FREEDOM REVEALED The Facts of Freedom
007 FREEDOM REVEALED: The Facts of Freedom
Romans 6:12-14
July 27, 2025
John 8:31-36 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
FREEDOM.
It was the offer of Jesus to the people of Israel.
They totally misunderstood the point.
“We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone;”
In a historical sense that was blatantly false.
· They had been slaves in Egypt.
· They had been slaves to the surrounding nations.
· They had been slaves in Babylon.
· They had been slaves to the Medes, the Persians, and the Greeks.
In a present day sense it was somewhat laughable
· Since they lived in an occupied state and were under Roman rule.
But even that was not what Jesus was referring to.
Jesus said, “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
Jesus came to set me free from sin.
And not just a little free, but totally free.
“So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
And this is what we’ve been discussing here in Romans 6.
Our study is “The Necessity of Sanctification”
By now that is obvious to us.
Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”
Regarding heaven we read:
Revelation 22:14-15 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”
SANCTIFICATION IS REQUIRED.
We have read the command that we are to be holy, for God is holy.
We heard Jesus tell us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
We know that if our righteousness does not surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
And yet we know that we are a long way from that requirement.
What is more, we know that by our own efforts we will never achieve it.
WE NEED HELP.
Romans 6:1-11 taught us about that help.
It is yet another beautiful benefit of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
· Not only did He bear our sins on the cross…
· Not only did He propitiate the wrath we deserved…
· Not only did He rise from the grave and vindicate His righteousness…
But when Jesus died and rose again, He took us with Him.
WHAT?
That sounds bizarre and crazy.
· I wasn’t alive 2,000 years ago.
· I didn’t hang on a cross.
· What do you mean I was with Him?
You were with Christ on the cross
The same way you were with Adam in the garden.
He was your head.
He was your representative.
He stood proxy there for you.
And just like you shared in Adam’s actions in the garden,
Now you share in Christ’s actions on the cross.
IT’S CALLED IDENTIFICATION and it is vitally important to understand.
WHAT CHRIST DID, GOD ATTRIBUTED TO YOU.
Now certainly when we discuss JUSTIFICATION that is a glorious thing!
· We love that God was treating Jesus like He lived my life.
· We love that Jesus was bearing the wrath I deserved.
· We love that God credited Christ’s righteousness to my account.
· We love that we are clothed in His righteous robe.
We love that idea of identification or imputation.
But what Paul taught us in Romans 6:1-11 is that
Identification with Christ also has tremendous effect on our sanctification.
WHY?
Because there is a benefit to death and resurrection.
Romans 6:3-4 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
IN CHRIST WE DIED.
And one might ask how death could possibly be a good thing?
You wouldn’t think it was a good thing if you like your present condition.
Men who love their life hate the thought of death.
· It is only those who are in extreme suffering who long for death.
· It is only those who find no joy on this earth that death is enviable.
We read the statements of Job last Sunday night:
Job 3:11-19 “Why did I not die at birth, Come forth from the womb and expire? “Why did the knees receive me, And why the breasts, that I should suck? “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest, With kings and with counselors of the earth, Who rebuilt ruins for themselves; Or with princes who had gold, Who were filling their houses with silver. “Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, As infants that never saw light. “There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary are at rest. “The prisoners are at ease together; They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. “The small and the great are there, And the slave is free from his master.”
Job viewed death as a good thing. Why?
BECAUSE DEATH WOULD MEAN THE END OF HIS SUFFERING.
As Job pointed out, that is true for all those who suffer.
· In death “the wicked cease from raging”
· In death “the weary are at rest”
· In death “the prisoners are at ease”
· In death, “the slave is free from his master.”
And that is the point Paul made to us in Romans 6:1-7
Romans 6:7 “for he who has died is freed from sin.”
The only way to escape your slavery to sin
Was through death.
SO WHEN PAUL LEARNED that he had been identified with Christ in His death Paul saw an immediate benefit.
WE ARE FREE!
· Slavery ends at death.
· Life sentences end at death.
· The Law has no jurisdiction over those who are dead.
By being identified with the death of Christ,
We have been set free from our slavery to sin.
AND THAT WASN’T ALL.
Paul continues in verses 8-11, which we looked at Sunday night.
Romans 6:8-10 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
IN CHRIST WE ROSE.
Our identification with Christ didn’t end with His death, it continued!
· It continued through His burial
· It continues through His resurrection
We died, but we didn’t stay dead, we received new life!
Life like the life of Jesus.
· Life that never ends.
· Life that is not in slavery.
· Life that is free to serve God.
We were identified with Christ.
In Him we died which brought our freedom
And in Him we were raised which brought new life.
Incidentally, you can continue in this understanding.
Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
· So not only did we die and rise,
· We also ascended with Christ
· And are seated with Him in the heavenlies
· Were we become recipients of the surpassing riches of God’s kindness to us.
We are identified with Him even in His ascension.
You are a recipient of God’s kindness and blessing right now
Because of that.
BUT THE POINT OF ROMANS 6:
· With Christ we died putting an end to our slavery.
· With Christ we rose giving us a new life to serve God.
And all of that is what we called: DEFINITIVE SANCTIFICATION.
We didn’t do any of that.
Christ did it all.
You and I were a slave to a master.
· We were in chains and unable to escape.
· Christ comes and breaks the chain, beats our old master a pulp, and tells us
that we are now free.
THAT WAS ALL ON HIM.
That is what we saw in those first 11 verses.
But when we come to verse 12 we start looking at the other half of sanctification which we call: PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION
This is the part that we participate in.
The slave who has been granted freedom
Is now expected to vacate the plantation of his old master
And go live a new and glorious life of freedom.
We are expected to embrace the freedom Jesus provided and walk in it.
And that is where we come to in Romans 6 THIS MORNING.
(12-14) “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
And I do want to get into that text this morning, but before we do,
I want to FIRST remind you of what an awful master your old master was.
TURN TO: ROMANS 7:8-11
We’ll eventually get to this text as we walk through these chapters.
THE MAIN POINT of this segment is to prove that
The Law did not help you become free from sin.
That will be noted even in our main text this morning where Paul says in verse 14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
In Romans 7 Paul is making the case that
· The Law didn’t free us from sin,
· All the Law did was stir sin up and reveal it.
And we’ll talk about that later in our study.
BUT ALSO REVEALED IN THESE 4 VERSES
Is a tremendous description of the working of sin in our life.
Let’s read those verses real quick:
(8-11) “But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”
I hope you recognize there that Paul speaks of sin like a person.
You could replace the word “sin” in that passage with the name “Satan”
And it would still make perfect sense.
AND I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT.
Sin is NOT treated like some sort of neutral, powerless, object.
In this text sin is given a personality, sin is given an agenda,
Sin is seen as a negative force, it is seen as an entity,
It is seen as something that is actively at work against us.
THE LAW WOKE IT UP
· The Law poked the dragon
· Paul will show you what showed up
In those 4 verses Paul attributes
4 accomplishments that sin had in your life.
(8) Sin “PRODUCED in me coveting of every kind”
We see that sin produced itself in me.
Like a tumor that all of a sudden showed up on an MRI
(kat-er-GAD-zo-my)
It is word that speaks of production or accomplishment or achievement
Or something being brought about.
Paul uses this word 6 times in Romans 7,
Highlighting that sin is actively working to produce sinful behavior.
· Romans 7:15 – “For what I am DOING…”
· Romans 7:17 – “no longer am I the one DOING it…”
· Romans 7:18 – “the DOING of the good is not”
· Romans 7:20 – “I am DOING the very thing I do not want…”
You hear Paul there lamenting that
He keeps doing the things he doesn’t want to do.
· Something else is obviously doing it in him.
· Some other force or entity is at work to produce sinful behavior in him.
Romans 7:17 “So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”
WELL THAT IS WHAT SIN DOES.
IT PRODUCES ITSELF IN YOU.
· It shows up,
· Seizes control,
· And it begins to actively reproduce in you.
· It is not stagnant.
· It is not apathetic.
· It is active and ambitious.
· It grows, it spreads, it reproduces
BUT THAT IS NOT ALL.
You see something else it does in verse 9.
(9) “…but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.”
Here we see that SIN REPLACED
First it produced, and then it replaced.
WHAT IS THAT?
As the days go on, sin starts taking over.
Every day I become less of me and more of sin.
It isn’t stagnant, it grows.
The more alive sin becomes the more dead I become.
IT’S TAKING OVER.
It’s using my body, but enacting it’s will.
That’s the lament of Paul in the passage later.
Romans 7:15-20 “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”
Do you hear his concern?
It’s taking over.
· I am losing control.
· It’s like I’m not even me anymore.
· It’s like I’m slowly becoming sin.
It jumped in, it took control, it’s got ahold of the wheel
And it is driving me down the path it chooses.
Sin literally enslaved your body to fulfill it’s purposes.
Until you aren’t even you anymore, you are something sin produced.
THAT’S WHAT SIN DOES.
It produces and then it replaces
And still that’s not all.
(10) “for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me”
SIN DECEIVED
Only now does regret begin to set in.
AT FIRST, sin was attractive and made great promises.
· “Let me in, and we’ll have some fun…”
· “Let me in, and you’ll like what we do…”
Well you let sin in, and the next thing you know,
Sin isn’t even listening to you anymore.
Sin told you to shut up and sit down, he’s in charge in now.
And you realize all too late that sin lied to you.
It promised you freedom and joy and fun and fulfillment
And it didn’t follow through with any of those things.
It just wanted control and now it doesn’t care what you think.
It took over with deception and now it’s calling the shots.
And still that’s not all.
(10) “for sin…deceived me and through it killed me.”
SIN KILLED
Sin gained access in your life by reason of deception.
1. And once it got in, it started producing itself in you
2. And chasing it’s own agenda.
3. It used you and silenced you
4. Until it finally kills you completely.
And then it simply moves on to find another victim.
Paul’s point in the segment is not just to give you a picture of sin.
Paul’s point is to show you THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW.
And he says that beautifully in verse 13.
Romans 7:13 “Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”
God did not send the Law to save you.
· It can’t.
· The Law came in to expose what was killing you.
And the culprit was sin.
I love how Paul says that “sin would become utterly sinful.”
I hope you are coming to that conclusion this morning.
I hope you see your old master for who he really is.
There was nothing there good in him.
There was nothing nostalgic in him.
To have fond memories of sin
Is like the traveling caravan in Exodus wanting to return to Egypt.
Are you out of your mind?
Do you not remember what it was like?
That’s the mentality I hope
You are conjuring up in your heart regarding sin.
I hope you remember what it was like.
I hope you remember the wickedness and evil of your past life.
Because we are celebrating the fact that
In Christ Jesus you were set free from sin.
JESUS, BY IDENTIFICATION, carried you with Him into death
· You were crucified with Christ.
· You were buried with Christ.
· You were raised with Christ.
And sin lost its jurisdiction over you.
And Paul said:
Romans 6:11 “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
You need to see yourself as a free man.
· You literally need to impute freedom to yourself.
· You need to credit freedom to your understanding of who you are.
Look in the mirror and remind yourself that you are free.
Sin is no longer in charge.
That is an important perspective
So that you will do what Paul requires next.
And this is where we come to our text THIS MORNING.
· And we can have a lengthy introduction because the point made here is a clear and easy one.
This is WHAT IS EXPECTED now of you and me
Who have been made free by the work of Christ Jesus on our behalf.
But let’s break it down into two points.
#1 ABANDON SIN’S DOMAIN
Romans 6:12-13a
That’s really technical isn’t it?
“Therefore no not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,”
NOW, THIS IS IMPORTANT.
When you died with Christ, SIN WAS NOT TOTALLY REMOVED
· You still live in your old body.
· Your flesh is still present.
Jesus did not totally eradicate sin, He stripped it of its power.
Back to earlier in the chapter:
Romans 6:6 “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”
Paul said “that our body of sin might be done away with”
“done away with” is KATARGEO
Remember it means “to render inoperative”
Or “to render ineffective” or “to render idle or invalid”
Sin didn’t leave, it just lost its control.
But rest assured it is still there to
Bark and yell and scream and act like it’s in charge.
PAUL SAYS, STOP LISTENING TO HIM.
He’s not in control anymore.
Act like a kindergartener and remind him,
“You’re not the boss of me; you’re not my dad.”
He wants to control you to carry out his will.
Tell him “No”.
“do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts”
You don’t have to do what he says anymore.
· When you were lost, you had no choice.
· When you were in Adam, he had full control.
BUT YOU DIED.
Think of it like this:
Let’s say you die on Monday, and are buried on Wednesday.
And then Thursday you get an email from your boss demanding that you show up to work or there will be major consequences.
Are you worried about him anymore?
Nope, let him send 1,000 emails he cannot harm you anymore.
That is Paul’s point.
If sin has been overthrown
Why would you still let him make decisions for you?
· Do not listen to sin.
· Do not carry out his lusts.
· If you are in Christ you do not have to.
And Paul even takes the LOGICAL NEXT STEP.
(13a) “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of righteousness”
You know what else would be dumb?
To approach sin and ask him he would like to use you again.
You were a slave. Jesus set you free.
Is your first coarse of action as a free man going to be to go back to sin and ask if there’s something he would like to use you for?
· Are you going to offer the use of your hands to him today?
· Are you going to offer him the use of your mouth?
· Are you going to offer him the use of your feet?
THAT WOULD BE TOTALLY FOOLISH!
Why would you return to the master you who produced himself in you, replaced you, deceived you, and killed you?
Why now, after having been set free, would you return to him and offer up your body for his service again?
Do you see the foolishness there?
· Don’t do it!
· Don’t listen to him.
· Don’t offer yourself to him.
That’s just practical Christianity.
1 John 3:4-10 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
John is saying the same thing.
People who were set free from sin don’t return to it.
People whom Jesus frees from Satan’s army don’t reenlist.
So now, believer – STOP.
When sin barks at you with its temptations, don’t listen.
· When it offers you a chance to covet something, IGNORE him.
· When it offers you a chance to lust, tell him NO.
· When it offers you a chance to say something cruel, REFUSE him.
· When it offers you a chance to enjoy the world instead of God, DECLINE the offer.
It is a horrible problem in the church, that God’s children
Determine to keep saying yes to the orders of the enemy.
STOP!
You are free!
Be free from him!
He only wants to kill you!
See sin as utterly sinful!
AND I HAVE TO SAY,
If you have no desire to tell sin “No”
That only means you are still under its control, and you need to be saved.
We don’t jump into legalism.
We don’t earn our salvation through righteous living.
But we don’t entertain licentiousness either.
We are not antinomians.
Christianity has no place for someone who claims to be saved from sin
But who consistently desires to yield up their body up to it.
That old master has been dethroned, stop listening to him.
Abandon sin’s domain
#2 APPROACH GOD FOR SERVICE
Romans 6:13b-14
“but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
When you wake up tomorrow,
Do not immediately go check in with sin
To see what it wants from you.
THAT’S A HORRIBLE PRACTICE.
To wake up first thing and ask sin what it wants to do today.
DON’T DO THAT.
Instead, “present yourselves to God”
Can you imagine how your life might be different
If the first thing you did every morning was approach God and present yourself for service?
If you started your day by saying,
“Good morning God, thank you for setting me free and giving me new life. I would like to present myself to You for service today. How would You like to use my body today?”
· Do you want to use my mouth?
· Do you want to use my hands?
· Do you want to use my ears?
· Do you want to use my eyes?
· Do you want to use my feet or my back?
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
That’s pretty clear isn’t it?
AND THAT BELOVED IS HOW
YOU START DOWN THE PATH OF SANCTIFICATION.
Christ already did the hard part.
1. He came and died and rose and took you with Him.
2. He set you free from sin and gave you new life free to serve God.
3. He opened the prison door.
4. He loosened the chain about your neck.
He’s just asking you to leave the cell.
He’s just asking you to abandon the old arena.
Christ took your old master and He tied him up,
1. So don’t go to that master and ask him what he would like you to do today.
2. Run from that old master.
O sure, he’ll yell and scream and make all kinds of promises,
But he’s a liar remember?
3. Run from him, and go find the One who set you free
4. Present your body to Him for service.
ISN’T THAT CLEAR?
(14) “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Now, Paul just opened another huge can there with that statement,
Which we will GET INTO TONIGHT.
But in a simple sense it is Paul just summarizing the point.
No longer do you have to fight to free yourself.
No longer do you have to labor to get free.
The fight is over, it’s been won by Christ.
What you couldn’t do, He did for you.
You are no longer in a situation that requires your effort to gain freedom.
You are in a situation where Christ won freedom for you.
He’s not asking you to make yourself free.
He’s asking you to walk in the freedom He provided.
WILL YOU DO THAT?
So this is really the first real invitation of this study.
This is really the first real moment of response.
Will you tell sin that you are done with him?
Will you present yourself to God?
I’m asking about right now.
RIGHT NOW SEE TWO RECRUITERS
And each one are requiring the allegiance of your heart.
One is sin.
· He is offering you the world.
· He is offering you pleasure.
· He is offering riches and fun.
· He’s lying, but he’s good at it.
The other is Christ who is asking you to be His instead.
· Will you present yourself to Him?
Might that mean that you are going to walk in a new direction? Yes
Might that mean that your agenda just changed? Yes
Might that mean that your plans are going to be different? Yes
But we’re talking about sanctification here.
One thing we don’t need is a church full of members
Who have no interest in presenting themselves to Christ.
We cannot keep letting sin call the shots
While we pretend to be servants of Christ.
“do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
IF YOU ARE FREE, THEN BE FREE.
That question that opened the chapter:
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?”
Do you see what a stupid question that is?
Why would you return to the prison you were just released from?
That is the “Facts About Freedom”.
Those who are free are free indeed.
They are expected to act like it.