Romans,

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: When we offer ourselves to God, he frees us from the power of sin and empowers us to live lives devoted to righteousness.
  • Head Change: To know that choosing sin leads to death but choosing God leads to eternal life in Christ.
  • Heart Change: To feel grateful that we have been set free from sin.
  • Life Change: To choose obedience instead of sin as an act of worship to God.

OPEN

Have you ever wanted something so badly—a new phone or car, for instance—that you reordered your habits so you could acquire it? What was that thing? What measures did you take to get it?
We can all think of a time when we wanted something so badly that we gave ourselves to the task of obtaining it. In Romans 6, Paul shows us what’s underneath our tendency to enslave ourselves to our desires and what happens when we’re not concerned first with God and his righteousness.
In this session, J.D. will walk us through the importance and implications of where we choose to focus our allegiance.
READ

Read Romans 6:15–23.

SHOW
Show Session 10: Romans 6:15–23 (12 minutes).

DISCUSS

J.D. opened this session by saying that the key to winning our ongoing battle with sin is, “that we have to learn to apply the victory of Christ to the still-sinful parts of our life.” Do you think it is possible to overcome the persistent sin in our lives? Why or why not?

J.D. used the illustration of an ancient Roman war to help make his point about Jesus’s victory over death. In the war, Rome won a decisive battle that sealed its victory, but it would take years and many smaller battles before their victory would ultimately be complete. How does his illustration help you make sense of what Christ accomplished for you in his defeat of sin and death?

What difference could it make in your ongoing fight against sin to remember that Christ has sealed your ultimate victory over sin?

Paul begins this portion of his argument by repeating a similar question to the one he asked earlier in the chapter: “Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?” In other words, why should we go through the trouble of fighting our sin if Jesus has already fully forgiven us? In what ways can we use grace as a license for sin? Why do you think we are so prone to justify our sin?

In verse 16, Paul introduces a highly charged word to his argument, which is the word “slave.” In our minds, “slave” is a traumatic and profoundly negative term. But Paul uses it positively, encouraging us to enslave ourselves to God. In what ways does slavery illustrate our relationship to God? How does Paul’s word choice help to vividly make his point?

There are only two ways to live, either as “slaves of sin” or as “slaves of obedience.” No matter how you live, you are enslaved to something. Where does each of these ways of living lead? In what ways have you seen sin lead to more sin?

Why is every path outside of Christ a path that makes you a slave of sin?

J.D. said that being a slave to sin often leads to idolatry. He gave us four basic categories of false idols to help us understand our sin: approval, power, control, and pleasure. Which of these idols has been the biggest struggle for you? How has your enslavement to one or more of these false idols presented itself in your life?

How do you think Paul would instruct you to overcome your idolatry?

In verses 17–18, Paul makes a sharp turn and, for Christians, begins referring to our enslavement to sin in the past tense. We were once “slaves of sin,” but now we’ve “been set free from sin.” Do you feel like you have been set free from your sin? Why, or why not? What could it look like to live as someone who has been set free from sin?

Paul, “using a human analogy” in verse 19, begins drawing a comparison between our former devotion to “impurity” and “lawlessness” and our newfound devotion to “righteousness.” Using the language of worship, he says, just as we once “offered” ourselves to sin, we now offer ourselves to righteousness. In what ways is it helpful (and convicting) to think of “offering” ourselves as an act of worship?

Verses 20–22 describe the fruit that comes from each of these ways of living. Take a moment to reflect on the fruit, or results, of being enslaved to sin. Before you were a Christian—when you were a slave of sin—what was your life like? What was the fruit of your life back then?

What does Paul say is the outcome of that life?

What fruit does your life in Christ produce? What does Paul say is its ultimate outcome?

Romans 6 ends with a well-known passage that says, “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Our sin earns death, just like working a job earns a salary. But sin is deceptive—we don’t often see the pain or cost of our sin until it is too late. Why do you think it is so difficult to remember that sin leads to death?

Fortunately for us, God has given us a tremendous gift: eternal life through faith in Jesus. What can you do to cultivate gratitude to God for the gift of eternal life he’s given you in Christ?  

Romans 6:15–23 is not just showing us that life in sin leads to death; it argues that Christians, once enslaved to sin, have been freed from its grip. We are now free to offer ourselves fully to God, who, unlike our false idols, gives us the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Having been set free from sin, what could it look like for you to apply Christ’s victory to the still-sinful parts of your life?

What steps of obedience can you begin taking today as an act of worship to God?

LAST WORD

Romans 6 is all about the believer’s ongoing battle with sin. Once a slave to sin, Christ’s death and resurrection have freed us from the penalty of sin and its power—we are no longer slaves of sin.

Our response to our newfound freedom is to offer ourselves fully to God and his righteousness. And, in doing so, we can be sure that we have received eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This week, let’s offer ourselves to God by obeying his commands.