Dying to Live, Part 2

In salvation, your bondage changes. From being bound to sin, you become bound to righteousness. From the unceasing, incessant pattern of sin, you are transformed into one who responds to righteousness. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Romans 6 talks about Christians experiencing the death of the old man. If you're wondering what that means practically in your life, I encourage you to stay with us as John MacArthur continues the compelling study titled, Freedom From Sin, on today's Grace To You. But before the lesson, you know, John, this ministry is getting close to celebrating its fifty-fourth anniversary, and I know that studying the Word of God still animates you as much as ever. So let me just ask you, what keeps you so engaged in the work of Bible teaching ministry? I think, first of all, it's the inexhaustibility of Scripture. Yes, I've studied the Bible pretty intensely for almost seventy-five years, three-quarters of a century, and it never, ever grows old.

It is literally a mind that you just keep digging down and digging down, and it just yields up more and more and more riches. You know, its divine character creates this inexhaustible reality of truth, and no matter how much I study even the same passage, there's a freshness every time as new truth becomes apparent and obvious to me. The second thing that energizes me is that the world continues to need to hear the message.

We're looking at a world today that I would say in my lifetime is in the most desperate condition. There are more atheists in America than there have ever been. There are more unbelievers in America than there have ever been. There's more anti-Christianity in America than there's ever been. That means there are more people who are alienated from the gospel than there have ever been in our culture.

It's out of the public mind. And yet what we're seeing as a result of that is just the total, complete collapse of society in a moral free fall. So both the character of Scripture compels me, and the power of Scripture is the only answer. What do we say to this generation? You always hear people asking nowadays, you know, how do we fix this country? What do we do to fix this nation?

Well, there's only one answer to that question. That is, you don't fix a nation. You advance the gospel one soul at a time, and God transforms individuals.

Politics isn't going to fix a nation. Only Christ is going to do that. And the Word of God gives us the view of everything from God's perspective. So our time is needed, and the inexhaustible glory of Scripture compels me. If this ministry has meant something to you by opening the Word of God the way we have for all these years, we would love to hear from you, and we want you to think about and pray about supporting us as we spread the word of the gospel across the world.

Yes, that's right, friends. This ministry wouldn't exist without your generosity. We have heard countless testimonies of lives being changed by John MacArthur's verse-by-verse Bible teaching, and we've been able to reach those people because friends like you stand with us.

If you'd like to partner with us in this Bible teaching ministry, go to gty.org after the lesson. But now, stay tuned as John MacArthur continues his study, Freedom from Sin. These are great days for me in studying Romans chapter 6. Through the history of the church, this particular chapter has been much studied and much discussed, and there is a veritable wealth of material on it, and I find myself being enriched day by day as I'm exposed to all that's been said and thought and taught on this marvelous chapter.

And even with all of that, I find the Spirit of God giving me fresh insight and joyous sense of discovery as I go through this great chapter. Now are you as a Christian still the servant of sin? Are you still in the same relationship to sin that you were?

Look at chapter 6 verse 18 and you find the answer. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Now in salvation, your bondage changes. From being bound to sin, you become bound to righteousness. From the unceasing incessant pattern of sin, you are transformed into one who responds to righteousness.

Very important principle. You have died to sin. This principle is repeated again and again in the Scripture.

We talked about it in detail last time, so I'm not going to belabor the point. But let me just stress that a person who is saved is translated out of the kingdom of sin, out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the kingdom of death, out of the dominion of the forces of iniquity, out of the world. We have overcome the world, it says in 1 John. We are delivered from the incessant, unceasing, unending bondage of Satan, Ephesians 2. You were under the control of the prince of the power of the air. You were under the direct sovereignty of the ruler of the darkness of this world. But you have been set free from that. You have come into a new dimension. And so there is a new life. Very, very important. Now the fundamental question here, keep in mind, beloved, is not in relation to our acts of sin.

We'll get to that. It's in relation to the sin principle as a ruling, dominating, enslaving principle in life. Now there are only two dominions in the terms of the Apostle Paul and to see them all you need to do is go back to chapter 5, verse 21.

And here's the heart of his thinking. As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now you only have two monarchs, first sin, second grace.

And everybody in the world is under one or the other and not both at the same time. You're either dominated by sin or you're dominated by God's grace. It's either sin that directs you or grace which works righteousness and eternal life. Sin working death or grace working righteousness and life. And when you were lost, before you knew Christ, it was sin.

And when you're saved, it is grace working righteousness and life. So when it says that in verse 2, we have died to sin, it means we have died to the reign of sin. We have died to the dominion of sin. We are no longer in the same relationship to sin that we were in the past. Our citizenship is in heaven.

We have a new master. As it says in chapter 6 verse 14 of Romans, sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law anymore but under grace. So sin is no longer your master. So when a person is saved, there is a very great transaction that takes place on the legal aspect. God declares you righteous. But there also is a great transformation that takes place.

You are taken out of the dominion of sin and placed in the dominion of God's grace working righteousness and life. Now in order to show the validity of this point, we have the argument in verses 3 to 14. The antagonist in verse 1, the answer in verse 2, the argument 3 to 14.

And we've been developing this argument. Let me just run by the first part as we've already seen it. In chapter 6 verse 3, we find the first statement of the argument.

Now I want to get you back to this so you can follow the flow. Now Paul says, let me show you what it means to have died to sin. Number one, we are baptized into Christ. Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?

And the first thing we want you to see in the first part of the verse is that we were baptized into Christ. In other words, when you're saved, the idea of baptism is to immerse. You were literally immersed into Jesus Christ.

It is obviously symbolized outwardly by the baptism of immersion, but he's not talking about baptism here. He's talking about the reality of an intimate living union with Jesus Christ. You were immersed into Christ. I could spend weeks just talking about what it means to be one with Christ.

There are so many, many Scriptures. We are put into union with Him in every sense. It's just an incomprehensible, monumental thought. For example, there's a sense in which we even can identify with Him in His virgin birth because He was born of the Spirit and we are born of the Spirit. And certainly we can identify with Him in His circumcision. He was circumcised on the eighth day and when He was circumcised it was a placing of Himself under the authority of the law as He had come to redeem those that were under the law. And in a sense we partake in His circumcision.

In Colossians 2 11, in whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of flesh by the circumcision of Christ. In other words, Christ was set apart. He was made pure as it were and we identifying with Him are made pure in Him. There's a sense in which we can also identify even with His baptism for we too have been baptized by the Spirit of God. We can in a sense be identified in His sufferings for we bear in our bodies the marks of Jesus Christ. We know the fellowship of His sufferings. We are united with Him in His life. We are united with Him in His internal glorious likeness as we are made into His image and conformed to that image more and more until someday we're like Him for we see Him as He is. And so there's a sense of our union with Christ that just could...we could just study that alone for great, great lengths of time.

Suppose it could be summed up. I think it's Hebrews 2 11. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. He's not ashamed to identify Himself with us.

How marvelous. So first of all, when you become a Christian, you are put in union with Jesus Christ. Now the second point that He makes is we are identified in Christ in His death and resurrection. It says in verse 3, we were baptized into His death. And verse 4, therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been grown together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.

Notice the word likeness there. We didn't actually die physically. We didn't actually rise physically, but in the likeness of it. In other words, it happened in that manner that we were identified in His death and resurrection spiritually. We didn't actually die, but are in the likeness of His death, in the likeness of His resurrection. And as we saw last time, the spiritual point here is this, that when you came to Christ and believed in Him, immediately by divine miracle you died, your old life died and you rose to walk in newness of life.

It's just marvelous. He makes a point of Christ being buried as He was...it says in verse 3 that He was dead. And then in verse 4, we are buried with Him, burial being the proof of death. When Christ was buried, it was the affirmation that He was truly dead.

And in a sense, when we are buried with Him, it affirms that we really died. Now what is it saying? It's saying that there's no old you around. There's no old nature around. Now I know some people can't quite understand that because they've been taught that all their life, that there's an old nature and a new nature and the old nature is a black dog and the new nature is a white dog and whichever one you say sick them to is going to be the one that wins.

Now maybe you heard that kind of theology. But the essence of what He is saying here is that there's no old you left. You were so dead you got what?

Buried. And what came out of that grave, nevertheless I live, yet not I. What I? The old I. It's a new I but it's not the old I. What new I is it? It is Christ in me.

It's a new I. Now folks, we're not dealing with experience yet. We're not dealing with practical things.

We're dealing with terms. We're dealing with trying to understand redemptive fact. And it's important or it couldn't be in the Scripture. So we have died to sin.

How? Buried in His death, risen to walk in newness of life. Great truth. Let's go to the third point and pick it up where we left off last time.

This is really interesting. The third point in Paul's progressive thought is that the body of sin has been destroyed. Now this really is difficult for some folks, but look at verse 6.

Very simple. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him. That the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin for He that is dead is freed from sin. Now the third point in his flow of reasoning is that the body of sin has been destroyed, to put it in King James' language. Now let's look at that verse, verse 6. Knowing this, what is that? Well that's an appeal to common knowledge.

We all know this. Isn't it interesting how here we are 2,000 years later and most of us don't know it? I mean, part of the problem with Christians not being able to live the Christian life the way it ought to be lived is they don't know who they are. I mean, I know one pastor who told people when they were going to get married, take a shower together so you get to kind of know each other. And don't worry about sin because, you see, that's your old nature.

And what are you going to do? Your old nature is going to do its thing anyway, so that's just your old nature. Oh? What old nature?

You mean the one that's dead and buried? You see, if you hold a dualistic view like that, then you can excuse all kinds of things. The upshot of what this man believed was no church discipline because when people do evil, that's just the old nature. What are you going to do with the old nature?

It's going to do its thing anyway. No chastening. Didn't believe the passage in Hebrews applied to the current time. No chastening of believers. Why would the Lord chasten the old nature? You can't correct it. You can't do anything about it. It's still there so it's bound to stick up its ugly head. And you're not two things hassling back and forth inside because He says here it's common knowledge.

Perhaps it was more common in those days than it is now. Knowing this, He appeals to the common knowledge among believers, including the Romans. This is basic to our understanding of our redemption.

This is basic stuff. And what is it? Three facts in verse 6.

Marvelous things. Fact number one, our old man is crucified with Him. Our old man is crucified with Him. Now it isn't just wounded, it's dead.

That's what He says. So what is the old man? What is the old man? Well I'd like you to find out what the old man is. You know, whenever I want to know one of these terms that I can't quite understand, I just look around the Bible until I find it.

And it usually pops up. This one happens to pop up in Ephesians 4.22. And here's a definition of the old man.

Ephesians 4.22. Look what it says. That you put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man. What is the old man? What is it? Your what? Former manner of life.

What kind was it? Keep reading. Which is what? Corrupt. What is the old man then? Your old corrupt self. Your unregenerate self. Your unregenerate self.

That's what it is. And it's contrasted in verse 24 that you put on the old man's new man. What is the new man? After God, it's created in what?

Righteousness and true holiness. Now what are you? Are you old man and new man fighting each other? You'll never find that in the Bible. Are you old nature, new nature, hassling?

No. You have put off the old man. You have put on the new man. The old man was corrupt according to deceitful lust, your former manner of life. The new one is created in righteousness and true holiness. To put it in the terms of Paul to the Corinthians, if any man be in Christ, he is a what? New creation.

Now that's the old self. Now go back to Romans chapter 6. Oh wait a minute, stay in Ephesians. I want to make a couple of comments because some of you may be sort of looking around wondering about a couple of things, so just thought of that.

I probably ought to clear some things there. Sometimes the Ephesians passage where it says in verse 22 that you put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man, sometimes that's seen as a command. And it seems to some people that Paul is saying here to you Christians, now you Christians, go ahead and put off that old man. You just go ahead and put off that former manner of life, that old man. But you see, in Romans chapter 6 it says the old man is already dead. So how do we harmonize those? Well, it fits well into the context to see the infinitive here in verse 22 to put off, the infinitive in verse 24 to put on as what John Murray calls infinitives of result.

And he's not alone in this. He translates it this way. So that ye have put off according to the former manner of life, the old man.

So that it is not a command but a statement of fact. Bishop Handley Mool long ago translated this verse that you were taught in Christ with regard to the fact that your old man was laid aside. Martyn Lloyd-Jones translates it, do not go on living as if you were still that old man because that old man has died. Do not go on living as if he was still there.

That's the point. And I think we are doing justice to the original language and we are making Paul consistent when we see this not as a command but as a statement of fact. He is saying you in verse 20 have not so learned Christ. You didn't learn Christ to continue in your sin. You have put off the old manner of life, the old man, and put on the new man. But even if you want to fight to the death for the fact that this is a command in the passage, it then only embellishes the earlier fact that if it is true that you have in fact put off the old self, if you have in fact seen the death of the old man, then certainly in practice you ought to be living it out that way.

And we'll talk more about that in the future. But I'm comfortable with the fact that here Paul is making statements of fact. Look at Colossians 3, 9 and 10 because here is the thing to me that is so convincing about the proper interpretation of Ephesians. Colossians is a parallel book and Colossians deals in a parallel sense with Ephesians. You know that if you've read the two books.

They really do parallel each other. And in Colossians 3, 9, lie not one to another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man. That's a statement of definition about a Christian since you've done that. Now let's go back to Romans 6, 6 and see if that isn't consistent. We've already put off the old man.

Why? Romans 6, 6, knowing this common knowledge, our old man is crucified with him. Now let me just bring another thought into this place. The word old in the English could come from two Greek words, archaios from which we get archaic, or palaios. Archaios means old in point of time. Palaios means old in point of use.

And palaios is used here. Old in the sense that it's worn out, useless, fit for the dump, the scrap heap to be discarded. It's the old man in that sense, the useless man, the unfit man, the man only fit for the scrap heap, the person we were before salvation, doomed, damned, depraved, unregenerate, useless. So what is the old man?

It is the unregenerate nature. It is described for us in chapter 5. It is the in Adam man. Chapter 5 verse 12 says that as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all of sin.

And then in verse 14, death reigned from Adam to Moses. Adam was the identifier in terms of the fifth chapter of those in sin. Being in Adam was being in sin. Being in Christ was being in grace. As in Adam, all what?

Die. So in Christ shall all what be made alive. So it is the old man, the Adamic nature, the unregenerate nature, the old nature if you like that term.

What I was in Adam. It is the old ego of Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, but not I, not the old I, a new one. And what Paul is insisting in this text, and it is germane to his doctrine of justification, is that when a person is redeemed, there is a breach, there is a complete cleavage with complete dissection, if you will, of the person from the old sin nature.

It is not a process, it is an already completed reality. And to suppose that the old man has been crucified and still lives on, or as some people say, it's been crucified but it also rose from the grave with us, is to contradict the whole point of what Paul is saying. Our old man has been crucified, not our old man is in the process of being crucified. Some people are running around saying, I'm trying to crucify the old man.

You're wasting your time, folks. It's already been crucified. You are a new creation.

Now let me add this. You are a new creation, but you are a new creation, not yet perfect, not yet perfect, but nonetheless a new creation. The old man is the unregenerate man. The new man is the regenerate man. You are one new man. The old man ceased to exist.

That's what Griffith Thomas, the commentator of years ago, said. So it is clear that through all these statements, justification or salvation, very important people, causes a radical change in the nature of a person. So when someone comes along and they are living in the same old relationship to sin, under the same old tyranny of sin, with the same old lifestyle, no matter what they claim, the fact is if there hasn't been a radical demonstrable change in the reality of who they are, then they have not been redeemed.

Very important, substantial truth. The old man, the sin nature is dead, and the new holy nature is born. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur. He's chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, and today's lesson is part of his series, Freedom from Sin. Now, going back to what John mentioned before the lesson, Grace to You is committed to strengthening believers and reaching the lost through the faithful preaching of God's Word. If you'd like to be a part of that vital ministry, consider making a donation when you contact us today. You can mail your tax-deductible donation to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, or you can express your support online at GTY.org, or when you call 800-55-GRACE.

Thanks for standing with us, and especially thanks for praying with us. Again, to make a donation, call 800-55-GRACE, or go to GTY.org. And when you get in touch, remember that for a limited time, nearly everything we sell is available at 25% off the regular price. Now is a great time to pick up one of John's books like The Glory of Heaven, or The Gospel According to God, or Saved Without a Doubt. Of course, there's also our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible, and John's 34-volume New Testament Commentary series. All of that and much more is available at 25% off the regular price. You can place your order at our website, GTY.org, that's GTY.org, or you can call us at 800-55-GRACE. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace to You television this Sunday, and be here tomorrow when John shows you how to protect yourself from the allure of sin. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.