|
Romans for Youth
Commentary by Pastor Ron
Beckham
Romans Chapter
6
Verse 1.
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that
grace may increase?”
Paul, who wrote Romans, has been
telling us that God’s favor (grace) through faith (trust) in
the Lord will save us, but keeping God’s Law won’t. He
asks: Are we then to “sin” (do bad things) so that God will
like us even more?
Verse 2.
“May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in
it?”
Paul says: NO! When Jesus died on the
cross, our sin died with Him. We are NOT to be sinners
anymore. We are saved by Jesus FROM sin.
Verse 3. “Or
do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”
When we are baptized (dunked in water),
we are telling everyone that we have received Christ Jesus.
We no longer will live for this world. When He died, our
sins died with Him.
Verse 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.”
Jesus Christ died for our sins and was
buried. Our sins died and were buried with Him, if we
believe in Him. To be baptized is to show the world we are
dead to sin and have new life in the Lord.
Verse 5.
“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of
His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection,”
If we are one with Christ by having
faith in Him, we are dead to this world and alive to the
Lord. Just like He was raised to life, we will be, too.
Verse 6.
“knowing this, that 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 Jesus Christ died on the cross, we
(our sins) died with Him. What we used to be died with Him
so that we will NOT be slaves to sin anymore.
Verse 7.
“for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Dead people don’t sin. If have faith
(trust) in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is like we died on the
cross with Him, and because of that, God does not see us as
sinners anymore.
Verse 8.
“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with Him,”
When we understand that we died to sin
on the cross with Jesus Christ, we see that we shall also
LIVE forever with Him.
Verse 9.
“knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is
never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”
Jesus Christ died for our sins and He
will never die again. He defeated death, which was once the
master of us all.
Verse 10.
“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all;
but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
Christ died on the cross and in doing
so, our sins died with Him. He returned to LIFE, but not
just for Himself – He is alive to God the Father.
Verse 11.
“Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive
to God in Christ Jesus.”
When we believe (have faith in the Lord
Jesus), we understand that our sins died when He died. We
also see that we are ALIVE to God in Jesus Christ.
Verse 12.
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that
you obey its lusts,”
Since we are dead to sin, it is
important to not keep on sinning (doing bad things). Jesus
set us free from sin, so we must not let sin rule us
anymore.
Verse 13.
“and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin
as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to
God as those alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness to God.”
Don’t let your eyes look where they
should not look. Don’t let any part of your body do what it
should not do, but look to God – you died to sin in Christ
and are alive from the dead. Your body now belongs to Him
to do what is right.
Verse 14.
“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under
law but under grace.”
Sin is not your master anymore, if you
have received Jesus Christ as your savior because the Law of
God has been replaced by the grace of God in your life.
Verse 15.
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but
under grace? May it never be!”
Some people might think it’s good to
sin (do bad things) a lot, because we are forgiven (have
God’s grace) and we are not under God’s Law. Paul says “NO”
to that – We are NOT to be sinners anymore!
Verse 16.
“Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone
as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you
obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience
resulting in righteousness?”
We are saved FROM sin in Christ Jesus
and don’t have to be slaves to sin. But if we keep on
sinning, we become slaves to sin again, which will end in
our death. Isn’t it better to obey God and do what is
right?
Verse 17.
“But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin,
you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching
to which you were committed,”
THANK the Lord, for if you have faith
in Jesus Christ, you are no longer a slave to sin because
you obeyed the good teaching about Jesus that God has for
you.
Verse 18.
“and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of
righteousness.”
“Sin” is doing wrong and
“righteousness” is when we do what is right. When we are
saved from sin in Christ, we start doing what is right.
Verse 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.”
It’s more complicated than all this,
but we are only people and it’s hard to understand. He’s
saying: just as we used to do bad things, now we are to do
good things because we love the Lord. This is called
“sanctification” (living a clean and good life in the power
of God).
Verse 20.
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to
righteousness.”
Before we received Christ as our
personal savior, we were sinners and were not interested in
doing what is right.
Verse 21.
“Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the
things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of
those things is death.”
What we did when we were sinners makes
us ashamed and such things lead only to death.
Verse 22.
“But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you
derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the
outcome, eternal life.”
But when we love the Lord Jesus, He
sets us free from sin and helps us serve God. He offers us
good, clean lives and gives us eternal LIFE with Him.
Verse 23.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Sin will destroy our lives, but if we
TRUST in God's free gift, Jesus Christ, we are given
wonderful LIFE with our Lord - forever!
Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries
www.fridaystudy.org
ron@fridaystudy.org
|
