Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Gospel of Emancipation: Definitive Union and the Shattered Tyranny of Sin (Romans 6:4–7)

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The Gospel of Emancipation: Definitive Union and the Shattered Tyranny of Sin (Romans 6:4–7) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm glad you are here with us. We are opening up the archives
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  again. Today we are looking at some
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  texts that didn't just shape history, but actually they
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  shaped the way we understand ourselves even now.
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  We're not here to just skim the surface.
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  You want to get to the bottom of the argument.
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  It is good to be here and you are right about getting to the
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  bottom of things. We often treat theology like
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  it's this abstract cloud floating way above our heads.
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  Right, something for academics. But the text we're digging into
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  today, Romans Charter 6, it's less like a cloud and more like
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  a schematic. A schematic, yeah.
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  Like an engineering diagram for the human heart?
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  Yeah, it shows how the machine works.
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  They like that image, an engineering diagram.
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  It suggests there are mechanics involved, you know, levers and
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  gears. There are.
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  It explains how change actually happens.
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  It's not magic, it's mechanics. God's mechanics we are.
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  Focusing specifically on Romans 6 verses 4 through 7, this is
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  well, it's often called the Mount Everest of Paul's letters.
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  It is. It's high altitude stuff.
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  The air is thin and if you're not paying attention, you might
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  fall off the edge. But the view from the top is
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  absolutely unmatched. So our mission for this session,
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  for this deep dive, is to answer a very specific and frankly A
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  somewhat controversial question. Our sources call it the question
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  Grace raises. It is the question that almost
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  every thinking person asks when they first really hear the
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  gospel. You think so?
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  I do. If they don't ask it, there's a
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  good chance they didn't hear the message.
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  Clearly they heard a watered down version.
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  So to help us answer it, we've pulled from 2 very dense
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  theological commentaries and a set of exegetical sermons that
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  really breakdown the original Greek grammar.
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  We're going to try to map out Paul's logic step by step.
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  We have to make it out. Paul isn't giving a pep talk
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  here. He's not just offering
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  encouragement. No, he's constructing an
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  argument. An argument about identity.
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  He's going to argue that a Christian isn't just a forgiven
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  Sinner. OK.
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  A Christian is, well, in a sense, a completely different
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  species. They have changed realms.
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  From the dominion of Adam to the dominion of Christ.
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  Precisely a total change of government.
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  All right, so before we get to the solution Paul offers, we
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  have to really understand the problem.
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  We need to set the scene. We're coming right out of Romans
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  chapter 5. Give us the context.
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  Romans 5 is the peak of the good news.
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  It's the crescendo Paul has just laid out this massive, sweeping
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  comparison between Adam and Christ.
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  The two heads of humanity. Two representatives.
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  He argues that while Adam's one act of sin brought death to
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  everyone under his head show what is.
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  All of us by birth. All of us.
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  Christ's one act of obedience brings life, and he ends with
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  what one of our sources calls a Thunder clap of comfort.
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  It's just a stunning statement. That is, he says, where sin
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  increased, grace abounded all the more.
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  Which is really the core promise of the faith, isn't it?
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  You cannot out sin God's grace. That is the promise, but the
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  human heart. Well, it's a loophole finding
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  machine. It really is.
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  We are always looking for the angle, the shortcut.
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  And as soon as you say the more you sin, the more grace God
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  gives the logical brain, or maybe the devious brain, it
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  clicks into gear, right? It starts doing the math.
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  It does, and it asks the question that opens Chapter 6.
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  What shall we say then? Are we to continue and thin that
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  grace may abound? It is the ultimate get out of
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  jail free card strategy. It is if my Vadnais just
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  highlights God's goodness. Then why don't I just keep being
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  bad? I get to do what I want and God
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  gets the glory for being so forgiving.
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  It sounds like a win win, doesn't it?
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  It does on the surface. This is what theologians call
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  the antinomian objection anti meaning against and nomos
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  meaning law. The idea that grace eliminates
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  the need for any moral law. Exactly.
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  Now here is a fascinating insight from our sources.
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  If a preacher never ever hears this objection from his
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  congregation, and what they probably aren't preaching the
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  gospel of grace clearly enough. That is a very counterintuitive
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  thought. Unpack that for us.
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  We'll think about it if you preach, be good and God will
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  love you or try harder and God will accept you.
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  Nobody asks, so can I send more? Of course not.
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  The answer is obviously no. The answer is no, because if you
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  earn your standing, you have to keep working.
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  This question only arises when you preach radical, unmerited,
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  absolutely free grace. It means the listeners
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  understood that the payment is totally free, that it's not
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  based on their performance at all.
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  So the objection, in a strange way, actually proves the radical
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  nature of the message he was preaching.
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  It's a sign that the gospel of grace has been heard, even if
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  it's being twisted. But obviously Paul does not
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  agree with the logic. He doesn't say.
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  Good question. Let's explore that, no.
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  His reaction is visceral, it's immediate, and it's absolute.
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  In Greek, the phrase is mojo noito.
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  By no means yes. The old King James translated
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  it, God forbid, and that really captures the sense of it.
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  It's a shudder of horror. It's like asking, hey, I have
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  this great antidote, should I go drink some poison just to prove
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  how well it works? That's a perfect analogy.
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  But, and this is so critical for you, the listener, to grasp,
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  Paul does not just shout stop it.
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  He doesn't just give them a list of rules a Thou shalt not.
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  No, that's what we would expect. But he doesn't go there.
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  He gives them an ontological impossibility.
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  Ontological. That is a heavy word.
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  Let's break that down for everyone.
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  Oncology is the study of being or existence.
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  It's about what something is. So Paul isn't saying you
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  shouldn't sin, OK. He is saying given what you are
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  now as a believer, continuing to live in sin as a lifestyle is an
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  absurdity. It's a contradiction in being.
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  Like asking can a fish live on the moon?
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  Exactly. The answer isn't well, the fish
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  is forbidden by the rules of fish club from living on the
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  moon. No, the answer is a fish cannot
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  live on the moon and remain a fish.
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  It's a category error. It's very nature prevents it.
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  I see. So to prove this, Paul builds
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  what we are calling the argument map.
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  Yes, and that is the structure we're going to follow today.
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  It is a logical chain. It's airtight.
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  If A is true, then B must be true, and if B is true then C
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  must follow. So let's step onto the map.
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  The first coordinate is verse 4. It starts We were buried
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  therefore with him through baptism into death.
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  The keyword there, the connecting word, is.
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  Therefore, it links everything back to what he just said in
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  verse 3. Which was that we were baptized
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  into his death. Right, so verse 4 is the logical
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  consequence of that. And just look at the imagery he
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  uses right out of the gate burial.
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  It's not subtle imagery. No, it's violent.
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  One of our sources points out that burial is not a gentle
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  metaphor. You do not bury someone who is
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  just taking a nap. Right, you don't bury someone
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  who is on probation hoping they'll get better.
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  You bury a corpse. It signals finality.
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  The end. Total absolute finality.
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  The old man, your pre Christian self, the person you were in
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  Adam is not being renovated. We're not sending him to rehab.
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  We're not teaching him new habits or giving him a fresh
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  coat of paint. He is terminated.
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  The sentence has been carried out.
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  The Greek verb here is really interesting, isn't it?
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  It's Cinetaphiman, yes. It's a compound word sin meaning
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  with or together with and that toe meaning to bury.
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  We were buried with him. But notice the grammar, the
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  tense and the voice. OK, it is an aorist passive.
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  For those of us who haven't looked at a Greek textbook in 20
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  years, help us out. What does that mean practically?
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  Passive means it happened to you.
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  It's an action you received. You did not bury yourself.
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  You can't. Someone else has to do it.
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  God did this action. So it's not a self improvement
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  project. Not at all.
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  And Ellurist refers to a completed punctilier action in
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  the past. It's a historical snapshot.
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  It happened, it is done. It's not ongoing.
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  It's a definitive rupture, a clean break.
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  That's the perfect phrase for it, a definitive rupture.
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  So we aren't dying daily in this specific sense Paul is talking
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  about here. We died.
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  It's past tense. That is the claim in the eyes of
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  God in the courtroom of heaven, the person you were before you
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  were united to Christ has ceased to exist.
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  That legal entity is gone. Now the text says we were buried
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  through baptism, and you know this is a minefield in theology.
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  We need to thread the needle here carefully.
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  Is Paul saying the water itself magically zaps us into a new
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  life? Right.
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  And we have to stick to the reform view here, which very
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  carefully navigates between two common errors.
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  What's the first one? Error 1 is what you could call
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  bear symbolism. That is the idea that baptism
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  is, I don't know, basically a birthday party.
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  It's just an announcement. A nice announcement to public
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  ceremony, but it's essentially empty of any real spiritual
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  significance. It just points to something.
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  Just a ritual to show your friends and family, right?
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  But Paul's language here, buried through baptism, is way too
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  strong for that. He seems to be linking the ACT
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  to the reality in a much closer way.
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  OK, so that's one error. What's the other ditch on the
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  other side of the road? Error 2 is baptismal
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  regeneration. This is the idea that the water
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  itself saves you, or that the physical act of the ritual
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  forces God's hand and automatically confers grace
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  regardless of faith. So what is a middle ground?
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  The reformed position. The Reformed view calls baptism
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  a visible word or a sign and seal of the covenant.
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  A visible word. I like that.
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  Think of it as a uniform. OK, I like analogies.
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  Go with the uniform. Imagine a young person enlists
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  in the army. They take an oath.
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  They go through training. At some point they're issued a
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  uniform. Now, that uniform doesn't make
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  them a soldier. Right.
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  The oath and the training did that, the commitment.
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  Correct, but the uniform is the visible boundary marker.
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  It's a public sign that dictates their new reality if that person
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  wears that uniform but is caught fighting for the enemy.
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  Then the uniform itself becomes evidence against them.
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  It condemns them. It says you are a traitor to the
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  allegiance you are publicly professing.
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  It marks their allegiance. It's the badge of the covenant.
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  Correct. Baptism is the enacted sermon of
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  union. It publicly and visibly marks
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  the transition from the dominion of Adam to the dominion of
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  Christ. It says to the world I am under
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  new management. It is the sign that seals the
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  reality for the believer. OK, that's clear.
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  So we are buried. That is the negative side, the
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  death. But Paul immediately pivots to
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  the positive purpose. Verse 4 continues in order that
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  just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
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  Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
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  This is the purpose clause. This is the why we didn't just
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  die to be dead. We died so that we could live
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  differently. The burial clears the ground for
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  new construction. Let's talk about this walk,
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  because walking with Jesus can sound a bit, well, sentimental.
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  Like we're holding hands on a beach somewhere.
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  It can, but the Greek word Perry Pachoichmann is not about that
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  at all. It refers to the steady,
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  habitual stride of your life. It's your conduct, your
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  lifestyle. So it's not about how high you
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  jump in worship on a Sunday morning, no.
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  It's about how you walk on a Tuesday afternoon when you're
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  tired and your boss is annoying you.
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  It is the consistent, settled direction of your feet.
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  And it is a very specific kind of walk, a walk in newness of
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  life. That word newness, kanatoti, is
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  vital. In Greek, there are a couple of
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  words for new. One means new in time, like a
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  new phone or new car. It's just the most recent model.
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  This isn't that. This isn't that at all.
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  This word means new in quality. It means unprecedented.
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  It's a different mode of existence altogether.
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  It's almost alien, something that hasn't been seen before.
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  It is eschatological, that is the theological term.
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  It means the life of the age to come.
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  The life of heaven of the new creation is breaking into the
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  present age through the believer.
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  So the Christian isn't just a better version of a human,
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  they're not just trying harder, they are powered by a different
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  engine entirely. And look at the source Paul
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  sites for that power, the glory of the Father.
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  Not the willpower of the believer, no.
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  He doesn't say Christ was raised by effort or positive thinking.
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  He was raised by glory. In the Old Testament.
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  Glory is the visible, heavy, majestic manifestation of God's
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  presence and strength. This is a massive relief,
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  honestly, because if you just tell me, OK, now you're a
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  Christian, stop sinning. I look at my own willpower and I
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  know I'm in deep trouble. We all are.
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  My willpower lasts about 20 minutes on a good day, but Paul
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  is saying the energy that helps me walk this new walk is the
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  same divine energy that emptied the tomb on Easter morning.
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  That is the game changer. It absolutely destroys the error
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  of pragmatism or self help Christianity.
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  We do not change by learning 7 habits of highly holy people.
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  We chained by being plugged into the very glory of the Father.
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  This brings up what the Westminster Confession calls the
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  third use of the law. Yes, it does.
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  It's a key piece of this. Can you?
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  Explain that briefly. For the unbeliever, the law has
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  2 uses. It shows us God's standard and
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  it condemns us because we fail. It's a judge, but for the
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  believer who is no longer under condemnation.
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  Because we're in Christ. Right.
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  The law takes on 1/3 use. It's no longer a condemning
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  judge, but a friendly guide. It's the map that shows us how
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  to walk in this newness. It defines what this new life
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  looks like in practice. OK, that makes sense.
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  Which brings us to verse 5. This seems to be the linchpin of
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  the whole argument, the logical core.
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  It is the steel girder that holds the entire bridge up.
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  If this verse holds, the whole argument holds.
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  And it reads, For if we have been united with him in a death
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  like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
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  resurrection like his. United.
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  That is a soft word in English. That sounds like a club
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  membership. You know, United Airlines,
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  United Nations. It sounds like a loose
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  affiliation. Yeah, voluntary association.
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  The Greek is so much more visceral.
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  The word is sinfi TOI. It's a biological term.
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  What does it mean? It means grown together or
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  planted together. It's an organic living union.
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  Like grafting a branch onto a tree.
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  That is the best image we have for it.
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  Think of a gardener taking a wild fruitless branch and
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  grafting it into a healthy fruit bearing vine.
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  The branch does not just sit next to the vine.
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  The tissues fuse, the capillaries connect.
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  The SAP, the very life fluid of the vine, begins to flow into
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  the branch. So the life of the vine becomes
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  the life of the branch. It's an organic union.
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  You can't separate them anymore without killing the branch.
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  It's like we share a nervous system with Jesus.
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  That's a striking way to put it. And Paul uses this biological
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  fact to make a logical guarantee.
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  He sets up a conditional statement.
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  If A, then B. If we are grafted into his
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  death, which Paul says we are by faith, then we shall certainly
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  be grafted into his resurrection.
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  Shall certain. Let's not.
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  We might be, or we hope to be. No, it's future tense, but it's
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  certain. This is one of the strongest
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  statements on the doctrine of assurance, or the perseverance
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  of the Saints in the whole Bible.
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  So this directly refutes the idea that you can be truly saved
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  and then lose your salvation. It obliterates it.
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  You cannot be half grafted. You can't be dead with him, but
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  somehow not raised with him. It's a package deal.
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  If the head rises from the grave, the body that's attached
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  to the head must rise with it. It's a logical and a biological
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  certainty. Now when he talks about this
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  resurrection, does he just mean in the future?
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  Like when we die and get new bodies at the end of time.
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  Well, it certainly includes that that is our future and final
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  hope, the resurrection of the body.
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  But in the immediate context of Romans 6, Paul is primarily
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  talking about the moral resurrection right now.
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  The ability to live a new life today.
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  The ability to say no to sin today.
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  The power to walk in that newness of life we just talked
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  about. So for the listener who feels
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  defeated, who feels like I keep failing, I'm always going to be
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  this way. This verse is direct combat
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  against that lie. It is pastoral dynamite.
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  It tells the struggling Christian your hope for holiness
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  isn't based on your grit or your willpower.
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  It's based on your graft. It's based on your graft.
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  You will rise morally because you are organically and
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  irrevocably part of the Risen 1. Let's move to verse 6.
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  This is where we get into the the how to, or at least the how
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  it happened of this whole process.
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  Yes, he says. We know that our old self was
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  crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought
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  to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
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  There is a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the first 3
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  words knowing this. Paul puts the mind before the
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  will. He grounds our practice and our
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  knowledge. You have to know something is
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  true before you can live like it's true.
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  So sanctification isn't just a feeling or a mystical
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  experience. No, it's a deduction based on
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  revealed facts. You have to think your way into
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  obedience. You have to preach the truth to
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  yourself. And the central fact we need to
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  know is our old self was crucified.
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  So who is this old self? Because honestly, I feel like I
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  wrestle with him every single morning when the alarm goes off.
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  And this is probably the most common point of confusion in
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  this entire chapter. The old man or old self is not
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  your sinful nature. Wait, really?
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  Say that again because I think I have always assumed the old man
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  was the part of me that wants to do bad things.
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  No, your sinful nature, what the Bible sometimes calls the flesh
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  that is still very much alive and kicking.
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  That is precisely why you struggle, OK?
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  So if the old man isn't my sin nature, who is he?
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  The old man is your former identity.
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  It is the you that belong to Adam.
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  It is your legal standing before God as a condemned Sinner, as
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  part of the old fallen humanity. So it's my old passport, my
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  citizenship in the Empire of Sin.
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  That's a great way to put it. It's your former self, and Paul
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  says that person, that legal entity, was taken to the cross
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  with Christ and crucified, executed.
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  So the verdict has been carried out.
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  It's done. This is why we don't try to
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  improve the old man. You don't rehabilitate A corpse.
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  We recognize he's been put to death.
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  So the person I used to be, the one who was defined by sin and
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  whose master was sin, that person is gone.
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  In the Ledger of heaven, that account is closed.
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  That identity has been legally terminated.
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  But then Paul says this happens so that the body of sin might be
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  brought to nothing. Now brought to nothing sounds
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  like it disappears. Sounds like annihilation.
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  But obviously sin is still here. I still get angry.
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  I still get jealous. Right, and this is another place
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  where the English translation can be a little misleading.
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  The Greek word is katar geetha, OK?
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  It does not mean annihilated or obliterated.
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  It means rendered powerless, deposed or unemployed.
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  Unemployed. I like that Sin is out of a job.
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  It's been fired from being the boss.
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  Think of it like a regime change in a country.
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  OK, imagine a brutal dictator has been ruling a country with
• 18:52
  an iron fist for 40 years. Everyone must obey him.
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  Then suddenly the revolution happens.
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  The capital is taken, the dictator is toppled, and his
• 19:02
  statue is pulled down in the main square.
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  He's no longer the president. But he might not be dead.
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  Right. He might have escaped.
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  He's now hiding out in the mountains with a few loyalist.
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  He's running a guerrilla war. He's trying to sabotage the new
• 19:12
  government. That's indwelling sin.
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  That is indwelling sin. It's still present, it is still
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  dangerous, it is loud and it can cause a lot of damage.
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  But, and this is the absolute key, it has no legitimate
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  authority anymore. It cannot command the army.
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  It cannot write the laws. It's been deposed.
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  So sin is a deposed tyrant. It can shout at me from the
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  hills, it can lay traps for me, but it cannot compel my
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  obedience anymore. Exactly.
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  Before you were a Christian, you were a slave.
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  You had to sin. It was your nature, and he was
• 19:43
  your king. Now you are free.
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  You might, in a moment of foolishness, choose to listen to
• 19:48
  the deposed tyrant shouting from the hills, but you do not have
• 19:52
  to. His legal reign is over.
• 19:54
  That completely redefines freedom, doesn't it?
• 19:56
  It turns the modern idea of freedom on its head.
• 19:58
  Modern freedom says I have no master.
• 20:00
  I do what I want, right? Biblical freedom says I have
• 20:02
  been liberated from a cruel master to joyfully serve a good
• 20:05
  one. We are free from sin to serve
• 20:07
  righteousness. And verse 7 just ties this all
• 20:10
  up with a final legal bow for one who has died has been set
• 20:14
  free from sin. And that phrase set free is
• 20:18
  fascinating. The Greek word is actually DDK
• 20:21
  Shai, the verb form of righteousness.
• 20:24
  It literally means has been justified from sin.
• 20:27
  It's a legal term. So it's not just freed in a
• 20:29
  general sense, it's freed in a legal, forensic sense, yes.
• 20:33
  How does death justify you or free you legally?
• 20:37
  Think about any legal contract. If a slave has a master, that
• 20:40
  master has a total legal claim on his life.
• 20:42
  Is labor everything but if the slave dies?
• 20:45
  The contract is void. All claims are ended.
• 20:48
  You can't sue a dead man for your debts.
• 20:49
  You can't command a corpse to work.
• 20:51
  You can't fire me. I'm dead.
• 20:53
  Exactly, Death dissolves all legal obligations because the
• 20:56
  believer died with Christ sins legal claim over us.
• 21:00
  A claim that says you belong to me, you must obey me is rendered
• 21:03
  null and void. It is a forensic verdict from
• 21:05
  the Court of Heaven. So let's zoom out for a minute.
• 21:08
  We have walked through the dense part of the text.
• 21:10
  We have this map, this logical chain.
• 21:13
  Buried, Ray reunited, old man crucified, sin deposed.
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  How do we put this all together? Our sources talk a lot about the
• 21:19
  indicative and the imperative dynamic.
• 21:21
  This is the absolute heartbeat of Reformed ethics and Christian
• 21:25
  living in general. The indicative is the statement
• 21:28
  of fact. It's what is true about you
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  because of what God has done in Christ.
• 21:33
  You are dead to sin. You are united with Christ.
• 21:36
  Those are indicatives. The imperative is the command.
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  It's what you are to do based on the fact.
• 21:41
  Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body.
• 21:44
  And the order is non negotiable. You can't flip.
• 21:47
  Them if you flip them, you destroy the gospel and you
• 21:49
  create a religion of moralism. If you say I must fight sin
• 21:53
  really hard so that I can become dead to it, that is self
• 21:56
  salvation. And it just leads to either
• 21:58
  pride if you think you're succeeding, or despair when you
• 22:01
  realize you're failing. Total burnout.
• 22:04
  Paul always, always, always puts the indicative first.
• 22:07
  He says this is who you are. You are free now start acting
• 22:10
  like it. We do not fight to get the
• 22:12
  victory, we fight from the victory that Christ has already
• 22:15
  won. That's the whole ball game right
• 22:16
  there. OK, let's get really practical.
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  How does this apply to the listener?
• 22:20
  Right now, today, we often use a framework head, heart and hands.
• 22:25
  Let's start with the head. What's the intellectual take
• 22:27
  away? Systematic clarity.
• 22:29
  You have to know this doctrine. It's not enough to feel it when
• 22:33
  temptation comes. Let's say you are tempted to
• 22:36
  lash out in anger at your spouse or kids.
• 22:39
  You have to stop and think. You have to engage your mind.
• 22:42
  Yes, you have to preach to yourself.
• 22:43
  You have to say, wait a minute. That explosive anger, that
• 22:46
  impulse, it belongs to the old man.
• 22:48
  And the old man is dead. He was crucified.
• 22:51
  That is not who I am anymore. You have to identify the thought
• 22:53
  or the impulse as a foreign intruder, not as the real you.
• 22:57
  Right. Stop looking inside yourself for
• 22:59
  some reservoir of strength. That's not the point.
• 23:01
  Look back to the objective history of the cross in Christ's
• 23:04
  resurrection. That's where your new identity
• 23:06
  was forged. OK, that's the head, now the
• 23:08
  heart. How does this doctrine change
• 23:11
  our affections, our desires? Well, it's about affections.
• 23:15
  If you really begin to grasp that you are organically united
• 23:19
  to Christ, that you are married to Him, sin starts to look very
• 23:23
  different. How so?
• 23:25
  It starts to look less like a fun time or a harmless
• 23:28
  indulgence and more like, well, like trying to have an affair
• 23:31
  with the corpse. It's grotesque.
• 23:33
  It's an insult to your living husband.
• 23:35
  Christ. It changes the want to it makes
• 23:38
  sin look ugly, not just forbidden.
• 23:40
  Exactly, and it also gives so much hope to the person who is
• 23:44
  weary from the fight. Listen, if you are struggling
• 23:47
  with sin, if you hate your sin, if you're at war with it, that
• 23:50
  is the best news in the world. Because dead men do not fight.
• 23:54
  The struggle itself proves there is new life in you.
• 23:57
  The corpse doesn't resist the worms.
• 23:59
  The fact that you're fighting proves you are alive in Christ.
• 24:02
  That is a great comfort. And finally, the hands.
• 24:05
  How does this change our actions, our obedience?
• 24:08
  This leads to what we could call identity driven repentance.
• 24:12
  We do not repent by groveling and saying I'm such a loser, I'm
• 24:15
  worthless trash, I'll never get it right.
• 24:16
  Which is how a lot of us think about repentance.
• 24:19
  It is, but that's the voice of the old slave master.
• 24:23
  We should repent by saying I am a son of the living God.
• 24:26
  This behavior, this thought, this attitude is beneath my new
• 24:30
  dignity. I was made for more than this.
• 24:33
  You talk back to the temptation from your new position of
• 24:36
  authority. Literally tell the deposed
• 24:39
  dictator in the hills to shut up.
• 24:40
  Say it out loud if you have to. You don't own me anymore.
• 24:43
  And then you actively use the means of grace God has given us.
• 24:46
  Like what? Your baptism is your permanent
• 24:49
  sign of this burial. Think about it.
• 24:51
  When you see a baptism, remember your own The Lord's Supper is
• 24:55
  the visible word that feeds this new resurrection life.
• 24:59
  Being in a church where this truth is preached and where
• 25:02
  there's accountability, all these are tools for living out
• 25:05
  this reality. It's powerful stuff.
• 25:06
  It really shifts the entire focus from trying harder to
• 25:10
  believing deeper and living out of what's already true.
• 25:12
  That is it. That's the secret.
• 25:14
  It's not about generating power, it's about drawing on a power
• 25:17
  that is already yours in Christ. We are going to wrap up now, but
• 25:20
  we always like to leave you with a final thought to chew on, a
• 25:22
  provocative thought. If the old man is dead, if he
• 25:25
  was really, truly crucified, executed and buried by God
• 25:29
  himself, then why do we spend so much of our time and energy
• 25:33
  trying to make him look presentable?
• 25:35
  We prop him up, we put makeup on him, we try to make his corpse
• 25:38
  respectable to the world. Stop trying to renovate the
• 25:40
  casket. The tomb is closed.
• 25:42
  God has sealed it. Walk away from the graveyard and
• 25:45
  live in the resurrection life you've been given.
• 25:47
  This has been reformed thinking. We encourage you to open up
• 25:50
  Romans 6 this week. Use the map we've laid out, see
• 25:54
  the logic, and see the glorious freedom it offers.
• 25:56
  Thanks for listening.