By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.1. In our last study, we looked at verses 6-13 of chapter 6.
1.1.1.1. Having laid
a foundation in the fact of the identification of every believer with the Lord,
both in His death and His resurrection saying that we were buried with Him in
baptism unto death and that we were raised up to walk in the newness of life
with Him, Paul began to develop an application of these truths that we are
supposed to make in our lives.
1.1.1.2. Paul taught
us as Christians that we are supposed to not only accept these identification
truths about ourselves as true but we are also supposed to act accordingly upon
them, or reckon them to be true in our lives.
1.1.1.3. We saw that
not only are we as Christians identified with Christ in His death and
resurrection, but we also no longer need to be slaves to sin because of these
truths. Having been positionally
set free from sin and given new resurrection life through Christ, we are to
experientially be enjoying and living in the reality of these truths.
1.1.2. In our study
today, we are going to look at verses 14-23 of chapter 6.
1.1.2.1. In this
study, Paul continues the exhortation he began by telling us to apply
practically in our lives the fact that we died with Christ and raised up with
him and that as a result we do not have to sin and that sin no longer should
have any mastery over us.
1.1.2.2. In our last
study, we concentrated upon the fact that we must reckon the fact to be true in
our case that we are dead with Christ and raised up to new life with Him if we
are to begin to experience the reality of this truth. Ruth Paxson has
written, “The old ‘I’ in you and me was judicially crucified with Christ.
‘Ye died’ and your death dates from the death of Christ. ‘The old man,’ the old
‘Self’ in God’s reckoning was taken to the Cross with Christ and crucified and
taken into the tomb with Christ and buried… Assurance of deliverance from the
sphere of the ‘flesh’ and of the dethronement of ‘the old man’ rests upon the
apprehension and acceptance of this fact of co-crucifixion.” Likewise, James R. McConkey
wrote, “Because He died ‘death hath
no more dominion over Him,’ and because of our union with Him ‘sin shall not
have dominion over you,’ even though it is present in you. Our ‘reckoning’
ourselves dead to sin in Jesus Christ does not make it a fact—it is already a
fact through our union with Him. Our reckoning it to be true only makes us
begin to realize the fact in experience.”
1.1.2.3. Paul again
asks the rhetorical question that he asked at the outset of this chapter of
whether or not we who are Christians can continue to live in sin. He again emphatically answers the question
with a resounding, “No!”
1.1.2.4. Paul also
begins to speak of slavery and how that everyone is a slave of something as he
mentions the fact that a person becomes a slave of whatever he submits himself
to, whether to sin which results in further lawlessness, or to God which
results in godliness and sanctification.
Everyone is either a slave of sin and Satan or he is a slave of God and
righteousness.
1.1.2.5. Paul tells
us that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
2. VS 6:14 - “14 For sin
shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” - Paul tells us as Christians
that sin shall not be master over us because of the fact that we are not under
the law but under grace
2.1.
In this verse, Paul tells the Christians what I have
been saying in our discussion of chapter 6, namely that they do not have to
sin. He says ‘sin shall not be master
over you,’ and this is true because we who are Christians have been given
the power to be master over the flesh and to subject it.
2.2.
The reason that sin shall not have control and
domination over our lives Paul says is that we, ‘are not under law, but
under grace.’ God has placed
Christians under the reign of grace, and rather than God’s grace being an
incentive to Christians to sin further, being under it is actually an incentive
to not sin. When a Christian realizes
that he does not have to live up to a certain standard flawlessly in order to
gain God’s favor, but rather that he already has favor and acceptance with God
in Christ, then he desires to follow and obey his Lord. He desires to live righteously all his days
upon the earth.
2.3.
In my discussion of the last two verses of chapter 5,
I talked extensively about the fact that God has placed us under the reign of
grace, and that everything that He does for us and to us is according to His
grace. He does nothing in regard to us
that is apart from grace. Paul is saying
here that it is because of the fact that we have been placed under His grace dispensationally that sin shall not have dominion over
us. The New Testament era is the era of
grace whereas the Old Testament era was the era of law.
2.4.
Paul wrote about subjecting his body and keeping it in
control in 1 Cor. 9:27 where he writes, “27 but I buffet my body and make it
my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be
disqualified.” We Christians must
realize that God expects us to put to death the deeds of our body (the old
self) and to live and walk uprightly with Him.
If we refuse to abide in Christ and put to death the sinful deeds of our
body, then we will not be saved when Christ returns or our body dies, as Jesus
inferred in John 15:1-6, “15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the
vinedresser. 2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and
every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. 3
“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 “Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides
in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in
2.5.
Jesus spoke a similar warning in Matt. 24:42-51
speaking about how that a person must be about the business of the Master when
He returns or he would be lost for eternity, “42 “Therefore be on the alert,
for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 “But be sure of this,
that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was
coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to
be broken into. 44 “For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is
coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible
slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at
the proper time? 46 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when
he comes. 47 “Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his
possessions. 48 “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not
coming for a long time,’ 49 and shall begin to beat his fellow slaves and eat
and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when
he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and shall cut
him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; weeping shall be
there and the gnashing of teeth.”
2.6.
When we Christians see how that we have been saved by
Christ apart from any righteousness of our own but totally because of God’s
mercy and grace, then we naturally desire to love and worship the Lord with all
of our life.
2.7.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a
German pastor and theologian who was jailed for his faith for many years, and
he later wrote a book called, “The Cost of Discipleship.” In that book he talked about the gospel of
cheap grace, “[Cheap grace] amounts to the justification of sin without the
justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin
departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of
forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin...Cheap grace is grace
without discipleship, grace with the cross, grace without Jesus
Christ...[Costly grace, on the other hand] is the call of Jesus Christ at which
the disciple leaves his nets and follows him...When [Martin Luther] spoke of
grace, [he] always implied as a corollary that it cost him his own life, the
life which was now subjected to the absolute obedience of Christ...Happy are
they who, knowing that grace, can live in the world without being of it, who by
following Jesus Christ, are so assured of their heavenly citizenship that they
are truly free to live their lives in this world.”
2.7.1. The kind of
grace that saves a soul is the costly grace, not the cheap kind. Paul exhorted in 2 Cor. 13:5 for the people
to examine themselves to see if they really had that true faith, the saving
kind, “5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!
Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in
you—unless indeed you fail the test?”
2.8.
We Christians ought to ask ourselves from time to time
especially when we are in the midst of temptations whether or not we are truly
saved, because if we are truly saved then there is much that should be true of
our lives. We “cannot continue in sin”
once we have been saved from it!
3. VS 6:15 - “15 What
then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never
be!” - Paul asks
the rhetorical question of whether or not we who are Christians should continue
living in sin or not, then answers emphatically ‘May it never be!’
3.1.
This verse brings us back to verse 1 of this chapter
where Paul began to deal with the wrong perception that some had and might make
concerning Christianity, that if you are now in a relationship with God based
upon grace, that it is OK (and perhaps encouraged) to sin.
3.2.
In regard to what he has written thus far in this
chapter, Paul asks almost the identical question that he had asked in verse 1,
“What shall we say then?” He is
still concerned that some might be concerned that if a person is said to be
justified by grace and not by law-keeping, that there would be nothing that
would be restraining him from sinning at will.
3.3.
Paul asks the second question in this verse almost
identically to how he asked it in verse 1, “Shall we sin because we are not
under law but under grace?” Then,
again with the strongest negation he could make in the Greek language, in
answer to his own question, he answers identically to how he answered the
second question in verse 1, “May it never be!” As with verse 1, the King James translation
of this answer is again a very strong, “God forbid!”
3.4.
There is one slight difference worth noting from the
Greek that makes this verse differ from verse 1. In verse 1, Paul uses the present tense for
the Greek word for sin indicating a continual practice of sin, however here he
uses the aorist tense which indicates an occasional or momentary lapse into
sin. Thus, having said all that he has
so far in this chapter, he now tells Christians that they are not even to lapse
once into sin, for this is not God’s intention for them.
3.5.
Being placed by God under “grace” instead of
law actually produces the opposite result of what was perceived a possible
wrong perception. One who is under “grace”
now has great incentive to walk in obedience to God rather than in sin. The incentive to live a holy life that
Christians experience is one of love and gratitude to God for forgiving us in
spite of our deserving nothing but God’s wrath and judgment.
3.6.
Since we have died to sin and been raised up to new
life in Christ, then there is absolutely no excuse for us to sin even one sin,
no matter how small we may rationalize it to be. We do not have to sin, for sin cannot be
master over us unless we willing yield ourselves unto it.
4. VS 6:16 - “16 Do you
not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience,
you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or
of obedience resulting in righteousness?” - Paul asks the rhetorical question of whether
or not we understand that when we present ourselves to someone that we are
presenting ourselves to them as slaves for obedience, and that thus everyone is
either a slave of sin resulting in death or a slave of obedience resulting in
righteousness
4.1.
A few years ago, Bob Dylan released a Christian song
that became a secular hit, and in the song he said that everyone has got to
serve something. A person either serves
the Lord, or a person serves the Devil.
Here, Paul says that a person either serves sin, or he serves the Lord
in obedience. God has not taken away a
Christian’s will, so he or she must make choices constantly all day long every
day as to whether or not he will serve sin or whether he will serve God in
obedience.
4.2.
Paul tells Christians in this verse something that he
is sure must be self-evident to them, namely, that if one is to submit himself
to sin, then he is its slave.
Conversely, if a person submits himself to obedience to God, then he
will become “righteous” in the process.
Jesus taught this principle in John 8:34, “34 Jesus answered them,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
4.3.
We Christians tend sometimes to think that our will is
a little freer than it really is. We
think that we can commit a sin and not suffer the consequences of that
sin. We think that we can control a
harmless little sin in our life so that it won’t get out of control, however
according to Paul here that is simply not the way that it works. Whenever we willfully commit sin, then we
suddenly find that we are being enslaved into sin in doing so. The power of sin in our lives is incredible,
even as Christians, and when we commit willful sin, we suddenly find that it is
hard not to commit the same sin again, and that it is easier to commit another
sin. I think of it as the “Wedge
Principle.” When we as Christians
commit a single sin, it is then easier to commit further and further sins, and
this goes on until we reach a point of no return.
4.4.
We Christians must realize that if and when we do sin,
that we must now repent and cut off that sin at the stem before it grows. Its kind of like how you have to rid your
garden of weeds if you want it to be healthy.
You must get all the way down to the root of the weed and then pull it
out in order to stop it from growing again.
Even in so doing however, sometimes that weed will have already dropped
seeds around in the garden that will grow new plants and cause further damage
to the garden. You must eradicate all
weeds down to the root if you want to have a healthy garden that produces good
vegetation. In the same way, Christians
must eradicate all sin from their life if they do not want sin’s domination of
their life to continue enslaving them and dragging them into all of the depths
of the mire of sin for which it is capable.
4.5.
In Phil. 2:12-13, Paul wrote about the fact that we
Christians ought to work out what God is working within our lives, and do so
with fear and trembling, however, he also mentioned something for which we
ought to be thankful for, and that is that He works within us in helping us
even to will to do His will, “12 So then, my beloved, just as you have
always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at
work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
4.6.
Even when we are having trouble as Christians desiring
to do the things that God would have us to do, He is there and helps mold our
will.
5. VS 5:17 - “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” - Paul tells the Roman believers that he thanks
God that they are not the type who could be slaves to sin because they have
become obedient from the heart to the teaching they have received
5.1.
In this verse, Paul first reminds the Christians that
in their former life before becoming a Christian, that they ‘were slaves of
sin.’ This slavery to sin is
something that is common not to a few or most Christians, but to all who have
been genuinely saved by Christ.
5.2.
After saying that each of them had previously been a
slave of sin, Paul goes on to say to them that the grace of God in a believer’s
life now performs a tremendous result:
a person then becomes ‘obedient from the heart’ to sound teaching
of the gospel and to God’s Word in general.
5.3.
Obedience from the heart is something that living
under the Law of Moses could never produce.
The heart is corrupt and deceitfully wicked, said Jeremiah, and therefore
those who try to walk in obedience to God by the efforts of their own flesh and
by law-keeping, find that their heart is constantly desiring that which is
wicked. Only one who has received a new
heart, a right spirit, regeneration, and the Holy Spirit resident within could
actually out of gratitude and love apply their heart to obedience to God.
5.4.
1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved
us.” We Christians need to always
come back to thinking about what Jesus did for us in going to the cross and
suffering for us the penalty which we deserve.
We need to always think about
5.5.
God will never force His will on us, even we who are
His children, rather we ourselves must because of our love for Him become
obedient to the teachings of His Word as we study them.
5.6.
Living under the covenant of grace causes us to serve
God from the heart. We as Christians
must be people who do God’s will not out of fear of how He may judge us, but
rather because we want to do it, because we are doing it ‘from the heart.’ Paul exhorted Christians who were slaves to
do God’s will from the heart in Eph. 6:5-6, “5 Slaves, be obedient to those
who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the
sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; 6 not by way of eyeservice,
as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
5.7.
Peter wrote an exhortation in 1 Peter 1:22 about doing
what we do for the Lord from the heart, “22 Since you have in obedience to
the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently
love one another from the heart.”
5.8.
As Paul, we Christians must view ourselves as God’s
bond-servants who have yielded up all of our rights to God.
6. VS 6:18 - “18 and having been freed from
sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” -
Paul tells us as Christians that we were not only freed from sin but at
the same time became slaves of righteousness
6.1.
Before coming to Christ, every person is a slave to
sin, thus Jesus said in John 8:32, “32 and you shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.”
6.2.
Paul says that every single Christian has ‘been
freed from sin,’ which means that they do not have to sin any longer. Christians have been given the power over
sin, as we have seen over and over again in this chapter 6 of Romans.
6.3.
Likewise, Paul says that every single Christian has
also become a slave ‘of righteousness.’
6.4.
In both cases, of having been ‘freed from sin’
and in becoming ‘slaves of righteousness,’ these are things which are
already true of every single Christian. Paul
is not exhorting Christians at this point, rather he is telling them what is
true of them already.
6.5.
When we Christians think about the fact that we have
been set free from our sin which had enslaved us by Jesus, through His blood
upon the cross, then we must willingly (because of our love for Him) commit
ourselves to be His slave.
7. VS 6:19 - “19 I am speaking in human terms
because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members
as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so
now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in
sanctification.” - Paul tells
us that he is speaking to us in human or earthly terms as he states that just
as when a person submits himself to his sin that this results in further
lawlessness that when we present ourselves as slaves of righteousness as
Christians that this will result in sanctification for us
7.1.
Paul tells the Christians that he is speaking ‘in
human terms,’ which is translated by the KJV as ‘according to the manner
of men.’ Strong’s Greek Dictionary
has the following definition for this word:
AV - man’s 3, after the manner of man 1,
of man 1, common to man 1, mankind
7.2.
Wuest’s literal
translation of the Greek language in this verse translates the first clause
here as, “I am using an illustration drawn from human affairs because of the
frailties of your humanity.” Paul
could relate to his readers using the illustration of slavery in order to show
them what choices God wanted them to make in regard to their lifestyle. Paul tells these Christians they ‘presented
your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness,’ and this indicates
that their former life of sin had consisted both of internal as well as
external aspects. Their hearts had
become impure in their sin, and their deeds violated God’s laws and thus they
had committed ‘lawlessness.’ This
action of submitting themselves to sin had thus produced a result of ‘further
lawlessness’ because of the enslavement which sin causes. So, Paul tells them to present themselves
(their members) to be ‘slaves to righteousness,’ because in so doing
this there will be a result of further ‘sanctification.’ Righteousness will begin to enslave them, and
thus they shall begin to become more righteous in their actions.
7.3.
This Greek word translated ‘sanctification’ is
translated as “holiness” by the KJV.
7.4.
This word translated as ‘member’ in this verse
can refer to a human “limb,” so Paul may specifically be referring to
the parts of the human anatomy as those which need to be submitted up to God
for His use.
7.5.
We Christians must present ourselves to God to be His
slaves, slaves of righteousness, and cooperate fully with Him in order for Him
to be able to complete the work of sanctification which He is desirous of doing
in our lives.
8. VS 6:20 - “20 For when you were slaves of
sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” -
Paul tells us that at that point in time when we were slaves of sin that
we were free in regard to righteousness
8.1.
Paul tells the Christians in this verse that before
they came to Christ they were the slaves of sin, and thus did its bidding, and
as to ‘righteousness’ they were ‘free,’ since they had no
relationship whatsoever with ‘righteousness.’
8.2.
As was mentioned, we as people all serve gods in our
lives. The only question is as to which
gods it is that we serve. Jesus said
that a person could not have Him as his Lord and Master and be a servant of
anything else in his life in Matt. 6:24 , “24 “No one can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
9. VS 6:21 - “21 Therefore what benefit were
you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome
of those things is death.” - Paul asks
the rhetorical question if there was a benefit of living in our sin as we did
before coming to Christ since the outcome of that type of living is death
9.1.
In this verse, Paul is telling the Christians to
realize that from God’s perspective that there was nothing good that was coming
from their life before they came to faith in Christ. The things that they once did, they are now ‘ashamed’
of.
9.2.
One of the marks of one who has come to salvation
involves a sorrow over their previous life of sin. Salvation occurs in a person’s life when
there is a deep conviction of sin and a grieving over the horror of his own
sin. A Christian should show a sense of
shame or grief for previous sins committed, not guilt but shame or grief.
9.3.
The reason there is no ‘benefit’ in a person’s
life of sin is because a life of sin produces an ‘outcome’ which is ‘death.’ As Paul says in verse 23, ‘death’ is
what is earned by one’s sinning.
9.4.
We Christians should have a sense of sorrow in our lives
for the sins that we committed before we were saved. We should feel a sense of grief and loss
knowing that instead of worshipping and serving God with our lives, we were
committing the very acts that sent our Lord Jesus to the cross to experience the
suffering, sorrow and shame He bore.
Peter wrote the following exhortation to us in 1 Peter 4:1-3:, “4:1 Therefore,
since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same
purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as
to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but
for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have
carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality,
lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.”
9.5.
Should we want to go back and live in the things that
God’s Word says are the abiding in ‘death’ ? Why go back
to the garbage heap after you have eaten at the master’s table and lived in the
Master’s house?
10.
VS 6:22 - “22
But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your
benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” - Paul tells us that now that we Christians
have become freed from sin and enslaved to God that we have as the outcome
obtained sanctification which results in eternal life
10.1.
Summarizing what he has been saying in the last
several verses, Paul writes that all Christians have ‘been freed from sin,’
‘enslaved to God,’ derived their benefit which has resulted in ‘sanctification,’
then finally the ultimate ‘outcome’ of a believer’s life is ‘eternal
life.’
10.2.
If we Christians will commit ourselves to abiding in
Christ and doing His will, then we know that the sanctification that He begins
to complete in our life will consummate in spending eternity with Him in
heaven, and this shall be great assurance and consolation for us.
11.
VS 6:23 - “23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Paul tells
us that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord
11.1.
Now we come to that famous
verse that has touched the hearts of so many Christians and enlightened them to
the truth. C.
H. Spurgeon said of this verse, “It is a Christian proverb, a golden
sentence, a divine statement of truth worthy to be written across the sky.” William Barclay paraphrases the apostle Paul,
“If we got the pay we had earned it would be death; but out of His grace God
has given us life.”
11.2.
Death is earned, and it is earned by ‘sin,’
however if we are to remember Paul’s teaching in the latter part of chapter 5,
he taught there that we die not because of our own sin but because of the sin
of Adam.
11.3.
Taking the opportunity to preach the gospel, Paul
writes that even though man will die because of sin, nonetheless because of the
love and mercy of God ‘the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.’
11.4.
Yet again we see that Paul uses this word ‘free’
before gift in referring to God’s offer of salvation. This is redundant since by definition a gift
is free, however Paul wants to emphasize the fact that the salvation available
to Christians is absolutely and completely free
12.
The following I got from the Bible Exposition
Commentary:
12.1.
‘The wages of sin is death.’
12.1.1.
This is a consistent message in the Bible. The Hebrew
prophet Ezekiel says, “The soul that sins will surely die” (Ezek. 18:4;
cf. Rom. 1:32; 5:12; 6:16, 21; 8:6, 13; Gal. 6:8; Gen. 2:16-17; Rev. 20:14-15).
12.1.2.
Sin has its payday, and its wages is death. The wage that Satan doles out is death. The future punishment of the sinner is called
the “second death.”
12.1.3.
The Greek word “wages” (opsonia)
is a word derived from “cooked meat,” or “provisions.” It means,
“provision money,” or “supplies paid to an army.” The soldiers earned their wages and were paid
in daily provisions of food. Sin pays wages in full, without any deductions.
12.1.4.
If we got what we deserved we would get death. The death is eternal separation from God in
hell (Lk. 16:24-25).
These are the wages that are earned and deserved because of sin (Rom.
5:17; 7:13).
12.2.
‘But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.’
12.2.1.
The “free gift” (charisma), “grace
gift,” is an undeserved gift, of something given to a man unearned and
unmerited. It is something given to sinful man from God’s grace. It is something we could never have achieved,
or attained to by our own efforts. It is
un-earnable. It is the opposite of “wages.”
12.2.2.
The “free gift” God gives us is “eternal
life” (Jn. 3:16, 36). Eternal life
is a gift that cannot be earned (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).
12.2.3.
The Law worked sin, and the result of sin is death;
grace results in righteousness and eternal life.
12.2.4.
Death and life in this context are in contrast to one
another, and both are eternal. God’s
final judgment on sin will be meted out at the last day. Eternal life is the life of God’s children in
heaven. Eternal death is called the “second
death” in Revelation, and is accompanied by eternal punishment (Rev.
20:11-15).
12.3.
We usually apply Rom. 6:23 to the lost, and certainly
it does apply; but it also has a warning for the saved. (After all, it was written to
Christians.) ‘There is a sin unto
death’ (1 Jn. 5:17). ‘For this
reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep’ (1 Cor.
11:30). Samson, for example, would not
yield himself to God, but preferred to yield to the lusts of the flesh, and the
result was death (Jud. 16). If the
believer refuses to surrender his body to the Lord, but uses its members for
sinful purposes, then he is in danger of being disciplined by the Father and
this could mean death (Heb. 12:5-11).
13.
CONCLUSIONS:
13.1.
As we consider this study
and how we ought to apply it to our life, I would just remind you that you will
be a slave of sin and Satan or a slave of God and righteousness. That way of sin is a way that leads unto
death, and that way of righteousness leads to life. You have before a choice to choose death or
life, which shall it be?
13.2.
Accept these identification
truths for you as a Christian, believe them, and begin to act upon them being
true in your life.
13.3.
The wages of sin is death
and remember oh Christian that there is a sin that leads to death, so beware!