"Make no mistake about it, if you have confessed and repented of your sin you are forgiven. As a believer now in Jesus Christ you have freedom from being bound by sin. In times past you were bound by sin, you may have been able to discipline your body, but you could never be free in your soul. Now that you are a believer you have been quickened in your spirit, and you have been born again in your spirit. You are now made free by the blood of Jesus Christ." Pastor Rick Carter

Romans 6:1-5 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like 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 planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

“For Jewish people, baptism was the act by which non-Jews converted to Judaism, the final removal of Gentile impurity; by it one turned one’s back on life in paganism and sin, vowed to follow God’s commandments, and became a new person with regard to Jewish law. A person who became a follower of Jesus likewise gave up his or her old life; through participation with Christ’s death, Paul says, their death to the old life in sin, which was crucified in Christ, is an accomplished fact.” Bible Background Commentary

 With all that Christ has done for you – when you meditate on your salvation – when you think about the humiliation and death of Christ that was necessary to procure that salvation – how does it affect you? Does it make you want to sin, or does it make you want to live for God?

The Apostle Paul presumed that with his teaching on God’s mercy and grace, that others might believe him to be teaching that Christians could live as they wished, even to continue in their sinful behavior. He thought that some might think that they could just continue to ask God for forgiveness, and everything would be ok. Paul’s teaching on justification does not lead men to sin, but to live righteously. God’s design was for the grace and mercy that we have in Jesus Christ is to produce a hatred of sin and a love for living holy lives.

 Paul uses the metaphor of death here. What can a dead person do? A dead person cannot act as if he were alive. It is just as absurd to suppose that a Christian should desire to live in sin, as that a dead man should get up and walk.

When you are dead to something, it has no influence over you. You are uninfluenced and unaffected by the affairs of this world. Sin has lost its influence over you. We have died to sensual pleasures and ungodly ambitions, etc.

What is Grace Abounding? – that grace may abound? I think it means to be overflowing with grace. In your mind think of a person that is full of grace. I would imagine that that person would be of a gracious personality full of charm and graciousness. A person that treats people kindly. A person in whom most would like to incur favor. When you are treated kindly with favor by such a person, would you on purpose offend such a person with the expectation that you would be graciously forgiven? Absolutely not!

This grace of God is even more powerful, as God through His grace gives us everything we need to defeat sin and serve Him. We are saved from the penalty and power of sin.



 I would like to recite Romans 6:1-2 again putting a blank in the place of the word sin. I would like for you to think about what sin or sins are entangling you at this time. You may silently replace the blank with your entangling sin.

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in ______________________, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to ____________________, live any longer therein?

Affirmation of Truth that we do not have to be bound by sin.

I confess the truth that I do not have to be bound by sinful entanglements. I choose now to claim the freedom that I have been given in Christ. I declare the truth that I have been made free from the bondage of sin and accept the freedom that Jesus has died to give to me.