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Newness of Life
RO68-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1977)
From time to time, I have thought that it would be very impressive if unsaved people could have a preview of the destiny that awaits them after
death – if they could have a short taste of what hell is really going to be like. What an impressive experience that would be. In recent
months, we've been hearing more and more, interestingly enough, about people who seemingly are having experiences just like that.
Life-After-Death Experiences
I'm not here to credit these as being true, but I do want to read an article to you today that I think is interesting in that direction. It's an
article written on the experiences of a man named Dr. Morris Rawlings, a medical man, concerning his experiences with patients that have been
clinically pronounced dead, and then have been resuscitated. The reports of some of these people tell what they experienced when they were in the
state where a medical doctor would be ready to sign a death warrant and say, "This person has departed this life. You may take this person and
bury them."
The title of the article from "The Dallas Morning News" of Saturday, January 20th, 1979 is entitled "Doctor Tells of Patients Who Glimpsed Hell
and Found it Terrifying:" "'Life after death isn't all fun and games,' says a Tennessee physician who has studied clinically dead people who have
been resuscitated, and reported that there is a hell. 'I have found it really might not be safe to die,' said Dr. Morris Rawlings, a specialist in
cardiovascular diseases at Diagnostics Hospital in Chattanooga. Rawlings was in Dallas this week to talk about his book, Beyond Death's Door,
Thomas Nelson Incorporated, $5.95, an account of his research in the field of life after death. Published records of studies of resuscitated
patients conducted by such notables as Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Dr. Raymond Moody concentrate on the pleasant, ethereal life after death
experiences they have encountered.
"Several years ago, however, Rawlings had an experience with a patient that changed his own life, and prompted him to research the other side of
the life-after-death reports: 'I was resuscitating a terrified patient who told me he actually was in hell,' Rawlings recalled. 'He begged me to
get him out of hell, and not to let him die. When I finally realized how genuinely and extremely frightened he was, I too became frightened. In
fact, this episode literally scared the hell out of me.'" It's going to take a little more than that to do it.
"Rawlings said, 'The patient, a 48-year-old rural mail carrier, was clinically dead' when he began working on him with external heart massage. And
Rawlings said, 'Each time the patient regained heartbeat and respiration, he screamed, 'Don't let me go back to hell.'' Finally, after several death
episodes, the doctor said that his patient asked, 'How do I stay out of hell?' I told him, 'I guessed it was the same principle learned in Sunday
school – that I guessed Jesus Christ would be the one Whom he would ask to save him.'
"Rawlings said, 'He asked me to pray for him. I told him I was a doctor, not a preacher. But he pleaded. So, I said a simple prayer because I did
not know much about praying.' The patient recovered, and days later, when Rawlings asked him to recall the details of what he saw in hell, the
patient could recall none of the unpleasant events. He only remembered seeing his mother in a serene valley. He became a strong Christian, although
he attended church only occasionally before the incident.
"The incident also took Rawlings back to the basics of Christianity; the Bible; to research heaven and hell; and, life and death. He then began
to record the reactions of patients he witnessed as they were resuscitated from clinical death. He said about 20% of them recalled afterlife
encounters, about evenly divided between heaven and hell, with no visible indications to determine which they would have. The difference, he
said, was in their ability to remember their experience after they recovered fully. 'Those who have been to heaven and back remember,' he said.
That is why people like Kubler-Ross and Moody, whose research is impeccable, are able to record those recollections hours, days, or longer after
the actual experience. But those who find their afterlife experience in hell are different. You have to catch them on the floor. People don't
brag about an F on a report card a week later. No one wants to go to hell, or to where the stigma of having lived a lifestyle that took them there,
even temporarily.
"Rawlings said, 'Afterlife encounters differ from dreams because they have a sequential theme, while dreams are fragmented. He said each of the
patients recalled dying, then going through some tubular structure (often a tunnel). They said they go through the structure, head-over-heels,
at a high rate of speed,' said the 54-year-old physician. 'At the end of the structure, some report a beautiful experience revolving around a
bright, heavenly light, and a figure which they believe either is Moses, Krishna, or Christ, depending on their faith. They then meet someone they
know who died before, and they walk with them to a beautiful mountainside. Then they hit a barrier and can go no further. They return to their
bodies, fully resuscitated.
"'Others report that at the end of the tubular structure, they emanate into a horrible environment. They see a lake of fire, naked bodies, and
slave-drivers. They pass through layers of hell. And after resuscitation, they say they feel they were sent back with a warning to others. Those
who have been to hell and back change their lives immediately. I have never known anyone to remain an atheist after such an experience. Those who
go to heaven come back enriched.'
"Rawlings himself, a lukewarm Christian, found renewal and enrichment of his own Presbyterian faith through his research. 'This made me pull out
my own Bible,' he said. 'These experiences changed the lives of the people who had them, and they changed my life. Does Rawlings fear death?
'Everyone is afraid to die,' he said, 'but in my own inner being, I'm satisfied I know where I'm going. I really believe it is not death so much
that people fear, but judgment. Suppose the Bible is true, not just a history book."
Indeed, suppose the Bible is true, and not just a history book. Now there is some question as to whether these people were actually genuinely dead;
whether they actually saw something on the other side that is awaiting everyone; and, whether they actually did get a glimpse of their destiny to
heaven or hell. But I think it does point up the fact that if one were to have a glimpse of his destiny, it would be a very sobering thing. If one
were to have a glimpse of destiny, and to see that he's headed for hell, it would be a very shocking thing.
Are there a Variety of Ways to go to Heaven?
The reality, therefore, of heaven and hell would make the issue of how to be saved of supreme importance. How is a person to know that he is able
to go to heaven, and to avoid hell? Are there various alternative ways to reach heaven? The societies of our day all over the world say that there
are a variety of ways to enter heaven.
By Grace through Faith
Well, the book of Romans was written to answer just this question: are there a variety of ways to face death and to come out on the other side in
eternal blessing. And the answer from Romans is that any old way will not do. Paul's answer is: there is one way to eternal life in heaven, and
that is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from all human works.
The world today is filled with a variety of religious schemes for achieving eternal happiness – for going to heaven. Some of these people
who have had, perhaps, this experience described by Dr. Rawlings, come back and they begin researching and developing their own system of how
they're going to change their destiny – their own ideas of how they're going to avoid hell.
Well, the world is full of these religious schemes (these religious systems). They all have something in common, however. They all reject the
grace alone plan which the book of Romans teaches. Romans says that God saves by grace on the basis of faith alone, and that's the only way He will
save a person. These religious systems that people come up with all reject that grace alone concept. Man has to be involved in some way. So they all
require some merit to be earned by human good works. All of these systems require some good action on the part of the human being to deserve the
heaven that he's seeking.
Some of these actually reject the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the agent for satisfying the holiness of God relative to a sinner. So, you
have religions of the world who look to other sources of contact with God: Buddha; Muhammad; and, a variety of other agents. They reject Jesus
Christ as the sole channel.
These groups also have in common that they create their own Scriptures to be added to the Old and New Testament of the Bible. They do this in
order to give their scheme of approaching heaven some authority. These systems of religion are sincerely believed, and they are fanatically
followed. But they all lead a person straight into hell.
If the Bible is true, then all of these systems, which contradict very clearly the Bible system of salvation – all of these systems must
be wrong. And if they are wrong, then they are not alternative ways to heaven. And no matter how sincere a person may be as a Buddhist or as a
Muhammadan or anything else, if he is in conflict with God's method of salvation, he is not going to go to heaven.
Whether these people in this article actually did have an experience of seeing heaven or hell is beside the point. We know from the Word of God
that someplace along the line, that's exactly what happens to people. You will die, and you will become aware that you are either in heaven or hell.
You will immediately be transported to one place or another. And if you have a system of approaching God which is not the system of Scripture, which
contradicts God's grace-through-faith-alone plan, then God has already told you that you are not going to heaven. It would be nice to have a preview
in some respects. But the fact of the matter is that you already do have a preview. That's exactly what the Bible gives you. It gives you a preview
of what's going to happen.
Roman Catholicism
Now, the shocking thing about all this is that all of these world systems, because they do reject the biblical basis and the critical features
of Bible salvation – all of these religious systems have followers that they are leading into hell. There is no place a true Roman Catholic
can go upon death except straight to hell if he is trusting in the Roman Catholic system of salvation through a series of sacraments that gain
merit for him, and a series of personal works, and personal penance, and so on. There is no place the pope himself can go upon death except into
hell straight directly.
Now, either the Bible is true, and that is so about the Roman Catholic system, or the Bible is not true, and the Roman Catholic system is a good
alternative to going to heaven, even though it conflicts with the scriptural pattern – particularly that laid out so clearly in the book of
Romans, which was written to tell us how to go to heaven.
Islam
There is no place the followers of Islam can go. All the Muslims in the world can only go to one place, and that's hell. Their prophet is Muhammad,
not Jesus Christ. And as Muhammad went into hell, so the Muslims will follow him into hell. They think they're going to some glory land. But Islam
can't be true and Christianity true at the same time. They are not alternatives. It is one or the other.
Buddhism
It is the same for Buddhism. These people are there performing their rituals; bowing down; clapping their hands; gonging the gongs; burning the
incense; and, everything that's involved – everything that the old Babylonian mystery cults used to do. Well, now, what are these fine
people? Many of them are Vietnamese refugees who have become splendid, hardworking, responsible Americans. Where are they going when they die? Well,
if Christianity is true, as followers of Buddhism, the only place they can go is into the lake of fire. There is no alternative.
Mormons
The same is true for Mormonism. Every Mormon you know, when he dies, there is no place he can go except straight into hell. And you kid yourself
if you think he can go anyplace else, and they kid themselves. This is serious business indeed to have the gospel straight – to have the way
of salvation. It's very serious business, because one or the other is waiting for you out there: heaven; or, hell. The Mormons have a works system.
They can never go to heaven on that system.
Jehovah's Witnesses
But Jehovah's Witnesses have a system which rejects Jesus Christ as the sole agent by grace through faith. There's no place a Jehovah's Witness
can go to hell when he dies.
Christian Science
The followers of Christian Science can go no place else but into hell.
Hinduism
The vast millions who follow the Hindu system, when they die, they can go no place but the lake of fire.
Jews
If you happen to be a Jew, when a Jew dies, there is no place he can go except to the lake of fire because he has rejected the only way into
heaven through Jesus Christ.
Liberals
When a liberal dies, there's no place he can go – a theological liberal can only go to the lake of fire because he has rejected God's way
of salvation.
Denominations with Works Systems
Any denomination who calls itself Christian but who resorts to water baptism or to the Lord's Supper as a means of salvation can go no place but
into hell. Now that comes a little closer to home because that's the kind of people you live with on your block. A lot of the folks who go to
churches that teach regeneration through water baptism, there is no place those people can go when they die but straight into hell. And you kid
yourself and they could themselves.
I guarantee you that there are a lot of those folks who are these so-called good churches, who teach baptismal regeneration, who had experienced
just exactly as was described in this article, and they went screaming straight into hell. They went screaming straight into hell, just like the
people in Matthew 7:22-23 are described as going to go screaming straight into hell at the end of the tribulation. Jesus says, "Not everyone that
says unto me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me in
that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and in Your name have cast out demons, and in your name done many wonderful works.' And
then will I profess unto them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me – you that work iniquity.'"
That is a passage of Scripture that every person should know, and know well, who has come up with his own system of how to go to heaven, which
conflicts with what a book like Romans teaches. There are not alternative ways. There are only ways of going screaming with agony and with terror
once your eyes have closed in death, and your soul has separated from your body. There are only ways of going into hell itself. That, and that
alone, is what's available and awaiting.
Mankind today is very fervently and very enthusiastically following these religious systems. Mankind today, all over the world, is very devotedly
religious, but they're doomed to the eternity in hell, and many of them will be shocked, just like the people in Matthew 7. They just won't be
able to believe their ears – what God is saying to them when He says, "I must reject you. You have no part in My heaven." They'll try to
argue a brief right there on the spot, facing hell itself. And they're going to quote what? Their trust in Christ? No. They will quote their
experience, and their miraculous experience.
You can see how clever and how subtle Satan is. He gives you the experiences that you think are proving that you have it made with God, and they're
the very experiences that should call your attention to the fact that you don't have it made with God. Where with all these people of the world
turn if they had just a little preview of the hell that awaits them? But the Bible gives them that preview, and God says that He works on faith.
Today you can believe what Romans says about salvation by grace, or you can disbelieve it. It is just like you can with any other doctrine of
the Word of God. You can believe it, or you can disbelieve it. You can be positive, or you can be negative. But the Bible also tells us that we
all reap what we sow. We all reap exactly what we sow. We reap the eternity according to what we have sown in our beliefs or lack of belief in the
gospel. We reap a kind of eternity according to what we've sown in our lives as believers.
What the Bible tells us here in Romans 6 is that the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has been baptized by the Holy Spirit into union with Jesus
Christ in His death for the evil of the sins and the human good of mankind.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit
So, we noted that 1 Corinthians 12:13 declares to us: "For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body." Here we have the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, which takes place at the point of personal trust in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Newness of Life
Thus, Romans 6:4 says, "Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism (or by being placed) into His death, that as Christ was raised up from the
dead by the glory of the Father (meaning the essence, the particularly the omnipotence of the Father), even so, we also should walk in newness
of life."
Christians, therefore, are now in a position in Christ in which they are eternally secure, and in which they have been freed from the domination
of the old sin nature. So, you have a beautiful picture in water baptism that exactly portrays what Paul is talking about here. You go under the
water, and you associate yourself with the death of Christ, and you're saying I'm through with human good. You come up from the water, and you
associate yourself with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and with your current position in Him, and the result now is divine good production in
your life, so that this is the testimony you are making in water baptism.
Positional Truth
Today, we want to look a little more at the current position of truth side – with the association with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When
we talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we're talking about positional truth. All of you know that at the point of salvation, the Bible
lists many, many things that happen immediately to the individual. There are probably something like a little over 35 different things can be
listed in Scripture that happen to a person at the moment that he receives Christ as Savior. One of the greatest of these is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. This is in 1 Corinthians 12:13, that we just looked at a moment ago. You should recoil with horror, as a doctrinally informed person,
anytime you hear the suggestion being made that a person is ever to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit following salvation, because if he's
born-again, then he has already been baptized by the Holy Spirit.
Well, by this act of the Holy Spirit, a believer is forever permanently united to Jesus Christ in His death. In this position, in Christ, the
Bible tells us that there is no condemnation. We're going to read this a little later in Romans 8:1 that says, "There is, therefore, now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." And that, incidentally, is where the verse ends. The rest of the verse was added. There is now
no condemnation to those who are Christ Jesus. Period. Over and out. That's it. Romans 8:1 is a fantastic declaration of what is the result of
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It has so united you with Christ that there is no condemnation.
No Condemnation
What does "no condemnation" mean? Does "no condemnation" mean that you are going to heaven until you do something wrong, and then you come under
condemnation? Well, you say, "That's dumb." You better say that. "No condemnation" does not mean "no condemnation until something comes along that
condemns you." "No condemnation" means there is no condemnation. Yet thousands of churches are teaching millions of Christians that they have a
condemnation that they stand in dire jeopardy of at any moment that they don't behave themselves, and they fall into sin. There is no condemnation.
That is because you are in Christ – because you are in this circle of eternal fellowship. Trusting Christ as Savior means "in Christ." "In
Christ" means that there is now no condemnation. You can't ever get out of being in Christ. You can't ever get out of the place where there is no
condemnation.
Romans 8:35 adds this to that thought: "What so separate us from the love of Christ?" Then he proceeds to name a long list of things. And the
point is that verse 39 says, "Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." So, Paul is very
clear on the fact that once we've been united to Christ, we are in a position of no condemnation, and there is nothing that can ever separate you
from this position of being in Christ.
Eternal Security
Therefore, once you are saved, you're always safe. You cannot secure this position by something that you do or something that you give up. It's a
grace gift received by faith alone. The people who go out into eternity are going to find that if they have gone out on the basis of one of these
religious systems, that they are going to come out into condemnation. There is no place else they can come. But if you are a believer in Jesus
Christ, and have experienced, therefore, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, having been eternally united to Christ, it's going to be right into heaven
itself. There's no place else you can go. It's just that definite.
Newness of Life
The position in Christ unites you to the benefits of His death. The position in Christ also unites you to the benefits of His resurrection, our
current positional truth, the newness of life. Newness of life means freedom from the death kiss of the old sin nature – a fresh new quality
type of life.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we have this statement concerning that life: "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become new." There you have, again, reference to what the baptism of the Holy Spirit produced.
2 Corinthians 5:17: "If any man (any person) be in Christ." How do you get in Christ" Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit? All right, that is
positional truth. If you are in that position, then you have become a new creation of God. You have become a new creation; that is, you now have
a living human spirit capable of fellowship with God. The results of this are that old things are passed away. What are the old things that are
passed away? The old things that are passed away are everything associated with being in Adam. That's the old things. When you were in Adam and
the position of eternal death, that position in which you were born, that's gone. What are the new things? The new position is in Christ, which
the baptism of the Holy Spirit has achieved.
So, 2 Corinthians 5:17 is telling us the same thing again that Romans 6:4 is telling us – that we are united with Christ through the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. The result is that we have been removed from the old things, which is position in Adam and all that's associated
with it, and put into the new things, which is union with Christ and all that is associated with it.
Sanctification
The position in Christ is not going to be changed by the fluctuations of your carnality. I'm so happy to tell you that, and to remind myself.
The fluctuations of your carnality up and down are not going to affect for one moment your position in this circle of eternal fellowship. We
have that clearly demonstrated by the fact that the book of 1 Corinthians was written to a group of Christians who were very carnal people.
And the apostle Paul begins his letter to them by calling attention to the fact that they're in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:2: "Unto the church
of God, which is at Corinth (in the city) to them that are called sanctified in Christ Jesus." They are set apart in Christ Jesus: "Called
saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."
Here he is writing to a group of people who were very bad Christians as Christians go, and he calls them saints. He says, "They're sanctified.
They're in Christ Jesus." Furthermore, notice verse 30, where he says, "But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made into us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. You are in Christ Jesus.
So, obviously even a church that, by and large, was a very carnal church could be described as being "in Christ." It did not affect what the
baptism of the Holy Spirit had achieved. So, you have to understand that.
These pathetic people come to you, and they talk to you about their miseries of fearing whether they're going to heaven or hell – these
people who supposedly are Christians, and they just don't know whether they're going to make it or not. They don't know how things are from one
moment to the next. This is what you have to understand. This is what you must be able to explain to them – what God the Holy Spirit has
done for them in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If they can understand it, and if they'll believe it, then they will say, "Oh, now I see why
Romans 8:1 can say that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, because you're in a place where everything that
is true of Christ is now true of you. His absolute righteousness was credited to your account. His eternal life was credited to your account.
And it is a union which God Himself has produced, and the Bible makes it very clear that our failure to live up in our lifestyle to our position
in Christ does not change that position. Our failure to live up to our position brings us discipline, and it brings us grief, but it does not bring
us an eternity in hell.
The means for entering positional status in Christ is not something that you do. It's something that you believe. Acts 16:31 "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."
Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea about this newness of life that we are looking at here in Romans 6:4. I have to explain something
– a little detail here. It's a little intricate, but I think you can get it here. Romans 6:4 is not talking at this point about
sanctification. Romans 6:4 at this point is not, strictly speaking, about how to live a godly daily life. Now, it is leading up to that, and it is
connected with that in that respect.
Newness of Life does not Relate to Your Daily Living
When we get to Romans 6:6 you're going to get to one of the most troublesome verses on this issue of godly living that you find anywhere in the
Bible, because it says some things that people have completely fouled-up in such a way that it has led them completely astray from effective
Christian living. So, I'm preparing you now for the fact that Romans 6:4 talks about a newness of life, and you're going to have to get straight
what do you mean by newness of life here. How are you related to newness of life now?
Most people, when they read that, they relate that to their daily living: "Oh, I'm called to newness of life. I've got to be moral. I've got to
stop these things I've been doing. I have to have this kind of an attitude, or that kind of an attitude, and they associate it with their daily
living – newness of life. That's what it sounds like.
The Book of Romans
So, now we have to back up, and we have to take a look at Romans. If you follow it carefully, you'll see something very significant here. I
remind you that from Romans 1:16 all the way through the end of Romans 8, the general issue that Paul is dealing with is how to go to heaven
(how to be saved). After the introductory portion, he starts at Romans 1:16, and he starts dealing with the issue of salvation, and he keeps
dealing with it all the way through Romans 8. Then when he gets to the end of Romans 8, he really goes into a three-chapter set of parenthesis.
It's not marked like that in your Bible. It could be, because after he's made his final declaration on the issue of salvation in general, which
included sanctification at the end, he does think about the Jewish people and say, "I'm going to have to explain something about what has happened
to the Jew.
So, when we get to Romans 9:10-11, we start dealing with the Jew, but it's a set of parenthesis that he sticks in there to make a clarification.
Then when he gets to Romans 12, he picks up the application to godly living of the doctrine that he has taught us in the first eight chapters.
So, from Romans 1:6 through Romans 8:39, salvation is the main subject he's dealing with.
Now in Romans 1:16 through Romans 3:20, he tells how all mankind is condemned before God's holiness. In that section, he deals with the
integrity of God, and he shows that whether you're Jew or gentile; whether you're an immoral person or a moral person; or, whether you're a
religious person or not, no matter what you are, you are all equally condemned before God. So, he deals with that aspect of salvation in that
portion (in Romans 1:16 to Romans 3:20).
Condemnation
From this section, one big word comes through, and that is "condemnation." OK, he has everybody condemned now. Now, condemnation for all mankind
is based on two things, as you have by now grasped. One is the old sin nature, which is described by the word "sin;" and, the other is
"transgressions," which are described by the word "sins" – personal acts of evil. Now, that's why you're condemned.
The Old Sin Nature
You're condemned because you inherited the sin nature from Adam. That was his guilt that has been imputed to you directly. So, you are born with
that sin nature, and you're dead physically.
Your Personal Sins
You come along, and you have, as a consequence of that contaminated nature, an expression of various sins. And that adds to your condemnation
before God.
Total Depravity
So, you are faced with a condition that the theologians described as "total depravity." You're just completely done in with God.
Now, Paul is answering how to deal with both of those. You have to deal with your sins, and you have to deal with your sin nature if you're going
to go to heaven. Now when he deals with them, he deals with them on two bases. And I'll give you two words.
Judicial
One is "judicial." First, he deals with how God, the judge, deals with sin and sins.
Experiential
Then, there is the word "experiential" – how this solution of God affects your experience.
And you have to recognize that, in this portion of Romans, he deals with those two things. One: how God as judge dealt with sin and sins; and,
how His dealings with sin and sins affect your experience.
Judicial
So, first we look over here at sins. You will notice that in Romans 3:21 through Romans 5:11, he deals with the gospel solution to sins –
your individual acts of transgression. Everything you read in Romans 3:21 through Romans 5:11 is telling you how God has dealt with your personal
acts of transgression. And first of all, he tells you how He dealt with it judicially – how He, as the judge, dealt with it. You have that
in Romans 3:21 through Romans 4:25. This is how God as judge dealt with your sins.
Justification
Well what did we find? We found the justification (that is, imputed absolute righteousness) comes through faith in Jesus Christ, Who is the
propitiation for our sins – the One who has satisfied the Holiness of God toward our sins. So, we found that the way God, as judge, has
dealt with our individual sins was to satisfy His integrity by having His Son die for it, so that He can impute to us absolute righteousness.
We found that justification by faith, as the divine method of salvation, was even illustrated in the Old Testament. He referred to David, and he
referred to Abraham as illustrations of the fact that God, as judge, dealt with sins by simply paying for them Himself.
Experience
Then Paul goes on to describe to us how God has dealt with sins (plural) in your experience. He does that in Romans 5:1-11. That, again now,
this time, shows how he dealt with your sins in experience. We found that, being justified by faith, we have a variety of consequences in our
experience: peace; joy; glory; hope; patience; and, so on. He describes this in Romans 5:1-4.
The Love of God and Happiness
Then he tells us in the Romans 5:5-11 that the love of God is shed in our hearts as believers through the Holy Spirit, and it produces happiness.
So, God as a judge has dealt with our sins. How? He provided payment through His Son. That satisfied God's holiness; God's integrity is preserved;
He can impute absolute righteousness to those who need it; and, consequently, sins are taken care of and covered. In our experience, what does that
mean? In our experience, we have these qualities of joy, and peace, and satisfaction, and personal happiness in our lives – a complete
relationship with God where we stand at ease.
The Old Sin Nature
Now, He also dealt with our old sin nature. What was the solution for our sin nature? He tells us that in Romans 5:12 through Romans 8:39. Now
we're getting close to Romans 6:4 where we are.
Judicial
First of all, again, is a judicial answer. What is God's answer as the great judge of the universe toward our sin nature? Well, the answer is
transfer the whole thing to Christ. Take us out of Adam, and put us into Christ. Romans 5:12-21 (that last part of Romans 5) told us how God takes
us out of Adam into Christ. And we spent a lot of time studying how we got out of Adam and into Christ.
Well, that was God, as judge, taking you, as a believer, out of Adam and into Christ. That was His solution for your sin nature.
Then from Romans 6:1 through Romans 7:6 (that's the section we're in), he tells us how we are delivered from slavery to the sin nature, and to
the death which is associated with it because of our identification with Christ in His once-for-all-death to sin.
Newness of Life
So, Romans 6:4, which talks about newness of life, is in this section that deals with God as judge, passing judgment upon sin nature. It is not
in the experience part of the answer. The experience part of the answer doesn't start until Romans 7:7 – from Romans 7:7 to the end
of Romans 8:39. There is where you have newness of life in terms of living sanctification.
You have a New Life
So, in other words, you have something today. You have a new life. You've got it now. You're not to develop it; you're not to seek to produce it;
and, you're not to pursue it. You have the newness of life. You've got everything that Romans 6:4 says that your baptism in the Holy Spirit has
produced for you.
Your old sin nature solution for God in your experience is taken care of here in this section. First of all, the old sin nature is overcome by a
new authority. Looking ahead, Romans 7:24 through Romans 8:4 is going to tell us how the new authority of God the Holy Spirit overcomes the old
sin nature. Then Romans 8:5 through Romans 8:39 is going to tell us how the indwelling Holy Spirit gives victory over your sin nature
through the guidance of doctrine so that you live a victorious Christian life.
Here is my point about Romans 6:4. As you follow Paul's argument here, as he answers the question of: what is God's solution for my sins –
my transgressions, and what is God's solution for my old sin nature, and my being in Adam? He answers each of them in two sections. First, he
says, "Here is My solution for your sins as judge (My judicial solution). Then here is how My solution affects your experience of daily living."
Then He comes over to the old sin nature and he says, "Here is my solution as judge for your old sin nature. That's judicial. Then he says, "And
here is how that solution concerning your old sin nature affects your experience. And indeed, we are going to get down to real holiness when we
get down to Romans 7:7. But that is not where we are now.
Positional Sanctification
Right now, we're just telling you the way you stand with God. And it's important that you know that. Death to the old sin nature, and resurrection
to a new life of God is your present reality. You're dead to the old sin nature. You have a new life to the reality of God. This is not a new life
in practice at this point. This is a new life in position. It's not something you do at this point. It's something that you recognize is so about
yourself. This is positional sanctification – not experiential sanctification.
There is a way to live that life. There is a way to be holy and that's what we're going to learn. But you have to start with this understanding
– that God the judge has made a judicial action toward you sin. He has united you to the death of Christ such that you're dead to the sin
nature, you have been united to the resurrection of Christ such that you have a newness quality of life. You have it now. And you will never lose it.
Newness of Life
So, in your most discouraging moment – in the moment when you are just very saddened by your own performance, don't ever forget that you
already have newness of life.
Royalty
I remind you today morning, on the basis of 1 Peter 2:9, that you are a chosen generation and a royal priesthood. You are a royal priesthood. And
I leave you today with the word "royalty." That is the most apt word to describe a Christian in all the Word of God: royalty. And this is royalty
because you have the newness of life. It's not because you're some poor character running around in the charismatic movement trying to have a
miraculous experience. That's a degradation. That's not royalty. That's not newness of life. That's not recognizing who and what you are. I want
you to recognize who you are. And I want you to recognize who the person next to you is. You won't be quite so prone to look at other Christians and
think that they're slobs and something less than they should be when you realize that they are royalty of God with newness of life already as
their possession. It's yours. How we should act consequent to that we shall learn in the future.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1977
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