Romans 6 - Dead to Sin

1. Up to this point, Paul has been explaining to us how we are justified in Christ by our faith and not our works, and this commonly brings up some antinomian objections.
   1. The antinomian is the one who believes that the gracious work of Christ means that there is no longer any law.
2. These two objections are marked by Paul's exclamation "by no means"
   1. Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace?
   2. Grace and sin are in tension with each other, but the answer to this tension is in the relationship we had to sin and the one we now have to righteousness.
   3. We were once slaves to sin and to continue to sin is to serve sin and unrighteousness itself.
   4. We are now instead slaves to righteousness, presenting ourselves to Christ for His service.
3. We should consider then the necessity of the law, for how else could we be in service to Christ and His righteousness, if there is no law to be deemed righteous by?
   1. The nature of our service requires that there be some law we are judging our works by, or else our works are impossible to know as righteous and unrighteous.
   2. We are in service to Christ in some way, and there is something real that pleases Him, and those things can be found in the law revealed in nature and in scripture.
   3. It is also because of this law that we can have great joy in our service, for we can truly experience freedom from SOMETHING, freedom from sin.