "Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons..." And the phrasing that he uses here makes it clear he's talking about the entire church. Saints!

How do we know there's definitive sanctification? One reason we know is because believers, even new believers in a couple of these cases, these are fairly new churches and new believers. And he calls them holy ones, saints.

There's a second reason though - we know there is such a thing in Scripture - and that's because the Scripture often speaks of us having been sanctified as a past event. We already alluded to this. But you see it in several other passages. Take Acts 20:32, for example. And here, the Greek uses the perfect tense which is very similar to our English perfect sense. "And now I commend you to God..." - as Paul speaks to the Ephesian elders here - "...I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those [the ones] who are [have been] sanctified [literally]." To all the ones who have been (already) sanctified. In Acts 26:18, again, you see that use of the perfect tense: "to open their eyes..." - Paul is talking about his ministry here - "to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been [already] sanctified by faith in Me." This is Christ laying out the mission of Paul - an inheritance among those who already have been sanctified. How does it come about? "By faith in me". Remember, this is why positional sanctification follows faith and repentance in our little chart.

1 Corinthians 1:2 - same construction. "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified [as a past event] in Christ Jesus..." There's no question but what? We were sanctified in an event, in the past, at the moment of salvation.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians. Let's look at this one. 1 Corinthians 6:9: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers [none of those people who are characterized by those sins] will inherit the kingdom of God."

But notice what he says in verse 11: "Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." There are couple of things to note here. One is the tense of the verb for "sanctified" is translated well here. It's something that happened already. The other side here saying that surprises us is the order. Notice, we would expect justification to be mentioned before sanctification, if he's talking about the process of becoming holy. But see, he's not. And so, he describes our positional sanctification, are being set apart to God from sin. And he puts it before justification, and he uses a verb tense that makes it clear it's an event in the past. So, it happened at the time of our justification and at the time of our washing.

It's interesting too, if you go back to the previous reference I have up here on the screen (1 Corinthians 1:2) - it's interesting that Paul alludes to the Corinthian church, with all of the sin issues going on there, as having been sanctified. Obviously, it's not a reference to their perfect pattern of obedience to Christ, because they don't measure up to that. He's clearly referring to a different reality.

There's a third argument. Not only can we see that we have been sanctified as a past event. Not only are we called saints - holy ones from the moment of our conversion. But there's a third argument, and that is, we have died to sin. We have died to sin. This is a fascinating study. We're going to come back to Romans 6 so I'm not going to spend much time here now. But notice what Paul says in Romans 6:2: "How shall we who died..." Notice the tense. We died to sin. Romans 6:6: "...our old self was crucified with Him [Christ]..." Romans 6:18: "...having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."

Look at Romans 7. Romans 7:4: "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die [you were made - we're talking about the past here] to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death." He's talking about before we came to Christ, before we were changed. "But now [verse 6] we have been released from the Law [that is, from its tyranny - demanding perfect obedience for eternal life], having died [we have already died] to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." So, there's this death that happened, somehow connected to the death of Christ. We're going to come back and look at that so if you don't understand, that's ok. You will hopefully by the time we're done tonight.

And then 1 Peter 2:24: "and He [Christ] Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness..." And, again, the tense of the verb, here, and the idea is: this is something that happened already. We died. You have already died to sin. And we'll talk about how that happened and what we're supposed to learn from that in just a few minutes.

So, with those sort of basic statements, basic arguments, let's give some definitions. What are we talking about? Robert Raymond writes, of definitive sanctification or positional sanctification, "Every Christian, the moment he becomes a Christian, by virtue of his union with Christ, is instantly constituted a 'saint' and enters into a new relationship with respect to the former reign of sin his life and with God Himself. And in this new relationship, he ceases to be a slave to sin, and he becomes a servant of Christ and of God." Bruce Demarest puts it a little more briefly and concisely. He says, "By definitive sanctification, we mean the believers being set aside for God's possession and declared holy by faith in Christ's sanctifying work."

Now, what is it made up of? What are the elements? What happens in this thing called definitive sanctification? Well, first of all, we are set apart from sin unto God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 says, "Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified..." We just looked at that. You were set apart from sin unto God - set apart from all that used to be, characteristic of who you were, from the sinful use that you had given yourself to, set apart now unto the use of God. Set apart. This is that sense in which it was used in the Old Testament, where things were set apart unto God. We too have been set apart for God's usage.

Sheila will tell you that I have two great vices in my life. One of them is fountain pens and the other is watches. During Christmas I was straightening my watch drawer. It had gotten a little out of hand and I came across my dad's old watch. Now, when you say your "drawer", I'm not talking about, you know, some huge drawer; I'm talking about a little tiny drawer. And, as I was straightening this drawer, I came across my dad's old watch. It's not especially attractive. It's not really expensive. But it was my dad's watch. I have, on my mantle in my den, my grandfather's railroad watch. He was in the railroad back in Mobile many, many years ago. I have it in a display case. But in the past, I have regularly worn my dad's watch and, sometimes, doing things in which it could get easily knocked around and even damaged, because it's not especially attractive or expensive. It's just a basic watch.

But as I looked at this last week, I decided to retire it and to preserve it. I sanctified it. I changed its position as an ordinary watch that I use to a special watch to keep and to protect and display. I set it apart from the mundane and everyday use, for special use. That's exactly what God has done with us. At the moment of salvation, God took you from all that was characteristic of who you used to be, and He set you apart for His own special possession, to use in a special way.

There's a second part of definitive sanctification and that is: the dominion or rule of sin is broken. The mastery of sin is broken. We are given a new power to overcome both the acts and the patterns of sin in our life. In Romans 6 (we'll look at these verses in just a few minutes) we see this laid out for us - the dominion of sin broken. Sinclair Ferguson, in his excellent little book about the Christian life, the doctrines of the Christian life, describes it this way: "By the new birth, a radical break with sin takes place. Although the character of sin in the Christian is no different from its character before he became a child of God..." In other words, it's not like your sins are any different than they were before. You still struggle with the same sins. But he goes on to say, "The status of sin has been dramatically changed. Formerly (that is, before you became a Christian) it rained like a king but now, although still present, it has been dethroned and no longer has a rightful claim upon our lives." We don't have to be its slave anymore. Before we had no choice. We were the slaves of our sin and nothing we could ever do could extricate us. But at the moment of salvation, not only does God set us apart from our sin unto Himself, but He breaks the mastery of sin. The rule of sin is forever broken, so that we can obey God.

A third thing happens in this definitive sanctification, at that moment of salvation. Not only are we set apart from sin unto God. Not only is the dominion or rule of sin broken. But we are given the new ability to obey God and pursue righteousness. And I've already alluded to this. God affects a change in our desires. No longer do we have a dominating enslaving love for sin. Instead, we have both the desire and the capacity to present ourselves to God.

Turn to Romans 6:17: "But thanks be to God [Paul says] that though you were slaves of sin..." In other words, this is the reality for all of us in the past. "...you were the slaves of sin, you became [in the past] obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed..." In other words, you responded to the gospel. You responded to the call of Christ to follow Him. You responded to the message preached. "...and having been freed from sin [notice, again, that happened in the past. You were freed from sin and its mastery], you became slaves of righteousness."

Now, as we'll see in a few minutes, the fact that the dominion of sin has been broken, doesn't mean that that's the end of our war with sin. The truth is, it's only the beginning. For although we have died to sin, sin has not died to us. As John Murray observed: "We still have sin in our lives. But there's a huge difference between an enemy's army..." Listen carefully to this - "there's a huge difference between an enemy's army possessing the capital, controlling the capital city, and a few bands of defeated foe causing problems in the countryside." There's a big difference between the two.

Regardless of your perspective on the Iraq war, we can all acknowledge that, before the war, the entire country of Iraq was controlled, was dominated, found itself in the ruthless dictatorship of a wicked man. Today, there continue to be serious problems and we hear about it and read about it constantly. There are terrorist cells that strike specific targets and cause havoc among the people of Iraq. But those are two totally different kinds of problems, that is, having a dictator who utterly rules and controls your life and having some terrorist cells that are creating havoc among - in various areas across the countryside.

And the same is true of our struggle with sin. The good news is the dictator of our souls, the tyrant's sin has been rendered powerless. But still, during this life, pockets of sin continue to attack and make every attempt to wreak havoc in our spiritual lives - terror cells, if you will, of sin. But it's a defeated enemy and we are to spend our lives doing exactly what our troops are doing in Iraq - rooting out his remaining forces in our hearts.

It's an amazing thing that God has done for us in Christ. Take a look at that list. This happened as part of the package that you received at the moment of salvation. God set you apart from sin unto Himself, as His special possession, to be used for a special purpose. The dominion of sin - your slavery to sin was broken. The tyrant was kicked off the throne. And, because of that, you were given the new ability to obey God and to pursue righteousness.

Now, what are the implications? And this is where I want to spend our remaining time tonight: the implications of this great doctrine. First of all, understanding this demands that I live daily in a way that's in keeping with my status. I'm a saint. You're a saint. We have to live like holy ones. We have to live like saints.

Turn to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5:3. We'll start at verse 1: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you [watch this], as is proper among saints..." Listen, you have a new position. You're a saint. Live like it. That's what the Scripture calls us to do. You're a holy one by position so act like that.

Revelation 19 alludes to the same sort of thing. Revelation 19:8. In verse 7: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." That's us. We're ready for the marriage supper of the lamb. "It was given to her [that is, to us] to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." We're called upon to live lives in keeping - to do righteous deeds in keeping with the title, that we have come to bear, of saints.

But the key issue, the key implication, and the one I really want you to grasp tonight: what difference does all this make? It's huge! You see, understanding what happened to you at the moment of salvation, serves as the basis, as the foundation for growing in real, practical holiness. If you don't understand what I'm teaching you tonight, then you don't have the beginnings for really growing in holiness. Thousands of voices in today's Christianity are saying that doctrine is totally irrelevant. Well, first of all, that's a nonsensical statement because the word "doctrine" only means teaching. What they're really saying is teaching is irrelevant. They all teach. What they really mean is that serious teaching about theology is irrelevant. But that attitude is patently unbiblical. And with no doctrine in Scripture do I think that that is more obvious than with this doctrine, because nowhere does Paul go deeper in theology to give us very relevant practical help in our struggle with sin, than in Romans 6. And he deals with this very doctrine. And he goes as deep as we can go.

Turn back with me, now, to Romans 6. Let's see if we can capture the flow of his argument. Romans 6. Now, remember the context here. Paul has been dealing with the truth of justification. We're going to get to that, Lord willing, next Sunday night and review all that we had a chance to study when we went through Philippians 3 and add some more detail to it. It's a great reality. We have been declared righteous because of the righteousness of another, credited to our account. And as he's been teaching that, he realizes that his critics are going to come back at him with a particular accusation.

Verse 6 or, excuse me, verse 1 of chapter 6: "What shall we say then? [He's anticipating what somebody is going to say]. Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?" He says, "Look, I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, 'Paul, if you teach that, then they're going to be people who say, 'Oh great! If I'm declared righteous before God, I can live however I want and it doesn't matter, because I've already been declared righteous.''" They're basically accusing Paul of, "If you teach that, then you are undermining the pursuit of holiness", when exactly the opposite is true. And, by the way, I love what Martin Lloyd Jones says about justification. He says, "If you don't teach justification so that people automatically come to this conclusion, then you haven't taught justification." If they don't conclude, "Oh, does that mean I can sin and do anything I want?", then they don't really understand justification. They've misunderstood it. But you haven't taught it properly if there aren't a few people who come to that conclusion.

Now, watch Paul's response, however, in verse 2: "May it never be!" There's no stronger way to say, "That is absolutely foreign to anything I could think or teach or imagine." He says, "Absolutely not!" And verse 2 has the heart of Paul's argument: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" You say, so how did that happen? What do you mean, I died to sin? Well, he goes on, in verses 3 through 5, to explain that our death to sin was accomplished through our spiritual union with Christ, a union that happened at the moment of salvation.

Let's work our way through. This is incredibly deep but I want you to get your arms around it, because Paul is going to come to a very practical application of this. Verse 3: "Or do you not know..." He says we all died to sin. But he also, then, immediately expects that some may scratch their heads and say, "What do you mean - I died to sin?" "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?"

Now, don't be confused. There's probably no water in this verse. He's not talking about the object lesson, the ordinance that's given to the church. He's using this term much as we would say that someone's immersed in their work. That's the idea. He's saying, don't you know that if you've been immersed into Christ Jesus, that is, if you have come to know Christ Jesus and been connected to Him, that you have been immersed into His death? "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him [and he's saying we have been] in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection..."

Now, what's he saying here? He is saying that at the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, God did something absolutely amazing. He united you with Jesus Christ, and in the mind of God as Christ died on that cross, you died with Him to all that you used to be. And you were buried with Him, as it were. And just then, as He was raised to new life, in the mind of God because you were united to Jesus Christ, you too were raised to walk in newness of life.

Now, in verses 6 through 7, he goes on about this death to sin that has been accomplished. And he says this death to sin that happened from our union with Christ, at the moment of salvation, involves the death of our old man. Now, stay with me, okay. I know you got to put on your thinking cap, but stay with me here. Stay with Paul, rather. Verse 6: "knowing this [here's the foundation for it, he says], that our old self [our old person, the person that we were, our unregenerate self, is what he's saying - what you used to be before you came to Christ. Our old self] was crucified with Him [Christ], in order that our body of sin [which is a reference, again, to the old man - probably just another way to refer to the old man] might be done away with [literally, might be rendered powerless], so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin."

You see, at the moment of salvation, who you used to be died. You became a new creation in Jesus Christ. You became a new person. God didn't just fix a few things around the edges. He made you, as we saw in regeneration, a new person. We retain the flesh. You are one new person. There aren't two of you sort of battling it out. You are a new person in Jesus Christ, but you retain what the Bible calls the "flesh". And that flesh isn't equal to your body, but it has its beachhead in your body. It's your unredeemed humanness. It's the part of you that remains unredeemed. And it's where the problems come from. It's where the struggle with sin continues. But the person we used to be died at the moment of salvation with Jesus Christ and, at that moment, we were raised to walk in a new life.

Now, in verses 8 through 10, he goes on to tell us that our union with Christ and that death of the person we used to be, brings to us a new life: "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him [verse 8], knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God." He says, listen, not only did you die with Christ, but here's the amazing thing. You were raised with Christ, as it were, connected in the mind of God with Christ, united to Christ and as He was raised, at that moment of salvation, you were raised to a new life. Paul's argument here is, "Listen, you can't... a person who has died to sin, can't continue to sin. You're not going to live the way you were before. Your old person died. Your old self died. You're not the person you used to be and you can't live that way anymore." That's what Paul is saying.

Now, that brings us to verses 11 through 14. And here, Paul takes that very deep doctrine - very hard in some ways to get our arms around - and he makes it very practical. He says, "Now that you understand that, let me tell you what to do with that." And, essentially, what he says is if you understand what I've just explained, then you have the foundation for growing in real practical holiness.

Let's look at it together. Essentially, in verses 11 through 14, Paul gives us two commands; two practical commands that grow out of the reality that we died with Christ. And at the moment of salvation, we were set apart, the dominion of sin was broken. And we were given the ability to obey God. Here are the ramifications of that. Verse 11: "Even so consider..." There's our first command. This is the first practical implication of what we learn - consider. And then you'll notice, verse 13 has our second command, our second practical implication: "...but present yourselves to God..." Those are the two, very practical ramifications, of what we've just learned.

Consider, verse 11: "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." The word "consider" is the word that sometimes translated reckon. It basically refers to a kind of unreserved confidence about something that's true. It's not talking about mind games. It's not sort of tricking yourself in some way. Instead, what Paul is saying is, "Get a grip on what I've just taught you and come to the unreserved confidence that it's true. It did happen exactly the way I've explained it to you. Believe what God has said actually happened to you. You died. Your old person died and you were raised to walk in a new life." Consider yourselves. Be absolutely confident that you are dead to sin but alive to God.

Verse 12: "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts..." He says, "Listen, the tyrant has been dethroned. So, stop obeying him. You don't have to obey him anymore." Verse 13: "and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness..." In other words, as tools used to accomplish those things that displease God. That's what we used to do. We used to just say, "Here it is. Do whatever you want to with it. We pursued, as Ephesians says, our cravings. We just turned it loose - have whatever you want. Just stop doing that. Instead, "present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." Verse 14, here's the bottom line: "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." In other words, you have been rescued by God's grace from your slavery to the tyrant sin that demanded you do its will. And now, you have a new power, a new capacity to say yes to God, to present yourself to God.

Now, Paul goes on in Romans 7 to talk about the ongoing struggle with sin. We're going to talk about progressive sanctification in a couple of weeks. That's important. But the starting place for that begins right here in Romans 6. If you can get a grip on what Paul describes in Romans 6, then your mind is armed to fight your battle against sin. I don't know what your battle is. All of us have certain propensities, certain sins and sin habits that we bring into our Christian life, connected to our flesh. We're a new person, but we still bring a part of us that's unredeemed, our "flesh" as the Bible calls it. And if you understand this reality, you are armed to do battle with your flesh. You don't have to be enslaved anymore. You can think rightly - consider yourselves dead to all that you used to be and alive to God. And you can present your members as instruments of righteousness. It's amazing the reality of what God has done.

Sheila and I love reading to our children. You know, when they're younger, there are a lot of classics like Goodnight Moon and Make Way for Ducklings. The one that often came up was The Ugly Duckling. You know the essence of the story. It's a bird, separated from its mother, that tries to fit in with some ducklings. But it's not nearly as pretty, as they are, at that young age. He feels ostracized, isolated. But then one day, when it grows up, it discovers that it's not a duckling after all and certainly not an ugly duckling. Instead, it's a beautiful swan. Listen to what Sinclair Ferguson writes (I love this): "The great mistake many of us make [see if this fits you - the great mistake many of us make] is to look only at our sin and failure and then ask, a little despairingly, 'What can I do?' But our need is not to do. It is, first of all, to understand what God has done, to see that what He has made us, through His Son, is a man or a woman who has died with Christ to sin's dominion and has been raised with Christ to newness of life." I am not what I thought I was, nor what I once was. I am not an ugly duckling, Christian, I am a child of God. That's what God did at the moment He saved you.

Let's pray together.

We are overwhelmed, our Father, with Your grace to us in Christ. Lord, it amazes us that You, through Your inspired apostle, call us saints - holy ones. It amazes us that You have set us apart from sin unto You and Your special use in service, as your special possession, that You have broken the back of the dominion, the tyrant of sin in our lives so that it no longer is our master, that You've given us the new ability to obey You. Father thank You that the tyrant is dethroned. Help us to keep up the battle of all the cleanup and mop up operations, to rid our souls of the sin that remains. Father help us to think rightly, even as Paul has urged us to in Romans 6. Lord we confess to You that, all too often, we're tempted to give in, to give up. Help us to remember what You have done. And help us to keep up the fight until You take us to Yourself or until Christ returns. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen!