Personal Responsibility
Romans 6:8-18
What are your responsibilities as a follower of Jesus Christ?
Legalism answers this question by focusing on what should be avoided by believers. For the legalist, the Christian is the person who avoids all of the wrong things and does all of the right things.
Grace, on the other hand, answers the same question by focusing instead on what Christ has done and how we can live in response to Christ’s freely offered salvation. The freedom we have in Christ is the freedom to live as we were created to live – in relationship with Him.
In Christ, we share in his resurrection because, as R.C. Sproul says, we have already been resurrected from spiritual death because of our spiritual union with Christ.
Embrace your new identity: Romans 6:8-11 teaches us that because we have died with Christ, we have also died to sin just as he did. Oftentimes, Christians become shackled to the sins of their past. The lie of Satan is that our past determines our future, but the truth of the gospel is that in Christ, our old self has been crucified and our future is determined by Christ’s past, not ours. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection, we no longer live enslaved to sin, we have been set free to live for Christ.
Fight sin: Just because we have been set free to live for Christ does not mean that living for Christ is always easy.
World War II was won at the Battle of the Bulge, yet there were still more battles that had to be fought before the war ended. In the same way, Satan was defeated on the cross, but there are still wars to be fought in our lives on a regular basis. It is the responsibility of all believers to fight sin in their own lives. Romans 6:12 exhorts us to “let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.” We are to fill our lives with Christ and give him our obedience. We are no longer slaves to sin, we are called to give ourselves as living sacrifices to Christ.
Walk in righteousness: But what of grace? Because our salvation is completely the work of Christ and not of works, are we to live any way we choose?
Paul answers that question in Romans 6:15 this way: “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” We have presented ourselves to Christ as his slaves, and as his slaves we are to live our lives to honor him. We are called to live for Christ’s glory, not to gain his acceptance. He loves us – and we live like his children because he loves us, not because we hope to earn his love.
Thompson– Lessons by Craig Thompson, pastor of Malvern Hill Church, Camden. Thompson earned his B.A from Presbyterian College and is pursuing a Ph.D. from Southern Seminary, where he also earned his M.Div.