Romans Chapter 6 Verse 15

• Paul has already covered what “under grace” actually looks like.  And we’ve talked about it a few times that when the grace of God is actually perceived, when the love of God is actually glimpsed, the reality of His goodness and His undeserved favor…and His ultimate sacrifice…that awareness will not set us free to sin, that revelation will set us free from sin!
• We’ll see sin for what it is…the birth of regret, the beginning of loss.  We’ll understand, if only for a moment, the reach of sin into the lives of others, how it rips folks off of the love and service that they are due from us, being side by side with us in God’s creation.  And ultimately, we’ll see the cross man.  The broken body of the Son of God…the blood of the King of Kings, the pure and good Prince slain for the very sin that I am contemplating continuing in…
• And that sight…that heart knowledge will not produce in me an attitude of “yes, it’s all paid for man…let’s go sin it up!”  That is knowledge that puffs up…hollow, nothing to it, just a shell, not real…cotton candy Christianity…
• Ah but mix that glimpse with humility and call upon the Lord in sorrow for what has transpired, in brokenness over your sin and all that it has caused, all that it has cost Him and you for that matter, and open your heart to the things of God, inviting in the very presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit, and that knowledge…is not used by you, its applied within you producing wisdom…perseverance, character and hope…
• Paul said it back in Chapter 1.  Grace comes in, apostleship and obedience are conceived and in that wonderful process you are called son, daughter, friend, pure, clean, forgiven, rescued…and then you’re called to tell ‘em!  You’re not going to be able NOT TO!
• David put it this way in Psalm 32.  “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.  Whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.  And in whose spirit there is no deceit (because it’s been rooted out by God!).  When I kept silent, my bones grew old…”
• In practical terms.  Grace reveals God Himself to you, because it is only through grace that we are able to know Him…and what’s more, when grace is truly touched, it reveals you to you.  It sheds perfect revelational light on the truth of eternal reality.  What’s really going on here in this life thing.  What am I really?  How did I get here?  All of those questions become a clear picture when God’s grace illuminates your heart. 
• I remember when I was 14, I thought I was all that.  That God had just made me in such a way that I was fine…good to go…you know those guys and those gals that never have to work out but they look like they do…and we all hate them…well that was my perception of myself…and then I saw a Bowflex commercial!
• You know the old school commercials where they will show a piece of the machine and then a piece of a body…like the pulleys and then the legs, the handle to the bench and then the arm…Well I was watching this commercial thinking man I’m good to go!  Got it all!  HOT!  I already look like that! 
• Then they panned out and showed the entire body and it was a WOMAN!  I was devastated!  I started working out that night!  Well grace is like that man when it is truly received by a heart of wisdom!  It comes in and testifies of God’s love and my futility!  And you see for the first time that you are not good to go…you ain’t all that…you’re a slave to sin man, being controlled…look at verse 16.

Romans Chapter 6 Verse 16

• The idea here, the implication, the truth is…every man is ruled.  Naw bro, I’m my own captain, my own king, I make my own way and chart my own path.  Do you not know?  Do you eat?   Do you sleep?  Do you get sick?  Do you die?   None of those things would be on my punch list if I was captain.  Eating, to me, is very pleasurable but there is a part of me that is burdened by it.  Mr. Wood knows that.  When we were building the wall at the old facility, I didn’t want to stop.  Lunch wasn’t in the plan man…there was work to do!  Sleep?  What a waste of time!  Getting sick, not my hobby!  Dying, “no thanks, I choose life.”
• Are you sure you are supreme sir?  The truth is, no man…no woman is supreme.  You’re a fool if you think you are.  No person is master of their own fate.  We are all governed by a design, by a plan, by an outside power.  And Paul’s point here is that we can be governed by God through submission to His Kingship and Fatherhood leading to righteousness and life or we can be governed by Satan and the flesh as his slave of sin coveting death in all crevices of our lives. 
• Our choice.  I’m going to present myself to one or the other to obey and to whom I yield, to them a servant I become.  Again I think of Eve in the Garden.  Who did she disobey?  God.  Who did she obey?  The Serpent, right.  How many actions?  One.

Romans Chapter 6 Verse 17

• I dig that.  Paul thanks God for salvation, not self.  Ever hear someone prop themselves up talking about, “I found God” as though their life being in order is somehow on their account?  You found God?   Was He hiding?  Maybe tucked back in the “everything drawer?”  No you didn’t find God…God rescued you and you are who you are today by the grace of God.  (1 Cor 15)
• God be thanked.  To God be the glory that although you were lost in puppetry to sin and decay, you received the knowledge of the gospel and your heart was opened to truth man…and now that glorious gospel of Jesus Christ has taken root, produced wisdom and is now bearing fruit through obedience unto eternity.  All of that, thanks be to God!

Romans Chapter 6 Verse 18

• In other words you’ve been saved from a horrible, cruel, unrelenting and terrifying master to an inheritance in the very house of the best Master.  A Master that calls you His own.  Seats you at His table and provides for you as Father.  And therefore, serve Him just as vehemently as you served the flesh before but this time even more so…with more passion, with more excellence and diligence…check this out…

Romans Chapter 6 Verse 19

• Live just as fervently for God…MORE fervently for God…as you did for the flesh! 

Romans Chapter 6 Verse 20

• Live MORE fervently for God because before you’d work and work and strive and plan and plot and position…to what end?  Problems!  Turmoil!  No peace, no love man…no fruit!  You were free in regards to righteousness Paul says…which is a very BAD thing…that’s like being free from breathing!  You choke out in a matter of minutes…anything good you would try!  No fruit, what fruit?  Paul continues…

Romans Chapter 6 Verses 21 – 22

• Hidden nugget alert!  Paul chooses the word aionios which could be translated as either eternal life or everlasting life!  The implication…the life lived unto God, your life will not only be forever…but will be RIGHT NOW!
• Jesus said in John Chapter 10 “I give eternal (aionios) life and in that you shall never perish and nothing can snatch you out of My hand!”  So the reality…not only are you alive forever man…to live in the very kingdom of the Most High for all of eternity but you are alive TODAY!  You have access to the Father right now!  You can do good.  You can bear fruit.  You can honor Him and even enjoy eternity right now, in your present day because the Spirit of God is within you!  That is His gift to you when you place your life in His hands…He deposits in you the Guarantee of your inheritance in heaven and that Guarantee is a person…the Holy Spirit.
• But Paul closes out this chapter again with the posing of choice…it’s our choice whom we choose to follow.  Sin leading to death or Jesus Christ leading to eternal and everlasting life…

Romans Chapter 6 Verse 23

• Satan will gladly pay you for your service to him…but in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, with a humbled heart you can receive the gift of God.  Not to be earned…something given.  Nothing you’re entitled to, something you’re invited to…eternal life in Christ Jesus, THE Savior of the world…why not YOUR world?  Why not today?  When were you promised tomorrow?  Where in the Word of God or in your heart of hearts is it written that you need not yield your life to the Lord? 
• Man the reality is you’re not promised the next second, the next minute…and the truth is that there is only One Way, there is only One truth…and without your life submitted to Jesus man you’re not even alive…because He is the Life…Life now and Life eternal.  Not climbing the walls into heaven, no buying your way in with good intentions or good works…One path only, and it’s narrow…narrow in that you’ll know when you’re off…
• Maybe that’s you today…maybe you’re just off track…’sup with grace man?  Get some grace today then…and get obedient, get back on track…and if you’ve never had a sip of the water of life, the Spirit calls out to you today, just as He calls out in the last couple verses in the Bible…before the books are closed and the Revelation is complete…Revelation 22:17, “whoever desires, let him take the water of life…freely.”  That is Christ’s call to you today…come freely and be eternally free.