2. Welcome to a new year

3. Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:34 ESV)

4. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36 ESV)

5. Paul Begins with a Question What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1 ESV)

6. An Emphatic Answer By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:2-4 ESV)

7. The antidote to sin: 2 parts Part I. Do not present yourself to sin Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, (Romans 6:12-13 ESV)

8. The antidote to sin: 2 parts Part 2. Present yourself to God but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14 ESV)

9. Paul continues with another question What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? (Romans 6:15 ESV) What does this mean?

10. You are slaves of the one whom you obey By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:34 ESV) So really this is a question of where you are at? Take a look at your life. Who are you obeying? It will reveal your true master.

11. How’s that working for you? The Wages of Sin For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? (the past and the present) For the end of those things is death. (Romans 6:20-21 ESV) (the future)

12. The Gift of God But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification (present) and its end, eternal life. (Romans 6:22 ESV) (future)

13. Conclusion: The Summary of the Gospel For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 ESV) This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12 ESV)

14. Romans 7

15. Have you ever felt there were two people inside of you struggling?

16. Teaching through an example Or do you not know, brothers —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6 ESV)

17. A Third Question in the Series What then shall we say? That the law is sin? (Romans 7:7 ESV) So it sounds like the law is bad…is there anything good about the law?

18. By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Romans 7:7-12 ESV)

19. What the law does…. It teaches It convicts It shows what is holy, righteous and good Then what’s the real problem ?

20. The Fourth Question Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? (Romans 7:13 ESV) He’s really saying then if it is breaking the law that condemns me, isn’t it then the law that kills me? I should blame the law……

21. By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. (Romans 7:13 ESV) This seems like a real challenging issue…..and Paul is going to get very honest with us

22. We are people with two natures (the spiritual and the flesh) For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. (Romans 7:14-16 ESV)

23. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:17-20 ESV)

24. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:21-25 ESV)

25. “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” “Deliver” means rescued from danger/death The picture is of a soldier on a battle field, who has been severely wounded, who is laying helpless and is left for dead The only hope is for one to come along and “deliver” him to safety Who is the deliverer? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

26. Bringing Romans 7 Together We serve --- but not as slaves obeying the law as our master but we serve Christ because we choose to in freedom (picture: even as a wife her husband) The law is not bad, it teaches and convicts us, it is Sin which is the real problem We have two natures: spiritual and the flesh There is war between these members that can leave us wounded, desperate and left for dead But we have a Deliverer who will rescue us