We continue our series of the journey through the book of Romans. We will follow through the study with RightNowMedia with Pastor JD Greer. Each session we will watch his teaching and then do our own sharing and exploration together.

Every session has a point—what each participant should walk away from the discussion knowing, feeling, and doing.

• Main Idea: Considering ourselves dead to sin and alive to God is how we access the power of the gospel to live obedient lives.
• Head Change: To know that we are free from sin and its power because we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection.
• Heart Change: To feel grateful that we are released from the power and penalty of sin.
• Life Change: To live a life of obedience because we have been raised with Christ in the newness of life.

Have you ever moved to a new town or started a new job where you were able to “start fresh”? What was “starting fresh” like for you?

When we think about the process of becoming a Christian, a fresh start is exactly what we get. But our fresh start is even more profound than we might imagine. We’re so united with Christ, Paul says, that his death and resurrection are reckoned as our own. But how do we walk in the “newness of life” that God has given us? In this session, J.D. will show us how to live our new life in Christ.

Read Romans 6:1–14.

Show Session 9: Romans 6:1–14 (11 minutes).

DISCUSS

J.D. began this session by reminding us that Paul, “is laying out a systematic case for the gospel.” Paul’s logic is so tight that Harvard Law School once used the book of Romans as an example for law students on how to build an argument. How does it change the way you read Romans to know that Paul is not just writing a letter off the cuff, but intentionally building an argument for his readers?

At this point in Paul’s argument, he anticipates a question his readers may have about how to respond to God’s grace. Why is Paul’s stated question in verse 1 such a natural question for us to ask? To what extent have you grappled with some form of this question?

How does Paul answer the question he poses? What reason does he give?

Paul answers his question with more questions, one of which dips its toe into the topic of baptism. He says, “are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” When were you baptized? How would you describe your baptism experience?

What is Paul saying occurs at baptism?

According to Paul, our baptism allows us to “walk in newness of life,” which is similar to the language Paul generally uses to contrast our “old self” with our “new self” when we come to Christ. What was your experience like when you first became a Christian? In what ways did you sense that Christ had made you new?

Further into the passage, in verses 6–7, Paul discusses some of the implications of being “baptized into [Christ’s] death,” writing that “a person who has died is freed from sin.” Prior to being crucified with Christ, we were enslaved to sin. Now that our old selves “have been crucified”, we have been freed from sin. In what ways have you experienced freedom from sin? When have you felt like you were enslaved to your sin?

What do you think it means to be free from sin yet still struggle with sin?

Throughout this passage, Paul emphasizes our union with the death and resurrection of Christ. He uses phrases like “baptized into Christ Jesus,” “buried with him,” and “united with him” to convey what Jesus has accomplished for us. What benefits do we enjoy in our union with Christ? In what ways have you experienced your union with Jesus?

Paul concludes these first eleven verses with a clear call to action for his readers: “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What difference could it make in your life if you took these words of Paul and put them into action? How might it change the way you resist sin?

Paul charges readers to do two things beginning in verse 12: resist sin and offer yourselves to God. Why are both charges critical to living “the new life in Christ”?  

How can you actively not let sin rule in your life? What habits and practices can you develop to keep from obeying sin’s desires?

Paul’s second charge in verse 13 is to offer yourselves to God “as weapons for righteousness,” which could also be translated as “tools” or “instruments” of righteousness. How can we offer our bodies—our selves—as tools or instruments to be used for righteousness?

In verse 14, Paul says “sin will not”—read cannot, according to J.D.—“rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.” No matter how much we might struggle with sin, God’s grace is more powerful. What does it look like to place Jesus at the center of our lives so that sin cannot control us?

The call on all Christians is to live as new creatures in Christ, putting to death our old selves and walking in the abundant life Jesus gives us. What sins do you need to put to death?

In what ways are you not experiencing the life Jesus offers us? What might be keeping you from experiencing it?

How might your Christian community help encourage you in your new life in Christ?

LAST WORD

The new life we’re given when we become united to Christ is deeper and truer than any “fresh start” we’ve ever experienced. It involves more than relocation or a new job; it involves a death and resurrection. And because we’ve been united with Christ in his death and resurrection, we now have the power to “walk in newness of life.”

So, with Paul and J.D. and all Christians everywhere, “reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God.” This week, let’s choose to approach our struggle against sin knowing that it cannot rule over us.