The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

Freedom from Sin's Grasp - 2

Note: See the Answer Key at the bottom of this page to fill in the blanks.

This portion of Paul’s letter deals with the ____________ _______________ ___________ of the Gospel: Because of what Jesus has done in shedding His Blood to ______________ our sins and dying on the Cross that we may be ________________ in our old, sinful nature, we have the opportunity to live in freedom from sin’s grasp!

Overview:

Romans 6:1-14	Sin's Power is Broken	Paul tells us that since we have “died” with Christ, been and crucified with Him, sin no longer has any power over us.
Romans 6:15-23	Freedom to Obey God	Paul uses the illustration of slaves and masters to show that sin is no longer our “master” since we have “died” as “slaves” to sin.
Romans 7:1-6	No Longer Bound to the Law	Paul uses the illustration of a woman married to an unwanted “husband” (the Law of Moses), who “dies” through receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior and thus is able to “marry” a “new Husband,” (Jesus).
Romans 7:7-13	God’s Law Reveals Our Sin	Paul points out that it is the Law (of Moses), which demonstrates that we are sinners. If not for the Law telling us what we have to do, we would be unaware of our sin.
Romans 7:14-25	Struggling with Sin	Here Paul points out that even though we have “died” to sin the sinful nature can still come to the forefront. The resulting struggle means that we find ourselves doing the things we don’t want to do, and not do the things we know we should!
Romans 8:1-17	Life in the Spirit	Paul introduces the life in the Spirit and points out our ultimate victory and freedom from condemnation.
Romans 8:18-30	The Future Glory	Here Paul points out that not only we, but all of creation look forward to an eternal, glorious future.
Romans 8:31-39	Nothing Can Separate Us From God’s Love	In this closing section, Paul reminds us that no one or no thing can ever separate us from God’s love through Christ Jesus!

Romans 6:15-23

15So since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!

Here Paul repeats the question he asked in 6:1. He is moving to a full discussion of the concept of our receiving a new “master” once we have “died” to sin, which he introduced in the previous section. He starts by repeating the vital question of whether we are permitted to sin so that God’s grace may abound, and giving us the same answer he gave us before “my genoito”—God forbid! This time Paul doesn’t bother to go any deeper into the explanation of his answer, having already done that in 6:2-14. It seems that he has repeated the question simply to emphasize the reality that those who have “died to sin”, must not continue living in it. Otherwise we cheapen the precious grace of God offered at the cost of Jesus’ precious blood on the cross.

16Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.

Paul’s first statement is rather obvious: “whatever you choose to obey becomes your master,” and yet it is reminiscent of Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:24: “24“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Jesus tells us that our choices are God or “money” (“mammon” in the Greek). Paul tells us we can choose sin—which leads to death; or God—and receive His approval.

APPLICATION POINT: Paul makes the choice seem rather simple, as does Jesus. There IS a simple component when it comes to living our lives in _____________ or _______________ to God. That simple component is at the point of our will. Many times we know the right thing to do in a situation, based on our allegiance to God as our “Master” and yet we choose to do what is wrong. This is sin at its most basic level. For these situations developing godly disciplines and habits make a major difference. We become “conditioned” to make the right choice, to say or do the right thing. It is at this level that many of could make great strides, and God expects us to do so. The challenge is that we can focus on building the disciplines and habits of righteousness and in the process become “self-righteous.” This happened to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, including Paul, before his conversion. That’s why he is able to say that according to pharisaic righteousness he was “faultless” according to the law. (See Philippians 3:1-6)

There is a deeper level at which we will find our own will is not enough to overcome sin as our master. (Paul will address this in Romans 7:14-25.) It is at this point that we must “stop trying” and let the ________ _________ take over. It was this new reality in Paul’s life—the presence of the living God through the Holy Spirit—that showed him that his outward observance of the Jewish law was “worthless.” [Let’s turn to Philippians 3:1-11 to take a closer look at the difference between “pharisaic righteousness,” and “true righteousness.”

Paul makes it clear that if we choose sin as our “master,” the outcome is death. Only as we choose God as our master will we gain His approval AND eternal life!

17Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you.

Paul makes it clear that he believes that the Roman Christians HAVE received their new “Master.” He exclaims, “Thank God!” For Paul it is no small thing that we were once ____________ of sin. Paul recognized that those who didn’t “die” to their old selves and their “slavery” to sin, would one day die and face an eternal judgment for their allegiance to sin. When Paul says, “…but now you have obeyed with ALL YOUR HEART the new teaching God has given you,” it is important that we recognize again how Paul’s teaching parallels Jesus’. When Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.” Both emphasized that our heart’s attitude toward God must be _________-hearted.

APPLICATION POINT: The heart was considered to be the seat of the emotions, will, soul, spirit, in short—the center of a person. When Jesus and Paul use the expression “all your heart” they are emphasizing that our love and obedience to God must be passionate. This is a reality too seldom seen among us. Consistent, whole-hearted devotion to God that results in obedience and love for Him and love for one another is the _______ to biblical community and to reaching the _________ for Jesus. As we experience the reality of being crucified with Jesus, “dying” to our old self, we are given the opportunity to choose a new “master.” When that happens the result is a whole-hearted, passionate life, devoted to knowing Jesus more and more, and sharing Him with others!

18Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.

Simple logic tells us that when a “slave” is taken from one “master” and given to another, the “slave” now belongs to the new “master” and must do what is expected by that “master.” In the case of this analogy we have voluntarily placed ourselves under the ownership of God. Thus, we are free of our old master-sin, and are now obligated to our new master—righteousness.

19I speak this way, using the illustration of slaves and masters, because it is easy to understand. Before, you let yourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness. Now you must choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy.

Paul tells us that he uses the image of slave and master, because it is easy to understand. Then he points out that the image breaks down in this crucial reality---we once “let [y]ourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness.” Now we must “choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy.” There is no “choosing” in a slave state, at least not for the slaves. They do what they are told. In our case, we are given the opportunity to choose whether we want to follow sin or righteousness.

APPLICATION POINT: There is an age-old debate in the church over predestination and free will. The predestinarian standpoint says that God determines what is going to happen in our lives and what we will do about it. The free will standpoint says that we have a choice in what we do. Paul emphasizes the free will aspect of our lives in choosing whether to be slaves to sin or righteousness. This does not negate the reality that God knows what we are going to choose. It simply confirms that we have the ________________ to do so. Many Scripture passages confirm that God determines events in our lives, and many confirm that we have choice. Our freedom is always a freedom within limits, and it is this reality that sets up the ______________ of sin in our lives. If we have no free will, then God is an extremely vicious being, because He is the one who causes all the evil and suffering in the world. If, on the other hand, God has given us free will and we choose to be slaves to sin, the consequences will be equally devastating. The difference is that God is not the cause of evil, He permits it in order to give us the opportunity to exercise our free will. Paul tells us that we must choose to be slaves of righteousness. If we do not we end up as slaves of sin, by default. We must make a choice—and we must make choices from moment to moment.

20In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren’t concerned with doing what was right.

Paul again points out a simple truth: sinners can’t be expected to act as anything but sinners. Non-believers ought not to be expected to live righteous lives. We ought not be surprised when evil takes place in our world. After all, non-redeemed humanity has always been wicked. This statement implies that there is a _____________ difference in our lives once Jesus takes over as our Master!

21And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.

APPLICATION POINT: Sin always brings guilt and shame. These are actually intended to lead to our redemption. When we sin we feel bad, guilty, ashamed. All of those things are God’s ways helping us realize that our relationship with Him is broken and needs to be restored. The key is that after we repent of our sins and turn to God, we must leave the guilt and shame behind us. We can never undo the consequences of our sins, but the reality is God no longer _____________ us for them after He forgives us of them! Much vital time and energy is wasted by Christians in feeling guilty about sins of the past, for which Jesus already died to pay the penalty. When we understand this, we move toward true freedom from slavery to sin.

22But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

Paul is not telling us that it is by our actions--the things we do now—that we are saved, or receive eternal life. He established back in chapter 3 that it is by grace alone that we are saved! What he is telling us is that when we become slaves of God—when we receive the salvation He offers us through Jesus and yoke ourselves to Him, our lives WILL change. Jesus changes us from the inside out through the Holy Spirit. It is the new life that Jesus gives us that leads to eternal life. It is the Holy Spirit living in us that leads us through the process known as _______________ which results in holiness. It is all God’s doing, and not our own.

23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul sums up the entire section with a wonderful “bottom line” statement: the wages of sin is death. If we work at sin, the “pay check” will be death, both physically and eternally. Thank God there is an alternative to the “pay check” of death—the free gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Paul the beginning and end of our salvation is Jesus Christ. We can use whatever analogy we want to use, and he has several more to come as we continue through Romans, but the ultimate reality is that Jesus’ blood poured out cancels our sins, and our being crucified with Him, brings an end to our old lives and gives us new lives that are eternal!

ANSWER KEY: really fantastic news, forgive, crucified, obedience, disobedience, Holy Spirit, slaves, whole, key, lost, opportunity, possibility, significant, condemns, sanctification.

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