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Romans 1:16-17
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
SIN (1:18-3:20)
Romans 3:10-11
As it is written, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
SALVATION (3:21-5:21)
Romans 5:6-8
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SANCTIFICATION (6:1-8:39)
The battle of the Christian life:
I have trusted in Christ. I love him. I want to follow hard after Christ and make an impact for him…and…I want to listen and at times follow my old master. I don’t have to give into him, but I want to. And that battle will rage within me until the day I die.
Romans 6:1
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
Romans 6:15-16
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey —whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Slave (Doulos)
- One whose will is swallowed up in the will of another.
- One who is bound to another.
- One who serves another to the disregard of his own interests.
Romans 6:17-18
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Have you accepted the Gospel wholeheartedly—inwardly and genuinely?
John 8:34-36
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Romans 6:19-22
I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Sanctification:
- Positional—God has set us free and set us apart.
- Progressive—a progressive partnership with God that makes us more and more free from the control of our sinful nature and free to follow more closely to Jesus.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God offers a free gift—freely and graciously given. And that gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He who supposes that Jesus Christ only lived and died and rose again in order to provide justification and forgiveness of sins for His people, has yet much to learn. Whether he knows it or not, his is dishonouring our blessed Lord, and making Him only a half Savior. The Lord Jesus has undertaken everything that His people’s souls require; not only to deliver them from the guilt of their sins by His atoning death, but from the dominion of their sins, by placing in their hearts the Holy Spirit; not only to justify them, but also to sanctify them.
-J. C. Ryle, Holiness
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