Sin Shall Not Be Your Master

We're going to zero in on one verse today, verse 14: "Sin shall not be your master." Notice these words. This is at the end of a major section here — the first part of Romans chapter 6. Paul says, "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace." These are some of the most glorious words found in the New Testament.

Notice something about this statement. This is a statement of fact. We have seen, in the first ten verses of Romans chapter 6, these indicatives — these statements of fact. And then we saw some imperatives in verses 11 through 13. And then Paul gives us the foundation of those imperatives. Again, he reiterates what he has taught in the first ten verses. This is very important truth: "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

The word *master* there — Kurios — is the word for Lord. And obviously, because of the context, Paul is saying sin will never be your Lord, for you have a different Lord now. Sin is never going to sit on the throne of Lordship in your life, for Christ sits there.

Now, what does this mean — "Sin shall not be master"? This is a future tense. Have you ever heard a mother say... I remember one time a friend of mine — his mother heard him refer to her as his old lady. And she got his attention real quick, and she used the future tense to give him a command. She said, "Young man, you will never call me that again." Now, you see, that's a future tense, but it's also a command, isn't it?

And so some people think this is simply a command that God is saying to you: don't let sin reign in your body, as he has already said earlier on. Is this a command? "Sin must not be your Lord" — is it a responsibility you have, not to ever let sin reign in your mortal body? Or is it a promise for the future when you are changed? When Paul is going to describe in Romans chapter 8 — one of these days, your body is going to be redeemed, you're going to be without sin, you're going to be in the image of Christ in a perfect way, and sin at that time will not control you. Is that what he's saying?

Or is this a conditional promise? If you stop letting sin reign — as he has said in verses 11 through 13 — then it will have no mastery over you. And this is the way I used to take this passage. Is this what he's saying? If you do these things, then sin will not be master over you.

Well, the fact is, no. And we know that from the context: what he's doing here is giving us a promise. It's a promise that is valid for every believer at the present time, and it's really important that you understand this. This is a promise of God. It's a promise of the gospel. It's a promise to all who have rested their faith in Jesus Christ. Sin shall certainly not be your Lord — now or ever. Sin shall not master you.

Now, obviously, that raises some questions. Let me give you a quote out of a Douglas Moo commentary on the book of Romans — a great statement. Listen to this: "To put a stop to the reign of sin — that is, to stop engaging in those sins that have too often become so habitual that we cannot imagine not doing them — is a daunting responsibility."

You know those things in your life that you know they're sin, but you just keep them back there in that dark corner. And hopefully nobody ever finds out about it, but there's something that you think you just cannot give up or ever come out from under the dominion of it. He says, "We cannot imagine not doing them" — that is a daunting responsibility. That is to put those things off. We feel that we must fail.

But Paul then reminds us of just what we have become in Jesus Christ: dead to sin, alive to God. There has already taken place in the life of the believer a change of Lordship. And it is in this assurance of the continuance of this new state that the believer can go forth boldly and confidently to wage war against sin.

What Paul is telling us here — it's important that you understand — instead of people warning you that you're about to lose your salvation if you don't straighten up and fly right, Paul says no. The thing that will give you the power to live the Christian life is coming to understand this great promise from God: "Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

Now, if you notice the way those two sentences are put together — your husband, ladies, rarely comes home at night and begins a sentence with "for," does he? "For I had a flat on the road today." You don't do that. Because that sentence — "for sin shall not reign over you" — is giving you the basis of what he has just said. It's called a causal clause. He's giving you the reason why what he has just said is so important. You must do these things because sin will never be master over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

Now we want to see how those two things are put together, because if you notice the second statement — "for you are not under law but under grace" — is the basis of the first. The reason sin will never reign over you is because you're not under law but under grace. And so we want to see what those things mean.

First of all, we want to find out: what does it mean to be under law? I give you the answer there, and I want to establish it by looking at a couple of verses. Being under law is when we provide our own righteousness in some degree or another. In other words, in the whole flow of the context in Romans 6, as we have seen, this truth is that the basis of your acceptance before God is not your law-keeping. It is not your righteousness. The gospel message is not: straighten out, do the right thing, and you may make it to heaven. Is it? That's not the gospel. That may be an appropriate thing to say to somebody at some time — I don't know when it ever would be — but that's not the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is something else, as we've seen in the book of Romans. And being under law is when we provide our own righteousness.

Now let's take a little bit closer look. The expression "under law" and "under grace" — "under grace" is only found here. That expression is found nowhere else in the New Testament. But the expression "under law" is found in several places in the writings of Paul — seven other times in his epistles. It's found in 1 Corinthians 9 and five times in the book of Galatians. And we want to look at a couple of those just to establish what he means here by "under law."

In Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, Paul writes: "But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law" — same exact expression — "so that He might redeem those who were under law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

Now we can see certain things from this simple statement in Galatians chapter 4. This verse tells us two things. First, if you are under law, you need to be redeemed. Now this makes perfect sense when you understand the argument of the first six chapters of Romans — because we have seen that even though being under law technically, we speak of Israel being under law, they were under the law covenant, the law of Moses. But Paul has established in the first chapters of Romans that everyone is under law. He says even the Gentiles who had no law — they did not have the God-given law — they either accused or excused one another.

In other words, he says the proof that everyone knows they're under law — that is, they're under a standard of righteousness that they ought to keep, and if they don't keep it there are consequences — everyone is in that condition because we judge one another. Every society has a standard of judgment. Sometimes it's much more informal than formal, sometimes it's much more brutal than in other places, but we all have a standard of righteousness.

If you want to prove that, just ask yourself how many times you have condemned other people in your mind this past week. "Why in the world did he do that?" Why do you think that way? Because we are under law before God, and what we need to do is be redeemed from being under law as the regulator of our relationship with God, and come to be under grace.

Now the great promise in the book of Romans is that we've entered into this. Look back at chapter 5 and notice this. He says in verse 1 of Romans chapter 5: "Therefore having been justified by faith" — that is, declared righteous not by performance, but by embracing Christ by faith and receiving His righteousness — "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We are right with God, and we experience a relationship with God where we know our standing is not regulated by our law-keeping, but by the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

And then notice this statement in verse 2: "Through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace, into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in the hope of the glory of God." We are actually hoping — based upon grace — that He's going to change us and transform us into the image of Christ. We look forward to the day when He finishes His work in us and we'll stand before God and we won't shrink back from Him, as John says. When Jesus comes back and our eyes are open to who He is and the transformation takes place in us, we will not shrink back from Him at His coming.

But notice He says we have entered into grace. Now this expression means you — every believer in this room, everyone who has rested their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ — stand righteous before God because of the righteousness of Christ. You are [inspired/ensphered?] in grace. [Note: the word here is uncertain — Whisper may have substituted "inspired" for another word, possibly "ensphered" or "immersed," given that Frank elsewhere speaks of a "sphere of grace" and explains this as being "plunged into" something where the whole atmosphere is dominated.] You ever feel like you've been plunged into something in your life, where the whole atmosphere is dominated by this thing? Well, Paul says here that every believer — we as a body of believers, we as the people of God in this age — are [inspired/ensphered?] in the grace of God. Everything that God does in relationship to us is according to the principles of grace.

So being under law means that we are establishing our own righteousness. We feel the burden — we are either accusing or excusing ourselves in our relationship with God. When somebody asks an unbeliever, "If you were to die today and you were to stand before God and God said to you, 'Why should I let you into heaven?'" — it's interesting to hear the answers. But it's obvious they're all under law, because we all either point to the fact that "I'm doing pretty good, I've done a lot more good than bad," or some people are so bold as to say, "I wouldn't have a chance." In other words, they know they have broken the standard of righteousness. So being under law is being under this burden — this regulation of our relationship with God based upon our works and our law-keeping.

Being under law is something that we sinful creatures want to avoid. But notice: being under law was no danger to Jesus Christ. He was born under law in order to redeem us from the law. Why is that? Because the danger of being under the law is you're going to break it. You've broken it this week.

I had a funny exchange — two exchanges, actually — yesterday with couples. We were laughing about it. They didn't know I was standing there, and they walked around the corner and they were kind of bickering. And I looked them in the eyes, and they wanted a counseling session right now. Well, you know, you could do the same thing to me. Come out to my house, sneak into my home and catch me off guard. Because we're always falling short of the righteous standard of God. Amen. It's the truth.

So if my standing before God is based upon my performance, I am in big trouble. That's what the Bible teaches. The sinner who is under law is in big trouble. Jesus wasn't in big trouble because Jesus kept the law perfectly. Why did he do that? Because of his character, because of his nature, because of who he is. He perfectly performed the law because he is a perfectly righteous person. He performed the law without any violation of it. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.

So being under law is being under the law as the regulator and determiner of my relationship with God. Being under law means that I'm living as though law-keeping provides the righteousness that would justify me. And so I need to ask myself the question: what provides the righteousness that justifies me before God? What is it that gives me confidence as I stand before God? Is it the fact that I lived pretty good this week? I didn't yell at my wife one time, I've paid all my bills on time, and I haven't gone over five miles over the speed limit.

See, if we were to examine ourselves, we say we can measure one another's righteousness by how well we keep the law. I know people in this church who are much less righteous than I am in the way you drive, because I've seen you drive. I've seen some people drive in this church in ways that... my standard of righteousness is: if I sometimes go five miles over, sometimes ten — rarely — but rarely do I go much over ten miles over the speed limit. But I've seen some of you. I wouldn't say who it is, but people who commute back and forth to, say, Cupertino — they exceed the speed limit to a much greater degree than I do.

But aren't you glad that we're not under law? Aren't you glad that our standing before God is not regulated by our law-keeping — that our righteousness before God is not based upon my performance, my law-keeping? See, that's why being under law is a bad thing for us, because none of us can succeed in using the law to provide a righteousness that puts us right with God. We're in big trouble. But Christ was born under the law to redeem us — those who are condemned because of our failure to keep the law. Because God the Son did not fail to keep the law. He manifested His righteousness, and that is the righteousness that is credited to our account — demonstrated in the way that He kept the law in its fullness and perfection.

So being under law is a bad thing, and Paul says here: we are not under law.

Now in Galatians, in Galatians chapter 4 verse 21, it says, "Tell me, you who want to be under law." And this was what was going on in these churches Paul was writing to in the book of Galatians. Teachers were coming into these Gentile communities saying, "You need to come under the law. You need to be circumcised and to keep the standard of the Mosaic Law if you want to be right with God." And Paul had told them: "You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him, obey Him." He says to them, "Tell me, you who want to be under law — do you not listen to the law?" And he goes on to tell them, "You can't keep this law. You're lawbreakers."

And then in Galatians chapter 5 verse 2, he says, "If you receive circumcision" — that is, if you keep even a little part of the law, the sign of being under the law — you know, if you put a bumper sticker on the back of your car, if you put a little fish back there and you identify yourself as a Christian, don't you understand — if you think that's your righteousness... and I know you don't, those of you who have those on your car, I know you don't... but if that's what you thought — this outward sign of my righteousness — he says, "If you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you." Why is that? Because you're depending on something other than Christ.

You're saying that your righteousness before God is based upon your law-keeping. And he says, "I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole law." You want to live before God based upon your law-keeping — then you must keep it perfectly. "You have been severed from Christ. You're no longer trusting Christ. You're trusting your law-keeping. You who are seeking to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace." You have fallen from grace. You're no longer living by the standard of grace if you are basing your sense of righteousness before God on your own righteousness and law-keeping.

Now, what do we mean by "under grace"? What is under grace? What does it mean to be under grace? This is what's really important. The reason that sin is not going to be master over us is because we're under grace. So what does it mean to be under grace? Well, it means that we understand that Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.

Now does that change the way you live? Absolutely. When Christ becomes your righteousness, there's a whole lot of things that take place. A number of things occur in your life. When you rest your faith in Christ and you receive Christ as your righteousness, He changes you. And you can't help but change. You will change. And you'll want to change more, the more you live for Him.

But being under grace is having Christ as our righteousness. It means that Christ is all of our righteousness for justification — that is, for our right standing before God, for confidence before God. We receive it in Him as a gift by grace through faith alone. That's what it means to be under grace.

It's the opposite of being under law — that is, having law-keeping, either for some of my righteousness or for all of my righteousness. Should I think that God is going to bless me more than He blesses some of these ladies in the church who drive so fast around town? Should I think that? No. Because my righteousness — now I may get fewer tickets and pay fewer fines — but what is my righteousness before God?

Being under law is having the law as a regulator and determiner of our relationship with God — law-keeping as the way we will provide righteousness that lets us stand before God with confidence. Being under grace is when grace is the regulator and determiner and the basis of our relationship with God.

We receive the gift. That's what grace is — it's a free favor from God. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, it's because for some reason — whatever the reason is, it may be misunderstanding, it may just be the resistance of your heart at this time, maybe God hasn't opened your eyes to the truth of it — the reason you're not a Christian is you just refuse to receive a gift from God. You won't open your hands and say, "I want it. I want this righteousness that only you can give." That's what's keeping you. You're saying, "I want something else more than I want the righteousness of Christ. I want my independence. I don't want to be dependent upon Christ."

When you come to a place where you say, "I want His righteousness, and I want to receive it freely with open hands" — you come with nothing in your hands, you bring simply to His cross your claim. And when you receive with open hands this righteousness that He gives to all who embrace His Son by faith, then you come to be under grace. You come to be under grace.

And you begin to notice: God begins to change you because you're under grace. It's just the air you breathe. It's the atmosphere you live in. You begin to breathe grace and it starts to change you. The Spirit begins to work in your life in different ways, doesn't it? You begin to want certain things, desire certain things.

Why does God want you to obey Him? Because you're so afraid of judgment? No. Sorry — that just isn't the motivation in the New Testament. God wants you to be motivated by your joy in God, by your desire for God, by your hunger for God. That's what He wants your motivation to be. Not fear. He doesn't want you to live before Him in this cringing kind of fear that pulls away from Him. He does want you to fear Him in the biblical sense — that is, that you see Him as the most important thing in your life. Instead of fearing man and what people think, what the world thinks, "I only am concerned about what God thinks of me." That's the fear of the Lord.

When you come to that place and you enter into grace — and you are in the Spirit and in grace — you come to experience the fact that Christ was born and lived under the law, fulfilled it perfectly, and He has given you His righteousness. And you stand before God in this grace, this new arena of grace.

Now, we need to ask the question: why does not being under law but being under grace guarantee that sin will not be your master? Because — I mean, think about it — it's not necessarily logically self-evident. "Since you're not under law but under grace, therefore sin will not be master over you" — that's what He's saying here. So we have to ask: why is that true? What is the logic?

Well, notice the logic in Romans 6 again — just the connection of these two things. "For sin shall not be master over you… because you are not under law but under grace." That's really how you could translate that little word. It's because you're not under law but under grace that sin will not be master over you. This is a promise, not a command. This is the promise of God that you will not be dominated by sin. Sin will not be your Lord because you're not under law but under grace. It's a promise of what must be and will be for all who are under grace.

And we know this because of the way He says it — it is the basis, the foundation of His commands in verse 13. Notice the logic of this in verse 13: "Stop presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God" — because sin shall not be master over you. And the reason sin won't be master over you is because you're not under law but under grace.

This is what I call gospel ethics, and it's hard for people to get it. Gospel ethics: don't let sin master you because sin is not going to master you. You have a problem with that statement? Don't let sin master you because sin is not going to master you. Notice: verse 13 — "Don't yield to sin." Verse 14 says: because sin is not going to master you. Don't submit to the Lordship of sin, because sin will never be your Lord. Those are gospel ethics. It's the implications of the gospel.

And one of the things that throws us is the way this logic is given to us in the New Testament. One of the problems we have is we come to the Bible with a man-centered bias toward self-determination. In other words, when we come with this bias that "if the Bible tells me to make a choice, then in that moment of choice, I and not God have the final say" — that's the bias. It's the reason some people struggle over the idea of God being sovereign over all. "If God is sovereign over all, then I don't even have a decision. I don't even have a will. I can't even make a decision." I'm sorry — that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says you've got all kinds of decisions to make, but you need to understand that even in that moment of decision, God is sovereign over all.

And so He says things like this: "Don't yield to sin." That's a command. Make a decision not to yield to sin, because God has arranged it so that sin will never master you. It will never be Lord over you. Don't yield to sin because sin will not be master over you.

See, if you understand the sovereignty of God and the real responsibility of man — those things go hand in hand. They fit perfectly. They're not at odds. To say that God is sovereign over all and yet to say you have real responsibility and real decisions to make — that is not contradictory. It is not contradictory to biblical wisdom.

This is a way that you learn to talk about the choices of the Christian life: "I choose not to let sin reign in my body because God is at work in me and will not let sin reign in my mortal body." That's a great encouragement. Because that lets me know — I've been walking with the Lord for over fifty years. And if somebody was to say, "Why haven't you just thrown over your Christianity and given yourself to sin?" I could say, "Because I've been a disciplined person, I've stayed at the task, I've kept my commitment to Christ." And there's truth in that. But underneath all of that, it's because there's a sovereign God watching over me. There's a God in heaven who has kept me.

Because there have been times — I hate to admit this — but there have been times I wanted to sin. I had opportunity to sin. I would have sinned. And the almighty hand of God reached down and kept me from sinning. You ever feel like that? You got through a situation and you go, "Oh, I could have destroyed my life. I could have destroyed everything." God kept you from it.

There's a sovereign God who calls us to make real choices. Let me show you a couple of examples — it's all over the New Testament. Here's one: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." That means: be very serious, congregation, about working out your salvation, because "it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). Look at the logic of that: obey this command because this is what God is doing. Work, because God is at work so that you will work. It's like Ephesians 2, where "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He has before ordained that we should walk in" (Ephesians 2:10).

You see, God is sovereign over all. In fact, He's even sovereign over your coming to Christ. If God in His grace today were to open your heart and your mind to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ — and you're outside of Christ, you're not in grace, you're under law — you're still under this relationship with God which says, "I can look at my performance, and I know I'm in a bit of trouble when I have to stand before the great white throne judgment and give account for my life." Think of that — Christ is going to sit on the great white throne, and all those that are still under law are going to stand before Him and have to give an account of their breaking the law of God with their life. Failing to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves — they're going to have to stand there on their own performance.

You can be taken out of that situation and plunged into grace simply by believing on Christ. And the reason I appeal to people — "Come to Christ, believe on Christ, turn from your independence and believe on Him, humble yourself before God and receive His salvation" — why do I appeal to people to make that decision? Because I know that God is at work. I know the Spirit of God convicts hearts, and if He's convicting your heart today, if the Spirit is at work and He's drawing you to Himself, you will come.

"My sheep hear my voice and come to me, they follow me" (John 10:27). And Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You don't come because you're not my sheep" (John 10:26). God's got His finger on you, and if He's calling you today, you're going to come. You're going to obey. But you must obey. You have to make a decision — and yet God is sovereign over all.

Notice another place. Philippians 3:12: "Not that I have already obtained it" — that is, perfection — "or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." He says, "Christ got hold of me for a purpose, and I press toward that purpose. I'm not passive. I'm not sitting back and saying, 'Well, everything's going to work out.'" — I have what I call a zap theology — "when God's ready for me to do something, He'll just hit me with a bolt of lightning and I'll do it." No. "I press on," Paul says. "I am working hard at this obedience, to accomplish what Christ has called me for. And I know He's going to fulfill that through me."

So this is what Paul has been saying to us. In fact, he said it to us at the very beginning of chapter 6. He says: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" And the answer: "How can we continue in sin, who died to sin?" If I'm dead to sin, how can I continue in sin? Well, why does he say "don't continue in sin"? Because that's gospel ethics. God has done glorious things, so here's what you should do — because God is at work and He's going to accomplish His purposes.

Now, why does being under grace guarantee that sin will not be master over you? Because under grace, there are three things.

First: God is for us, so who can be against us? When you enter into this grace — which Paul describes in chapter 5 — when you enter into grace, God is for you. So who does it matter who is against you?

I was talking to my cousin the other day before he went into surgery. I was reminding him of an event in his life that I remember so vividly — he was probably sixteen years old. He went forward in a meeting to give his heart to Christ. And afterwards I was so elated that he had come to Christ, and I was talking to him. He said, "Yeah, that's all great, but I know I can't walk this. I know as soon as I get around my friends, I'm not going to do this." And he's weeping over it. "I can't do it." Well, he's right — he can't do it until God gets hold of his heart. And so a few weeks ago God got hold of his heart, and all of a sudden he realizes it's not him. It's God working in him and through him.

Because when you enter into grace, God is for us. So who does it matter who is against us? All of His power flows in the service of His mercy toward us. Because His wrath and His punishment have fallen on Jesus Christ, He is for us and not against us. Therefore Paul says sin cannot defeat us.

Romans 8:1 says, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" — that's glorious. No condemnation. No wrath of God. No judgment for those who are in Christ Jesus. None of us — if you understand the gospel — no believer is anticipating a day of judgment in the sense of condemnation. Now, there is the famous bema seat — the believer is going to stand before Christ and be rewarded for those things done in the body for Christ. He's going to reward us for those things we've done out of a motivation of love and devotion to Him and love for people. And He's going to completely remove from His sight — and from our sight — those things that we did for the wrong motivation. They're going to be burned up, as he puts it. But we do not fear judgment. The reason we don't fear judgment is: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." What does that mean? In grace. In grace and "in Christ Jesus" are the same thing.

And in chapter 8, notice verse 31 — Romans 8:31: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all — how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" Will He give us the power to not allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies? Absolutely. If He's given you the best — if He's given you His Son — will He not also, having done the hardest thing in justifying you, give you all the grace that you need in order to be free from the bondage of sin? The answer is absolutely yes.

So being under grace guarantees that sin is not going to be master over us, because being under grace means being out from under the wrath of God, and having all the power of God pointed toward our deliverance and not our condemnation. The Bible describes the unbeliever as being under the wrath of God. In John 3:36, Jesus says — or John says, as he comments on this — "Those who believe in the Son will never see judgment, but those who reject the Son have the wrath of God hovering over their head." In fact, the verb there means it is moving toward them. It is slowly coming toward them. The day of wrath is approaching — approaching all those who are under law and not under grace, who have never come to receive by faith this righteousness that God offers in Jesus Christ. But we are under grace.

The second thing: being under grace means that the paralyzing guilt that makes us hopeless in the fight with sin is removed. God has worked for us. One of the reasons a lot of believers have such a struggle with sin is that they feel so hopeless. If you look back at Romans chapter 6, the last part of verse 6 — he says God did all this: "He united you with Christ so that we would no longer be slaves to sin" — in other words, so that we would experience real freedom from the domination of sin in our lives. And then in verse 7 he gives you the foundation of this liberty: "For he who has died is freed from sin." You know what the word *freed* is there? It's the word for justification. He who has died has been justified from sin.

You know, when they put a man to death for a crime, he is no longer liable for the penalty of that crime. A man commits a heinous crime — commits murder with extenuating circumstances — they put him in the gas chamber or the electric chair and execute him. Do you know that once he's dead and they put him in the tomb, he is no longer liable for any penalty for that sin in the eyes of men? In the eyes of God that's different, but in the eyes of men the law doesn't go and dig up his corpse and punish him again. That's what Paul means: the one who has died has been justified from sin — set free from the guilt of sin.

The reason a lot of believers struggle with sin so much, and the reason some people have such a hard time thinking that God could ever forgive them, is because of the excessive guilt that they carry around. And God says to you: "Do you think that the death of My Son on the cross is of such little value that it's not more valuable than the greatness of your sin?"

Why do you think Paul says, "I am the greatest of sinners"? You think you're bad? Paul says, "Look at my life. I killed Christians. I persecuted them. I wanted to stamp out Christ and His cause and His people." And yet God had mercy on him and forgave him and lifted the guilt from him. And Paul never goes around wringing his hands, thinking of the guilt he has because of his sin.

You see, being in grace means being forgiven and having the paralyzing guilt that makes us hopeless in this fight with sin removed and washed away.

1 John says: "As we walk in the light" — which doesn't mean as we walk sinlessly. I don't know anybody like that. If you ever find somebody who tells you they walk sinlessly, you are in the presence of a great sinner. I'm telling you — the person who thinks he doesn't sin is the most sinful of all. As you grow, you realize more and more the hold that sin still has — the stuff like attitude, bitterness, unforgiveness, pride.

Oh, one of the things that makes Jesus want to throw up, according to Revelation, is spiritual pride: "I've done it right. I do it right. I live to the right standard. I'm so much better than those people walking out there on the street who are such great sinners." That makes Jesus want to — well, John says that. And that's a great sin. So when somebody says "I don't sin," John says you're self-deceived.

"But if we walk in the light" — which means: when I walk transparently before God, and I embrace what Christ has done for me, and when I see sin crop up in my life I turn from my sin and take hold of the only remedy for my sin, which is Christ — "the blood of Jesus is continually cleansing us from all that has the quality of sin" (1 John 1:7).

You know, there's a lot of stuff that has the quality of sin. The church is supposed to be the kind of community where we're really open with each other, really telling each other the truth. It isn't always perfectly that way, is it? And so some people walk around with the mistaken thought that they've really got it together — and everybody knows they're a real pain in the neck. That they're bitter, that they're unloving, that they're withdrawn, that they're holier-than-thou. That happens a lot in Christian communities.

What we should do is say, "There's a remedy for this wretched sin that's got a hold of you — this arrogance that dominates your life, this pride. There's a remedy for that: it's the blood of Jesus. And all you have to do, instead of denying your sin or thinking it's not really sin, is confess your sins." "And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9) — even spiritual pride, even Pharisaism.

Now, isn't that amazing? I think Pharisaism is the worst kind of sin. It's my biggest struggle — Pharisaism. It's the worst kind of sin because it's the kind of sin that Jesus hated the most. Religious pride — thinking that you're really something because you live a certain way, believe a certain way — instead of embracing Jesus Christ and Christ alone as your righteousness.

And so grace — being in grace — releases us from this paralyzing guilt. I can walk free. I don't have to pretend. I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not. I can be honest about myself and still know that the blood of Jesus Christ is continually cleansing me from all sin.

And then third: God is at work in us in grace, to will and to do of His good pleasure. One of the reasons that sin is not going to be master over the true believer is because God is at work in us. Of course, you know those are the words of Philippians 2:13, which we just looked at. They're also the words of Romans 6:14-19, which we're going to be looking at in the weeks to come.

In verse 17 — notice this. I want you to put on your thinking caps here for a second. "But thanks be to" — who? To God. So he's going to talk about something God gets credit for. What is he going to thank God for? Look again in 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, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." See what he's thanking God for? He's thanking God for their obedience to the teaching of the apostles. And it isn't mechanical obedience — it's from the heart, from way down deep inside.

This is what happens under grace. When the wrath of God is removed and paralyzing guilt is taken away, the saving work of God begins to be a sanctifying work in our lives every day. He is at work. God inclines your heart to obey that form of teaching to which the apostles handed you over — that's what the idea is here. God's emissaries, the apostles, have given us His word and handed us over to a form of teaching. What is that? It's the gospel — the gospel in all its fullness and implications. We've been handed over to this form of teaching, and we have come to obey it. And we can thank God for that.

I can thank God for every one of you obeying the gospel. You think, "Why do I thank God for that? Why don't I thank this person — 'Thank you, Bill, for believing the gospel?'" Why do I never say that? Because I know it was God. In fact, I know — because I know Bill a little bit — it is God and only God that got this guy to believe the gospel. That's it. It's God who is at work. There are people connected to our congregation that we love and pray for, that they'll come to Christ. And we know it's only God who could turn their hearts toward Him. Only God could do that and no one else.

And then notice in verse 18 — these are all passive verbs. You know what a passive verb is? An active verb: "I hit the ball." A passive verb: "I was hit by the ball." A passive verb — you receive the action; an active verb — you do the action. Well, notice these are passive verbs in verse 18: "And having been freed" — who freed you? Who is he thanking? "And you became slaves" — or quite literally, "you were made slaves" — who did that? God. You were made slaves of righteousness. You were made slaves of Almighty God.

Now he goes on to say, "Look, I'm speaking in human terms because I want to make a point to you." This isn't the kind of slavery you regret. It isn't the kind of slavery that makes you feel like you wish you were out from under it. This is the kind of slavery in which you have perfect and complete joy in being enslaved to God.

This is God at work. God freed you from sin and He enslaved you to righteousness. And when we are under grace — when we are in this sphere of existence called grace — God works in us to do His good will. This is why sin will not be master over us: because we are under grace and God is at work in us. This was God's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes, as a psalm said [Psalm 118:23].

So: how does being under grace guarantee that sin won't be master? These three things. God is for us — who can be against us? He's for everyone who is in this sphere of grace, not against them. Those outside of this grace are fighting against the hand of God.

Secondly, because the paralyzing guilt that makes us hopeless in the fight with sin — feeling, over and over and over again, "I don't even feel like trying again" — grace frees me from that guilt. When I understand this grace, when I respond to this grace, I take up the fight against sin again. And sin does not become my master. It doesn't sit on the throne of my life.

And then third, God is at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. He is actively present.

Let me say just three concluding things before we stop.

First: "Sin will not be master over you" does not mean you will be perfect in this life. Is this a surprise to anybody? No surprises — you know. One of the things about having people up on a pedestal at a distance — that's fine. Get close, and you will discover they're just like you. Billy Graham is just like you. He has the same kind of struggles. He's been gifted by God and he's lived in faith and God's blessed him — but does he have any weaknesses? Oh, absolutely.

And so, the fact that sin will not be master over you, will never sit on the throne of your life — that doesn't mean you're going to live the perfect life. You won't. But the thing is that being saved ruins you for sin. You can never again live in sin. You cannot settle down and feel at home in sin ever again. Talk to people who tried.

And secondly: knowing God is sovereign and His promised victory does not mean our battle is not real. God is at sovereign work in your life, but the battle is very real. You're going to have to engage the enemy, put on the full armor of God, fight against Satan and fight against sin. It's a real fight. It's something that you have to do. "Let not sin reign."

In chapter 6, verse 1, he says, "Should we sin in order that grace may increase?" He says, "How can we do that? We have died to sin. How can we live any longer in it?" And then in verse 15 he asks the question again: "Should we sin because we're not under law but under grace?" Absolutely not. Don't think like that. This fight is real. You're not passive in the Christian life. You're very active and you must exercise faith and good judgment. But God is at work, and He will give you victory.

And third: Romans 6 is about how to live for the glory of God — not how to live for the glory of ourselves. I can tell you there are teachings around, and the way some teachings are given, it's almost like triumphalism. "Here is the key to the Christian life!" And what it becomes is glory to the practice. You know — it's an approach to living the Christian life that gives you glory: "You finally learned how to do it. You found the key, the secret, and now you begin to live this out." That's not what Romans 6 is giving you. What Romans 6 is all about is: this is how you are to live for the glory of God.

One of the great passages in the New Testament — Paul says, "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf" (2 Corinthians 5:15). They no longer have to live for themselves. And that is the most wretched thing in all of life — to live for yourself. This culture is — what's a good word? — this culture is totally deceiving the youth of our culture. Making them think that living for themselves is the ultimate goal. "Extreme makeover" — can you imagine being made perfect in body and face and shape? Can you imagine that? Wouldn't that just be heaven?

No. That would be hell. That's a great definition of hell — where the worm doesn't die, where you are left to yourself for all eternity. That's the description of hell: where you are turned in upon yourself for all eternity. You don't have to live for yourself. God is a self-giving God — that's what He's revealed Himself to be. The great joy of the Christian life is: you can lay down your life for others. You can give yourself away. And you know what happens? God keeps giving you more of yourself to give away. That's what He does. That's where it works. He'll always supply you with more if you want to give yourself away.

One last thing — 1 Peter 4:11: "Whoever serves is to do so as the one serving by the strength which God supplies." You have to exercise it, but God supplies it. And why does God do it this way? Why doesn't He give you your own strength and say, "Now here's your responsibility" — a deist approach to the Christian life? Why doesn't He do that? So that in all things God may be glorified. So that the glory goes to God.

So every time you see a servant of Christ do something wonderful and see the effects of it, you want to go up and say, "You're the most wonderful person I've ever met. This is the most glorious thing I've ever seen anybody do." And they can say to you, "It's not me. It's Christ." It's Christ, isn't it?

And that's the joy of the Christian life. And that's our goal — the glory of God through Jesus Christ. So that by faith you are under grace and not under law, for the glory of God. For the glory of God. Let's pray for just a moment.

Father, I pray that you take your Word and apply it to every heart, every mind, every will. Father, that you would work the gospel in our hearts. Every one of us needs the gospel today — some of us need it in order to move from being under law to being under grace. Some of us need to believe the gospel to move on in the Christian life and to discover experientially this great promise of yours: that sin will never lord it over us, sin cannot sit on the throne of our lives, because Christ does. We pray that you help us to take this truth to heart and to live differently because of it. I pray that this week we could see the glory of God being manifested in our lives as we depend and trust your word and live according to it. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.