How misuse of the terms “growth” and “process” with Romans 6 can defraud the sheep – audio
The Bible does speak about growth in grace and there is a process of growing toward maturity, but these words improperly used can also be something for the flesh to hide behind.
This article outlines details relayed also in a Bible study of Romans 6 done Friday April 15. Recording one is on Rom 6:1-12. Unfortunately, the recorder’s data card was nearly full, and only about 37-and-a-half minutes were recorded, but the meat of the message is intact.
A subsequent study (with card cleared to make space) is a back and forth open discussion after the Romans 6 lesson. It opens with a very young-in-the-Lord Christian expressing that he did not understand.
Overall, the talk has useful and frank insights for anyone wanting to know more nuances, though certainly much more could be said.
Regarding Rom 6:6 (and all of Rom 6), laying hold of its truths is not a “process” we gradually grow into, but a command to believe God for! These are Jesus’ promises fulfilled from Jn 8.
John 8:31-36 – Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Romans 6 is the follow-up to this promise for the Son of God to set the Christian free! This freedom is from the Old Creation – who we are as the “natural man” or “in Adam” – and seeing and believing it involves a definite entering in. You either see it with the eyes of your spirit (not only intellect apart from revealed knowledge) or you do not. Seeing the truth of Romans 6 is the means of victory over the Old Man in Adam, and enablement of the New Man in Christ.
Rom 6:5-11 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing [Gr. gnosco – knowing in spirit] this, that our old man was crucified [Gr. aorist tense – eternally past tense] with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Many people understand what Romans 6 says, but they do not have true faith to know it and thus act on it in their spirits.
Notice verse 11. It says “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin.” The word “reckon” is an accounting term. It means account the settled fact that “our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”
The word “crucified” is in the eternally past tense, the Greek aorist tense, and this means it is a historical fact, not a future event. It was done on the Cross, and every genuine Christian experience enters into this which Christ led the way. We are “in Christ” (1 Cor 1:30). This is the basis of walking with consistency and God’s power as the New Man, the New Creation.
Most important is Romans 6:11 follows Romans 6:6 which is the pivotal verse. Rom 6:6 speaks of “knowing” which means you know deeply in your spirit just like you “know” you are born again, and this is so much more than “mental assent” or “head knowledge” of the natural man’s carnal mind. If you do know it, you can “reckon” it, and that is the key lesson needed to believe the Word for freedom from the Old Creation, its sin nature, and ability to go on toward walking in the Spirit as Romans 8 gets into.
The apostle does not say it is a “process” – as some preachers errantly teach – to know the truth of being crucified with Christ and now alive as a new creature. The apostle says it is an unequivocally accomplished fact we must lay hold of.
The above Rom 6:5-11 is a core section, but throughout the entirety of Romans 6, there is repetition of spiritual facts based on “knowing” we are “crucified” that the apostle nearly belabors the point with because he really, really wants us to get it! The apostle commands us to see ourselves as God sees us – by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, Christians are dead to sin, freed from sin. This is stated as past tense, accomplished fact!
Proof of whether we really know it in the spirit and don’t just understand it with our earthly intellect is whether by faith we can walk in the power of it. Being dead to our old identity and really knowing what God says is true of us in Christ is key to walking in the Spirit, and going on with God.
Can you see why it is defrauding to tell people not to worry about this now, and they will get it some time later – with no expectations of any real timeline. Following are established facts:
Key Phrases From Romans 6
• How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
• Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
• Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
• knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (cf Jn 8:34,5)
• For he who has died has been freed from sin. (cf Jn 8:34,5)
• Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.
• Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
• And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you
• And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (cf Jn 8:34,5)
• For when you were slaves of sin … (cf Jn 8:34,35)
• But now having been set free from sin, [cf Jn 8:34,5] and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
• For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lay Hold of God’s Stated Facts!
To say we will get the reality of Romans 6 some day is to throw a lifeline to the flesh which never wants to die, and cannot please God.
That said, let’s get the record straight: The Bible says the Father included our old man in Adam on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. To suggest there is a future timing element is just as bad as saying regeneration of the spirit (being born again) is a process.
Pay attention now, because here’s where weak teaching lets the flesh off the hook.
To say, “Oh we believe Romans 6, but practically it is a process” reveals unbelief masquerading as unbelief. Such insipid theology allows Christians to procrastinate laying hold of declared statements that the apostle says are a completed fact. Romans 6 says enter into the reality of the Cross.
Shall we also say being born again is a “process?” Well, frankly, until one gets it, and meets Jesus, it is a process by default, but God has always said “Today is the day of salvation.” But imagine if we were as cavalier or lax about calling being born of the Spirit a “process” that we may get one day – maybe years from now, if ever.
No! Everyone wants to lock down the foundational promise of salvation. That is one they can understand – be born again, or be a candidate for hell. No, no delay there.
Adam wants to save his skin, but Adam is also all too happy to dumb down what Romans 6 clearly and emphatically and repeatedly states.
Our death with Christ and freedom from sin and the Old Man is an accomplished fact. It happened when Jesus was crucified 2,000 years ago and to imply at all the POWER of its realization is a future event is false teaching. Such false teaching denies the Bible, denies the fruit of Jesus’ sacrifice therefore, and defrauds the sheep who needs to lay hold of the promise of freedom from the Old Man.
Or, to (literally) play devil’s advocate, maybe it is only a process to realize the power of it as some have suggested? If so, we may (incorrectly) say:
• It is a process to get over recreational drinking and getting drunk
• It is a process to get over looking with eyes of lust and performing fornication
• It is a process to get over watching pornography
• It is a process to get over masturbation
• It is a process to get over losing one’s temper
• It is a process to get over deep-seated pride
• It is a process to get over being a liar
• It is a process to get over being a thief in one’s heart
• It is a process to get over being a murderer in one’s heart
• It is a process to get over being selfish, self-focused, and self-centered
• It is a process to get over willfully sinning
• It is a process to get over ignoring one’s conscience
• It is a process to get over not believing God for His promises (and thus implicitly calling Him a liar)
• It is a process to get over not surrendering to complete consecration
• It is a process to get over not caring all that much for the lost
• It is a process to get over (fill in the blank – all manifestations of the Old Man)
We readily concede that for many Christians getting over specific bondages to sin can take time, but a big part of it is because they are not taught to lay hold of God’s true remedy. This remedy is that God’s own Holy Spirit united with a Christian’s new, made-alive spirit, enables one to overcome!
Otherwise, the above is effectively what is taught when one denies the power of the Cross outlined in Romans 6. Does this mean we deny grace? No of course not! We have grace, and the Blood of Jesus Christ when we slip, but the full meaning of grace includes God’s empowerment over the Old Creation!
1 Cor 15:10,11 – But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
The meaning of grace includes overcoming the old man, not just forgiveness for his stumblings, or freedom from the requirements of the law of Moses. Indeed, grace is the enablement for us to live as sons and daughters of God to fulfill the spirit of the law like Jesus and the apostles did!
While there realistically tends to be time required to believe God fully for the power of entering into the realities of Romans 6, sadly, many Christians are not told all that the Lord Jesus did for them on the Cross to free them from these things. As such, the timing is typically delayed from not-long-at-all or even immediately upon receiving Jesus’ salvation, to far too long, if EVER. As such, Christians live sub-normal Christian lives.
However, you might ask: if one does see the realities of Romans 6, does that mean we could have “sinless perfection?” Obviously not, but there is a certain entering in to letting the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead be YOUR power to walk as Jesus did (1 Jn 2:6). This is the promise once one’s eyes are opened that we are “crucified with Christ” and need not yield to the Old Man who is now buried in the tomb by a sovereign act of the Father.
For those whose eyes are so opened, sin’s grip is forever weakened and we now have power such as we never did before if we “know” (in our spirits) we are “dead indeed to sin” and the old man’s nature.
Further, this is not only about sinning, but is the foundation for going on in God! Rom 6 is SO vital because it is the basis of going on to Romans 8 of walking according to the Spirit with consistency, conscious and willful assurance. It is also a basis for going onto holiness (Rom 6:19,22) “without which no one will see God.”
Jesus said the alternative is if you sin, you are yet a slave of sin, and a slave does not abide in the house forever (Jn 8:31-36).
Make no mistake: To suggest God’s facts are future events and a “process” is a work of carnal men who teach the Bible with their earthly intellect, and sinful nature blended in. The truths of Rom 6:6 are SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED (1 Cor 2, Eph 1:15-19).
All knowledge of God truly held must be seen and apprehended by one with faith in the spirit. It is not an intellectual teaching. In fact, if all we have is head knowledge, we cannot be sure we have anything at all.
Lk 8:18 – Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”
Let no man steal your reward! Believe God, and do not throw any lifelines to the flesh!
