Leader: sometimes it is helpful for difficult passages to try and summarize the passage, here is one example:
OVERVIEW
If grace increases because transgressions increased, should we sin more to increase grace? Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, how can we who died to sin still live in it? Let me expand on this, all who have joined with Christ have joined in His death by our baptism into him so just as Christ was raised from the dead, we will too, we get both sides. So, if we have died, then we must be a new creation. That old self must have died along with Christ so that we wouldn’t be slaves to sin any longer. So, we believe that we have died with Christ and also that we will live with him, since Christ will never die again because he defeated death. He died to sin for all men and now He lives for God. So take this example and think of yourselves as a new creation, dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus. So don’t let sin control your fleshly desires any longer and don’t let sin use your body to carry out its evil, but give your body to God and use it for righteousness. You can’t continue in sin, because grace is reigns over you now.
Discussion question: What does it mean in v3 when Paul says we are baptized into Christ Jesus?
Leader: look up the following verses:
Gal 3:27 – those who have been baptized into Christ have clothed themselves with Christ
Matt 3:11 – John baptized for repentance with water, Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire
John 3:5,6 – one cannot see the Kingdom of God unless he be born of water and the Spirit
Col 2:12 – buried with Him in baptism and raised up with Him by God.
1 Cor 6:17 – the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
1 Cor 10:2 – baptized into Moses….
Ez 36:26 – I will give you a new heart and remove your heart of stone.
2 Cor 5:17 – If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.
Eph 4:22-24 – lay aside your old self, put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, created in righteousness and holiness
Gal 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live, I live in faith for God who gave himself up for me
Gal 5:24 – those in Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires
Gal 6:14 – I have been crucified to the world
2 Cor 5:14-15 – one died for all, therefore all died, so that those who live might live for him.
Eph 2:10 – we are created in Him for good works.
Discussion question: How is it that he who has died is free from sin? (v7)
Leader: look up the following verses:
Peter 4:1-2 - Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
Rev 1:17-18 – Jesus has the keys to death and Hades
Greek word free is actually justified or acquited
So, the guilt is taken away by being united to Christ in His death -> Romans 8:1
Discussion question: What does Paul mean when he says that Christ died TO sin in v10? Is this parallel to how we die to sin?
Leader: look up the following verses:
Rev 3:21 – I overcame and sat down with my Father on His Throne
John 16:33 – take care, I have overcome the world.
Rev 17:4 – These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.
Rom 6:23 – wages of sin is death
Christ had no payment due to His sin…..we are sinners therefore we are indebted.
1 John 2:14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. -> Matt 4 – Jesus resists temptation by the Word of God.
Rev 12:10-11 – And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Discussion question: What is Paul’s main reasoning as to why we shouldn’t sin any more?
Because we are a new creation, the old self has died with Christ in His death and a new self has been created in God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of Spirit, is Spirit.
Discussion question: How does Christ’s death and resurrection help us kill sin?
Leader: This next section comes from a sermon John Piper gave:
Recognize the battle ground
v12-14 – Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 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. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
reign implies a kingdom or throne is at stake
mortal bodies is the castle
sin is the challenger to the throne
lusts is the agents of sin
obey is the surrendering
members of the body are weapons
God is the true King
grace is the constitutional authority
So, we see the picture of the battle. God reigns, but sin wants to overthrow God, the battle ground is our body and our members are the weapons that can be used against God if they are overtaken by the enemy by sins agents (lusts) when we surrender, the weapons can also be used for God if the desires are carried out in how they were designed (eating, talking, sex, work, etc.)
v11 says to consider yourselves dead to sin, this means taking on a whole new perspective, but it is something we have to do, we must reckon ourselves as dead to sin. But the only reason we choose this, is because of what Christ did and our union to that. And because God says we are new creatures and that our minds have been renewed, our new nature should be to desire to reckon ourselves as dead to sin, our renewed minds should begin to prefer God to sin.
Hope – 1 Cor 6:9-11 – sinners won’t inherit the Kingdom of God, but those justified will, we are washed clean and justified by Jesus. Romans 8:35-39
Promise of real life John 10:10 – I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly. Eph 5:14 – awake or sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
1 Peter 1:14 – the desires of your former ignorance
v14 – c.f. 5:21
- …the power of death is broken, and the root of bondage, the fear of death is severed and we can be freed.
- …you don’t need to get to the top in order to get to be a success.
- …you don’t need to run away from trouble and live in fear that he who has the most toys wins.
- …you can rejoice in persecution for righteousness sake for great is your reward in heaven.
- …every loss you endured for the kingdom will be made up to you a thousand-fold.
- …there is no ultimate risk in the cause of truth and love; nothing can defeat you.
- …the decay of your body is prelude to glory.
- …you will be made completely whole with no impurity and no struggle with lust or greed or covetousness or fear or inferiority or cowardice or painful memories or paralyzing shame.
- …there will be no mourning or crying or tears or pain for the former things will pass away.
- …swords will be turned into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks and war will be no more.
- …every injustice will be rectified and every evil will be recompensed and every wrong made right.
- …and those who are in Christ will rise with him never to die again, and God will be our God and we will be his people, and the glory of the Lord will be our light and our joy for ever.
