Romans 6:1-4,7,18-19 NASB What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? [2] May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? [3] Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? [4] 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. [7] for he who has died is freed from sin. [18] and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.[10] for the death that He died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. [19] I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Do you find yourself wishing that there were certain areas of your life you could be freed from? Do you often ask God to set you free from certain behaviors or attitudes because they are robbing you of the joy and peace that Jesus promises? Feeling like you’re in bondage to certain sins is a horrible experience that keeps us from moving forward and advancing in the purposes of God. Well, I’ve got good news for you! Getting free from those besetting sins is something that you can go ahead and check off the list because God has already done it for you. We spend a lot of time in our Christian lives asking God to do things for us that He has already accomplished in Christ. I am grateful that the Bible says, “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,” but that is not where I want to live; instead, I don’t want to continue in sin just because I know Grace is going to abound, even if I do, and therefore God won’t condemn me. I want to walk in the freedom Jesus accomplished for me two thousand years ago, and that is why Paul said in Romans 6:2 – 3 that we should not live in sin in light of the fact that we have already died to it. He asked a very profound question in verse 3, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” Being placed into Christ, I was placed into His death, and according to verse 10, in His death, He died to sin once for all, and because I was In Him, I also died to sin. All the verbs in those verses except for verse nineteen are written in the past tense because whatever sin you’re struggling with but you’re hoping to get freed from, you already died to and got freed from two thousand years ago. He accomplished this for you all those years ago, and it became real about you the day you were born again. As a matter of fact, it says in verse eighteen that you are now a slave of righteousness, and that has been true about you since the moment of your conversion. In verse 19, we are simply told, as slaves to righteousness, to surrender our humanity to Christ for the manifestation of that righteousness in the present tense. You don’t have to keep begging God to free you because it’s already happened. You simply need to begin to stand and believe what God believes about you. That should be very encouraging to you, that you can stop begging for freedom, wondering if it’ll ever come; instead, you can start walking in the freedom that has been yours from the beginning because you are in Christ, the righteous one.