Gospel and Spiritual Growth Series by Pastor David K. Spurbeck, Sr.

 

Message #41 – 2-10-2002 – Synopsis and Outline

 

PROVISIONS FOR RUINING THE REIGN OF THE SIN NATURE

 

Sunday was a very busy day.  It was a beautiful Oregon day with the sun shining.  I taught an adult Sunday School class at Scholls Community Church and preached the morning service on the will of God.  The outline is also available. 

 

This message begins a section that will lead us through Romans six as we move to teach through the biblical defense against the sin nature.  Early in the section on the sin nature I promised to do a translation of Romans 6-8.  That translation is also attached.  It is designed to clarify some of the concepts.  I have included the parsing of the verbs in order to give an idea of the way that the text flows.  You can remove the parsing parentheses if you would like in order to make the translation flow.  Brackets and footnotes add information that supplements the outline material.

 

Romans 5:21 establishes a premise for chapter six.  ". . . But where the sin nature abounded, the grace exceedingly abounded.  In order that like as the sin nature ruled as a king by the previously mentioned grace, so also the grace might rule as a king through the agency of a quality of righteousness unto eternal life through the agency of Jesus Christ our Lord (my translation of 5:20b, 21)."  We would be hopeless without the provisions of grace.  The sin nature would continue to reign and would be the whole environment of the believer's Christian life.  Chapter six provides a description of the divine provisions for dealing with the sin nature since it continues to exist in the believer until his or her death or the rapture.  When the believer is living in the sin nature, it rules like a king.  When the believer is living in his or her position in Christ, the sin nature cannot rule and the grace from God rules.  Be reminded that the strong desires from the flesh war against the soul (the seat of the emotions) (1 Pe. 2:11).  A person has the potential to be living in the realm of the human spirit which is the part of his being that is saved.  This kind of life in the spirit with the assistance of the Holy Spirit will permit access to the facts of Romans six and will prevent the lusts access through the soul. 

 

Romans six presents the sin nature by using the articular singular word "sin" 14 times and one time without the article.  These are noted under F. in the introduction.  The attached translation always translates this as "sin nature" so that the reader can see the significance of the Greek form.  The first two verses of Romans six ask three rhetorical questions and make a strong statement of deprecation concerning the sanity of one who chooses to live in his or her sin nature.  The absurdity of the questions is evident.  Let me paraphrase them.  "What is there to talk about?  Absolutely nothing that makes any sense.  Shall we abide on the sin nature just to show that grace can abound when we straighten out?  Have you left your senses?  This is insanity.  How in the world can we who are dead to the sin nature even think of living any longer in it?  This is the height of stupidity.  Have you completely lost your mind?"  This gives the flavor of the Greek idiom in these three questions.  It is insanity for a grace believer to be living in the sin nature!  Even so Christians are often totally irrational, as they play church satisfying the religious works of the flesh. 

 

The AV "God forbid" in verse one is an optative form of one verb with no mention of God.  It has the idea of "may it never be even a wish of anyone or a possibility."  The notes under I. C. 1. identify 13 other places in Paul where this form is found. 

 

Paul asks a fourth rhetorical question in verse three:  "Don't you know that as many of us as were immersed into Jesus Christ were immersed into His death?"  You should know.  It is insane not to know.  The only way a Christian can really participate in Christ's death is through Spirit baptism.  Water baptism could never place one in the position of the death of Christ.  We participate in Christ's death for the sin nature because we are in Christ as a result of being placed into Christ.  [I know a book that spends some time on this important subject!]  A believer's position in Christ places him or her in Christ's death to the extent that God the Father sees the saint as personally having died for his or her sin nature, acts of sin and sin guilt in the Person of the Perfect Substitute.  Paul does not want to have any saint ignorant of these facts in the realm of their experiential knowledge.

 

Verse four discusses the implications of being placed in Christ's death, burial and resurrection.  We were buried together with Jesus Christ participating in His death.  We are counted to participate in a death like as Christ died.  It is "like as" because ours is imputed by the Father rather than actual as it was with Christ.  He was raised through the glory of the Father out from among dead ones and as a result we can live resurrection life in Christ.  As a result, we have the potential to order our lives in the newness of life that we share in our position as resurrected ones in Christ Jesus. 

 

Verse five deals with the fact that we will also be involved in physical resurrection should we die.  Since we have grown together participating in the likeness of His death, we will also be in the likeness of His physical resurrection.  Our existence or being in Christ Jesus guarantees our involvement in a specific resurrection that will occur when the Body becomes the Bride at the rapture or catching up of the Church.

 

Our sharing in Christ's death, burial and resurrection in our position in Christ is essential for having victory over the sin nature.  The Father counts it to be true by imputation (cf. definition in Romans 4:17b) and we count it to be true in our minds as we reflectively think on these things.  We will be dealing with the concepts of reckoning and imputing when we arrive at verse 11 showing that in a similar way we impute ourselves to be dead to the sin nature and alive to God.  As a result, the Holy Spirit can emanate the things of Christ in the believer while the believer focuses his or her frame of mind in the third heaven where saints share the throne with Jesus Christ.

 

These are supremely important truths.  Those who deny that the sin nature exists can never be spiritual believers.  They will never have victory over it.  They blame Satan and put on the armor and fail every time.  As a result, the religious works of the flesh step to the front producing a form of "godliness" that is fabricated on human religious experience and religious philosophy.

 

Today?  Perhaps!

 

In Christ dead to the sin nature and raised,

 

DKS

 

#41 -- Gospel and Spiritual Growth

Valley – February 10, 2002 p.m.

 

PROVISIONS FOR RUINING THE REIGN OF THE SIN NATURE

Romans 6:1-5

 

Proposition:   To demonstrate the divine provisions for ruining the reign of the sin nature in the life of the Christian.  The focus is on the baptism of the Spirit and the participation of the believer in Christ's death, burial and resurrection.

 

        Introduction

              A.  The Provisions for the Spiritual Believer for Dealing with the Sin Nature  -- Rom. 5:21

                    1.  The Reign of the Sin Nature Unto Death

                    2.  The Reign of Grace Through Righteousness Unto Eternal Life through Jesus

                         Christ our Lord

              B.   The Process Encouraged in This Series

                    1.  IDENTIFY the Source of the Lusts

                    2.  ISOLATE the Specific Lusts

                    3.  INITIATE the Biblical Defense

              C.  The Problem for the Believer Who Is Living in His Sin Nature

              D.  The Position of the Believer in Christ and the Sin Nature

              E.  The Perspective of the Believer and Victory Over the Lusts from the Sin Nature That War Against the Soul

              F.  The Presentation of the Sin Nature in Romans 6

                  1.  The Sin Nature = h` a`marti,a -- 14 times (Vss. 1, 2, 6[2x], 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17,

                       18, 20, 22, 23)

                    2.  Sin (anarthrous singular) = a`marti,a -- one time (vs. 14)

 

TRANS:   Romans six is the most important passage in the New Testament concerning the Christian's relationship to the sin nature.  We intend to work our way through this chapter to demonstrate how a spiritual Christian can initiate a biblical defense when the lusts of the flesh attack his soul.  Verse one questions the sanity of some believers who insist on living in the sin nature.

 

  I.   THE INSANTITY OF BELIEVERS WHO INSIST ON LIVING IN THE SIN NATURE QUESTIONED -- THE CONFUSION CONCERNING THE REIGN OF THE SIN NATURE AND THE REIGN OF GRACE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST --

THREE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS AND A STATEMENT OF DEPRECATION -- Romans 6:1-3

        A.  A Question Concerning What Believer's Will Say Concerning the Sin Nature -- vs. 1 (cf. 5:21)

              1.  Rhetorical Questions

              2.  Inherent Ridicule of the Wrong Answer = Should Know So Stupid

        B.   A Question Concerning an Insane Comment

              1.  A Settled Ongoing State -- "we happen to be continuing to abide

              2.  In the Sphere of the Sin Nature

              3.  The Showing that Grace Will Superabound

        C.  A Desire That It Would Never Be So -- optative -- vs. 2

              1.  May It Not Be

                  a.  67 Optatives in the New Testament

                  b.  31+ Optatives in Paul

                  c.  14 of 15 of This Form in Paul (others -- 1 Cor. 6:15; Gal. 2:17; 3:21; 6:14)

                  f.   Form in Romans -- 10 times (3:4, 6, 31; 6:2, 15; 7:7, 13; 9:14; 11:1, 11)

              2.  Even Once -- aorist

        D.  A Question Concerning the Insanity of Living in the Sin Nature

              1.  A Statement of Immediate Fact in Out Position -- "we died to the sin nature"

              2.  The Stupidity of Living in the Sin Nature -- "How do we yet live in it?"

        E.   A Question Concerning Ignorance of the Believer's Participation in the Death of Christ -- vs. 3

              1.  A Kind of Experiential Knowledge Expected but Questioned

              2.  As Many of Us as Have Been Baptized = Spirit Baptism

              3.  Into Christ Jesus = A Change in Location

              4.  We Were Baptized into His Death

                  a.  Imputed to Have Participated in Christ's Death

                  b.  Spirit Baptized at the Point of Salvation

                  c.  Water Baptism Cannot Make Person Become a Participant in Christ's Death

 

TRANS:     Verse four deals with the practical results of Spirit baptism in relation to the way that our death, burial and resurrection with Christ effectively produce resurrection life.  Resurrection life is shared in one's position and directly affects the believer's walk.

 

 II.    THE IMPLICATIONS OF BEING PLACED IN CHRIST'S DEATH, BURIAL AND RESURRECTION -- THE CONDUCT OF THE BELIEVER AFFECTED BY ONE'S POSITION IN CHRIST AS DEAD AND RESURRECTED -- PARTICIPATION IN RESURRECTION LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE REALM OF THE SIN NATURE -- Romans 6:4

        A. The Reality of a Close Connection with the Facts of the Gospel

        B. The Relationship to the Previous Question Seen in the "Therefore"

        C. The Result of the Previously Mentioned Baptism into the Previously Mentioned Death

            1.   We Were Buried Together -- 1st aorist passive indicative

                  a.  At the Point of Spirit Immersion [Baptism]

                  b.  The Holy Spirit Was the Agent

                  c.  Statement of Fact -- indicative mood

            2.   Through the Agency of Spirit Baptism Into the Previously Mentioned Death

                  a.  The Mechanism -- The Agency of the Results of Spirit Baptism

                  b.  The Mention of the Death of Verse Three

        D. The Resurrection of Christ and Resurrection Life of the Believer

            1.   "Like As" = Similar to -- Ours is by imputation [cf. Rom. 4:17b]

            2.   Christ Was Raised -- aorist passive indicative

            3.   Out From Among Dead Ones

            4.   Through the Glory of the Father

        E. The Recognition of a Potential to Walk in Newness of Life

            1.  We Might Possibly Order the Details of Out Life

            2.   In Newness of Life = Resurrection Life

 

TRANS:     The fact of Christ's resurrection affects Christians in two ways.  First we are participants in His resurrection life in the realm of spiritual things by imputation.  Second, we are guaranteed physical resurrection because of Christ's resurrection.  Verse five focuses on this point anticipating a future resurrection should one be necessary for a Christian.

 

III.  THE INSURANCE OF PHYSICAL RESURRECTION OF BELIEVERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE GROWN TOGETHER -- THE CONDITION GUARANTEEING PHYSICAL RESURRECTION -- THE PROVIDION OF ASSURANCE OF A RESERVATION FOR A SPECIFIC RESURRECTION FOR THE BELIEVER WHO HAS GROWN TOGETHER -- Romans 6:5

        A.  Affirmation of Becoming Growing Together Ones -- 1st class condition

        B.   Association in the Likeness of Christ's Death

        C.  Affirmation That in the Future We Will Be of His Physical Resurrection

 

TRANS:   Romans 6:1-5 establish a premise for handling the sin nature that reigns as a king over unbelievers and carnal believers (5:21).  As a result of the Spirit's immersion of the believer into Christ's death, burial and resurrection, we participate in His victory over the sin nature.

 

      Conclusion

              A.

              B.

              C.

              D.

 

© by David K. Spurbeck

Valley Baptist Church

P. O. Box 99, Gaston, OR 97119