_UNION WITH CHRIST_ ‘Baptized into Jesus Christ.’ Romans 6:3 Try and think what baptism is, how it is a real part of living theology. I do want you to have firmly fixed in your mind the main idea about Holy Baptism. What is it? I. IT IS UNION WITH CHRIST.—In that great sacrament of baptism we ar... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE BAPTIZED CHRISTIAN_ ‘We are buried with Him by baptism into death.’ Romans 6:4 Baptism marks the formal acceptance and public profession of Christ. I. THE BELIEVER IS FORMALLY UNITED TO CHRIST IN BAPTISM.—He is then called by Christ’s name, and the vows of the Lord are upon him. He accepts... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE CHRISTIAN WALK_ ‘Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’ Romans 6:4 The Apostles lived in the knowledge that Jesus Christ was ever at their side. Their mind never questioned for a moment the fact of His Resurrect... [ Continue Reading ]
_RESURRECTION FRESHNESS_ ‘Even so we also should walk in newness of life.’ Romans 6:4 Christ being the Head, rising, He draws up the body, just as, if you could conceive it, a natural dead body placed in a horizontal position, and suddenly the head, reviving, lifts itself up, and necessarily the... [ Continue Reading ]
_AIMS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE_ ‘Newness of life.’ Romans 6:4 A new life springs from a new motive, goes by a new way on to a new end. From that singleness of aim and end, as soon as a man has it, three results immediately ensue. I. HAVING NOW ONE GREAT, HIGH OBJECT BEFORE HIM, GIVES A FULLNESS A... [ Continue Reading ]
_FREEDOM BY DEATH_ ‘He that is dead is freed from sin.’ Romans 6:7 Christ came to be a federal Head. As the natural members of our body gather up into the natural head, so spiritual believers gather up into Christ. The Head acts, the Head feels, the Head loves, the Head does, the Head suffers, th... [ Continue Reading ]
_CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE_ ‘Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.’ Romans 6:8 The text exhibits a parallel between Christ’s literal death and resurrection and our spiritual death and resurrection, and not only a parallel, but also the real connection between the... [ Continue Reading ]
_FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE_ ‘Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Romans 6:11 The Epistle to the Romans contains the very sum and substance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been excellently styled ‘The Cathedral of the C... [ Continue Reading ]
_A LIVING SACRIFICE_ ‘Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.’ Romans 6:13 As it is the living ‘self,’ ‘which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth’ (Ephesians 4:24), not the old self forfeited through sin, and dead already to all things, tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_A GREAT PROMISE_ ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you.’ Romans 6:14 Never think that a really religious life will go on by itself. There are a very great many things necessary to carry on a religious life. I. ALL LIFE WORTH THE NAME, ALL SPIRITUAL LIFE, IS IN CHRIST.—He is the life, and nothi... [ Continue Reading ]
_SLAVES OF SIN_ ‘When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.’ Romans 6:20 St. Paul encourages the Christian to remember the bondage of sin, that he may appreciate the blessings of redemption. The assertion is made of the Roman Christians that such had been their condition.... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE HIDEOUSNESS OF SIN_ ‘What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.’ Romans 6:21 I. THE FRUITLESSNESS OF SIN.—‘What fruit had ye?’ asks the Apostle, appealing to their own memory and judgment. (_a_) _ The reward that sin offers grat... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE GREAT CHANGE_ ‘But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Romans 6:22 I. CONSIDER THE PRACTICAL LESSONS CONTAINED IN THE TEXT:— (_a_) _ It speaks of those who are free from sin_. ‘But now being made free from... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE WAGES OF SIN_ ‘The wages of sin is death.’ Romans 6:23 The judgment of God once rested, says the Apostle, upon all the world, and that judgment was expressed in death. It is quite clear that the word has for St. Paul a peculiar significance. It was to his mind much more than the separation b... [ Continue Reading ]
_A CONTRAST_ ‘The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Romans 6:23 I. THE MASTER.—In the one case the master sin is a tyrant; in the other a holy and merciful God, Who offers ‘eternal life.’ II.—THE SERVICE.—In the one case it is slavery; i... [ Continue Reading ]
_GOD’S GIFT_ ‘The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Romans 6:23 If death—death both temporal and eternal—is the wages of sin, what, we may ask, is the wages of righteousness? Can we earn life by obeying God, even as sinners earn death by obeying the devil? Alas! if this... [ Continue Reading ]