Christ Life In Us Rom 6:1-10 Who Control the Sin Nature in the Believer?
Romans 6:1-10 · Mike Doyle · Oct 26, 2025
Christ's Life in Us, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926194121544

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So, actually, Jim's right about these verses. The first ten verses of chapter six are the kind of verses that if you don't get them, you don't understand them, you don't own them, they don't make a difference in your life because As wonderful of information is that Christ died for my sins, that He paid the penalty.

If that's all He did, that's not enough. Because I'm not going to be with Him in glory if all I am is a forgiven sinner. I'm still a sinner. What Romans 6 is going to tell us, or has told us, that we're not sinners anymore. because of what our inclusion in the cross.

So I think hopefully, as we go through this, if you ever want to talk about these verses with me, please do, because they do make a difference in your perspective of how your life in Christ is and how you live that life. It's based on these truths. So, just go through the verses to start with, and then we'll dig into them. Verse four says, therefore we who have been buried, and I don't know if the little V-I-A-P means it's a verb, it's indicative mood, which means it's true.

It's active voice. You're involved in the action you're doing. I'm sorry, it's aorist tense. It's a fact, and it's passive voice. It was all done to you. Your being buried was something you didn't do. Somebody did it for you or to you. With him, through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised, and Christ was raised is the same thing. It's a verb. It's indicative mood. It did happen. It's a aristence, which means it's a fact and it's passive voice. So what Paul is saying to these believers and you and me, you were baptized or placed into Christ at the point in which he died and you were buried and you were resurrected.

Now, I was thinking this week, if I just walked up to somebody and said that to them, I mean, the guys with the white coats would be coming along, and I'd be going off to some place, and I would never be heard from again. Because it doesn't make any sense. I mean, as much faith as it takes to believe that the Son of God became a man, and He paid the penalty for your sins, all of them, and all the penalty, to believe that is difficult. Because we just don't think that way. Sin nature controls us. But then to run into this information in Romans chapter 6 is astounding information.

I keep looking in the mirror and I think, I just look a little older, but I'm not dead. But these verses say so. from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might walk." Walk. And we're going to spend a lot of time talking today about what the walk is all about. It's a verb. It's subjunctive, which means, maybe you're going to walk that way, and maybe you're not. It's aorist tense, active voice. You're going to do it. But the noun in that sentence is really newness. It's not life, it's newness. Sometimes that's hard to understand.

For if, your Bibles all say if, it should say since, we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, since that's already true, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Since the first proclamation is true, so is the second one. Knowing this, and this is where a place like Holly Hills is really important. How are you going to find out this information? This is what we're to know as believers.

That our old man, and some of your translations use the word self, and I'll explain why it should be man rather than self in a minute, was crucified with him. What's the purpose of that? So that the body of sin might be put out of business. put out of business. Jim is right about that, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. One of the things we don't understand about being a slave to sin, remember that tree that was in the garden? What was it called? The knowledge of good and evil. Do you realize your goodness is a slave to sin? You think your goodness somehow gives you credit before a holy God, it doesn't. God isn't interested in goodness, he's interested in holiness. That's a different thing.

For he who has died is freed from sin. Now remember last week I went through all those verses and I said wherever you see the word sin in Romans 6, what should you put in front of it? The definite article, the sin, the sin, the sin, and that's what, so here you should say the body of the sin, freed from the sin, the sin nature, that's what it means. It doesn't mean your acts of sin, it means the sin nature. So those are the verses we're gonna cover. So there are two aspects in Romans that really matter to us.

The death of our Lord Jesus, has a reference to sin in two ways. 321 to 511, he dies with reference to our acts of sin. Every time you committed a sin, there was a penalty attached to that, and somebody's got to pay it, and you can't. So somebody did it for you, the Lord Jesus. He pays the penalty for which the law demanded. And the second part is, the verses we're working on now, 6, 1 through 10, He dies and we die with Him. And you don't have to wait until you stop breathing and they put you in a box. It means now.

We died with Him with reference to our sin nature. His death brings about a separation, because that's what death really means, is separation. It brings about a separation between the believing sinner and the sin nature. There's no separation if you're not a believing person. You're attached to the sin nature, and you know what? Sin nature is condemned, and if you're attached to it, when you leave this planet, wherever it goes, you're going. So that's the reality now.

Remember when we talked in 6.3, that do you not know that all of us have been baptized, which was indicative, veris, passive? You were baptized, you were placed. We said that baptism has nothing to do with water. It has everything to do with being put into something. Into Christ Jesus, you've been baptized into his death. So the Holy Spirit grabs you the moment you believed, and he placed you in Christ. If you want to do a timeline of when you go in, you don't go in at the Sermon on the Mount. You don't go in when he's being scourged. You go in at the point that he dies, and that's what Romans 6 is about. And that's the perfect place to go.

Why? Because it's where he was separated. He was made sin, and that's where he was separated from it. So baptized is not a translation, but it's a transliteration of a Greek word, baptizo, And it's just the English took the letters of baptizo and made a word out of it, baptize.

The word is used in the classic of a blacksmith who dips a piece of iron in water to temper it. Have you all seen that? At the end of the tongs, there's this piece of red hot iron and he sticks it in the water. That's a baptism. He was placed into that for a purpose. So Old man. What's the old man? What's he got? He's got a dying body.

And all of you, I'm looking at you, you all got dying bodies. You have a soul that has a sin nature attached to it. And what do you have? Your spirit is dead to God. That's what the natural man is. The new man will have a resurrected body. He'll have or does have at the time that he believes the very resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ, his life. And he has the Holy Spirit who indwells him.

So the question is always, how do you get out of one and get into the other? How do you leave Adam and end up in Christ? That's a real basic question. I don't want to be an Adam anymore because like Roger said, by one man sin entered the world. Who's that man? It's Adam. And all men sin because they're in Adam. So I want to leave Adam and I want to get into Christ. Okay, that's my goal.

So quoting this, pay close attention because it's kind of a all-encompassing definition. Baptism, the act of God placing a believing sinner into vital union with Jesus Christ. For what purpose? So that the believer might have the power of his sin nature broken and the divine nature implanted through his identification with Christ in his death. and his burial, and his resurrection, altering the condition and the relationship of that sinner with regard to his previous state.

Other than your old sinful body, which you can see, there's nothing similar to the old Adam, except you have the sin nature still floating around in that body, and it still can influence you, but it isn't attached to you. You don't have to listen. That sinner, with regard to his previous state and environment, bringing him into a new environment.

How many Christians do you know that really understand, I'm living in Christ? Most of us think I'm still in Adam trying to not sin as much. And somebody gave me a bunch of rules, and if I obey the rules, I'll sin less, and then at the end of the day, I'm gonna go to this place called the gates, and somebody's gonna have a book of the goods and bad stuff I did, and the good's gonna outweigh the bad, and they're gonna let me in. But what these verses are telling us is that you already are in. because you're in Christ now.

If you look at Colossians 2, 11 and 12, Paul says, in him you also are circumcised. Circumcised is a great word. You know what circumcised is? It's cutting off of the flesh. So from a spiritual standpoint, you and I have all been spiritually circumcised. We cut off, the spirit of God cuts you off from Adam, who is the flesh. made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. That happened because you were placed in Christ at the point of his death, his separation, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

So as you start to read pay attention to verses like this, and especially Paul's letters as you go on in your Christian life, this principle is always there. Always there. Everything that Paul writes after Romans assumes this principle is true and that you understand it. And by understanding it, I don't mean, oh, I got the words down. I memorized it, nothing wrong with memorization, but I got the words down and I got the buzz phrases going and I'm cool about it. This really did happen.

So what's the significance of the word buried? Why is that such an important word? Boy, what a simple answer. Burial signifies death. You don't bury live people. Well, it wasn't while we do. But most of the time, you don't bury live people. The burial happens after the person physically dies, right?

So Paul puts it in there that you died in Christ, and that he got buried, so did you. You ever think about that, that from the point that Christ died, where you were connected with him, Going forward into all eternity, everything that's true of Christ is true of you. Everything. Because He's now your life.

Can you read it? Can you read the line? The two couples sitting in the living room and the woman says, well, I haven't actually died to sin, but I did feel faint at one time. It's so appropriate. Sitting around talking about identification. Probably the only out of those four people, the one that's most honest is that woman. I did feel faint once. By the way, that came off of a polemic paper that Miles Stanford wrote, the cartoon was on the front, and I was reading it this week. I thought, oh, I gotta try to duplicate that. So ask yourself this question.

Is being placed into Christ's death and burial the last work of the Holy Spirit concerning us? Answer, no, it's not. We're not only placed in Christ by God, the Holy Spirit in order that we might share his death as a result of being separated from the evil sin nature. But we also placed in him in order that we might share his resurrection as a result, we have newness of life implanted to us.

When do you get that life? When is that newness of life active in you? Right now. Right now, it's your life. Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Think about that. It took the glory of God the Father, which means the sum total of God's attributes. It took all of that to raise Christ from the dead. And when he was raised up, where were you? You weren't watching, you were in him.

Even so, we should all walk in newness of life. Now, I told you we'd talk a little bit about newness of life. A couple of things here. Newness is a noun. You know what a noun is, right? It's a word used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things, a common noun. Like pew, bench, wall, window. or to name a particular one of those, like a pronoun. Your name is a pronoun. Newness of life refers not to a new kind of life the believer is to live.

This is really an important point. We think of newness of life is that it's just the same old life, but it's kind of a new kind. It's different. That's not what this means. The focus is not on the walk, but the life itself. Do you get that? It isn't walk, it's the life. to a new source, proper and spiritual energy imparted by God in which he enables us to live a life to which Paul insists on when we get to Romans 12 through 16. He describes what the life looks like in house. Well, it isn't that, oh, I'm gonna decide that I'm gonna walk in this newness of life. No, you're not. You might, and by faith, but that is, the newness of it is the whole focus is on what kind of a life is it?

What does it do? I mean, if you have a pet, a dog, dogs act like dogs. They don't meow, and cats don't bark. Right? Why? Because that's the life they have. The believer, you and I, have this resurrected life in Christ. It's new and it's different. Totally different. And it is, it is the life of Christ. It's Him. You can't act like Christ. He has to live his life through you. So imitation doesn't work here. It's the life that matters.

Now, so we have twofold results of a major surgical operation that God performs in the inner being of the sinner when he places us in Christ. He did that. He has disengaged you from the sin nature. That's the first thing. He separated you from it. You're no longer compelled to obey it. You know, some of you know, remember who Flip Wilson was? His favorite saying was, the devil made me do it. No, the sin nature made him do it. Nobody outside of Christ has a choice. The sin nature totally controls them.

Totally. So when you become a believer and you have the resurrected life of Christ, you've been separated from that old master. He has imparted to him a new divine nature which suits him, new life, in his new source of spiritual life. You have a nature and a life that suits who you are. Fern Peterman used to call us saints all the time. He was absolutely right. You are saints.

Which life causes him? Now watch this part. We were talking about Tuesday or on Wednesday about hating sin. How do you hate sin? The life causes you to hate sin and love righteousness. Because that's what the life does. And which gives you, me, both the desire and the power to do God's will.

The old man is given a bunch of laws to force him to try to obey something that his nature is totally against. and he couldn't do it. For a believer to not understand that he has the resurrected life of Christ and to think that he needs to have a list of do's and don'ts in his pocket goes totally against the way the life functioned. You don't need the rule book. That life will function the way it's supposed to function. Your job is what? to find out, to know, and to trust the Spirit of God to do what he says he's gonna do, because he's already done most of it.

Now, verse five, if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. The if here is the if of fulfilled condition. In other words, in view of the fact or since such and such is true. It isn't, oh, maybe, I don't know if it's true. This is because, so you put word since in there and it makes more sense. It said, for since you have become united to him in the likeness of his death.

Is that a true statement? Yes, it is. Is it true of you? Do you buy it? Do you say, ooh, I'm hoping to. like that woman, I've felt faint a few times. Do I really buy the fact that I was united in the likeness of the death of the Lord Jesus? Yeah. If that's true, then certainly you shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. The word likeness here referring to the likeness or resemblance, this is a believing sinner And the Lord Jesus are united in death and resurrection at Calvary. A sinner is the one who believes. Once he believes, he's not a sinner anymore because he's united to Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.

See that? So I can say to you, when were you raised? You were raised the very second you believed. We sang that song, when we all get to heaven. Guess what? You're already there. You're already raised. You don't have to wait. The life is now. Shall be.

It's not that of a predictive future. At some point, I'm going to be in the likeness of his resurrection, so far as time is concerned. But it's what I would call a logical future. In other words, in view of the fact that we became permanently united with him with respect to the likeness of his death, it's certain also as a logical result of that, we shall come, we shall become those who have become permanently united with him in respect to his likeness of his resurrection.

Believers, live a resurrected life, not because they tried really hard, but because they have that life. They have the life. That's what these verses are telling us. You were reunited to him in his death. You'll also be living the resurrected life. And it isn't, you don't have to die, because you already did. Do you see that? You don't have to die to get this. Because the minute that you believed in Christ, you did die. You were buried, and you were resurrected. And when you were resurrected, you have this life. So then in verse 6, he says, knowing this, we're back to learning again. What am I to learn?

Our old man was crucified with Him. Really? That's the hardest sentence in the Bible. for you to believe. There's nothing harder to believe than my old man, my sin nature, everything I've known myself to be since I became aware was crucified on that cross. I could stop and say, raise your hand if you really buy this. But this is it. This is the crux right here. is was my old man crucified? Was I separated from it? Here's the reason.

That the body of sin might be done away or put out of business with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. How long does it take a believer to come to the realization that he's a slave to sin? Or has been a slave to sin? And that now he's free, he doesn't have to be anymore. I don't have to do what my sin nature tells me to do. I don't have to. As a result of the believer having become united with Christ in his death, the power of the sinful nature is broken.

So these verses, this one and the next one, that's exactly what it talks about. Verse six really puts three questions in my mind. The first question is, who's the old man? The next one is, what is the body of sin? And the last one is, what's involved in the word done away, which Jim referred to? So let's look at those. There he is.

There are two words in the Greek that mean man. The first word is anthropos. It's a generic racial term which is used to the male individual, which the idea is of mankind, men, and women. Anthropos. Or, aner, which refers to just a male person. Those two words in the Bible have to do with man. The word anthropos is used here referring to an individual man or woman.

That's why I said in the, my old self, I'm not talking about my old self, I'm talking about my old man, the whole man. Now the word for old in Greek is really interesting. I can't pronounce, archikous, which means old in the point of time. like my Chevy, you know, it's an old car. Or paleos, which means old in a point of use. The second one is used here, it means worn out. So the old man is worn out. That's who the old man is, and he's a sinner.

Second thing we need to answer is what is the body of sin? The body, in this case, is the word soma, which means that you're a human body. You're a human body. What's the body? It's the vehicle you use to sin. Because you don't, I mean, if you're sleeping, you're not sinning. If you're awake, you're probably sinning. The word the sin here is the genitive of possession. The body of my sin, I'm responsible. It's my sin nature. The reference is therefore to the believer's physical body before salvation, possessed by or dominated or controlled by the sinful nature.

I don't think any non-believer would ever answer yes to the following question. Are you forced to do the sins that you do? Are you a slave? Oh no. What would the answer be? I like doing what I'm doing. I really do. Did you ever commit a sin that you really didn't like? No, you do it because you like it. And it's because the sin nature said, do this, you're gonna like it.

Okay. Now, the last part of this, what's involved in the word done away? to render idle, inactive, inoperative, to put out of business, to take offline. So what's the idea? The entire idea is knowing this, that our old man, that the person we were before we were saved, was crucified with Christ. I don't care what a psychologist tells you, that man was crucified.

Why? Why'd he do it? so that your physical body, which at times was dominated by the sinful nature, might be rendered inoperative in respect to sin. It can't respond. It won't respond. Namely, that of being controlled by the sinful nature in order that you no longer are rendering yourself as a slave. Habitual obedience to the sinful nature.

Now, Americans have a real tough time with this because we've got a constitution that says we're free. What am I free to do? If I'm not in Christ, I'm only free to sin. There's no other choice. Does that make sense? You're free to sin. So really what's going on here is that God, by crucifying us, including us in the death, prayer, and resurrection, is to separate us from the most powerful thing in our life, which is that sin nature. It's your sin nature, but you don't have to obey it anymore. That's the key. So, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. That's first.

Does this relationship put the believer under obligation? Yeah, it does. The believer is exhorted to maintain, watch this, maintain the relationship by faith. I'm exhorted to believe and rest in the fact that I was crucified, buried, and now I'm resurrected. I'm seated in Christ in the heavenlies. I'm to have faith in the fact that I've been disconnected which God has brought about between him and my sin nature. I have an obligation to live by faith, and this is the fact. I'm not having to submit is probably the best word. I've been separated.

So what if I don't? What if I don't maintain this relationship? There are certain forms of Christianity that say, well, if you don't do this, you're probably going to go wherever it's a lot warmer than where I'm going. Or if you're a Catholic, you're going to go there and burn it off, and then maybe we'll go back to the gate and see if you've got enough points to get in. But here's the point.

It's not the Christian's nature to sin. You see that? You have the resurrected life of Christ. It isn't your nature to be a sinner anymore. You've been made partaker of the divine nature which impels you to hate sin and to love holiness. Hate sin. If you wake up one day and say, boy, I hate sin, you're on track. In the second place, the minute a Christian sins, the Holy Spirit is grieved because he's indwelling you. And that makes the believer decidedly uncomfortable spiritually. Something isn't right. Something isn't right.

And how do you know that? Before, you sinned all the time. It never bothered you. Your conscience was fine. But it does now, because the spirit of God who indwells you is now grieved. And he will convict you now. Last verse, for he who has died is freed from sin. Really? Have you died? I can say yes to that. Are you free from sin? Again, the sin nature. Yeah, I am.

Is dead is aorist tense. He who died, meaning you did die. referring to the historic fact of a believing sinner being identified with Christ in his death under the cross. You died. You were buried. You were resurrected. It's all done. You don't have to die to sin. You don't have to die to self. You don't have to do any of that. You're already dead. Here we have the one who died off once and for all, off from the evil sin nature, And this brings a separation from that nature. You realize the only reason that we're acceptable to God today because of this transaction? You're seated in Christ. He accepts the beloved, the Lord Jesus, perfectly. Well, if you're in him, how does he accept you? Perfectly. So, Courtney gave me a great idea coming down from the mountains the other night. He said, at the end of your talk, you should just review the verses.

So that's what I'm gonna do. Watch how this goes. Therefore we have been buried. Yeah. With him through baptism into his death. Okay, that's how it happened. In order that what? As Christ was raised from the dead, from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. That's why he did it. For since we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, it's a certainty that we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, this is not, I'm gonna know it. He assumes you know it now, that your old man, my old man was crucified with him. Purpose, that the whole body of sin, the vehicle that expresses sin might be put out of business, put out of the sinning business. with that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who is dead is freed from sin.

Now, one last thing I want to do. I'm always thinking about, you know, why does God do what he does? And why has he gone through all of this trouble? And what's out here at the end? The end game is really important to understand because it's at a point, I can't say in the future, because I don't know what eternity is like. Is there a future in eternity? I don't think so.

But at some point, you and I are going to be the bride of Christ. And we are going to rule and reign with him. And we are going to be exactly like him. You get that? Exactly like Him. People chuckle when I say the Lord Jesus is not going to marry down. He's going to raise all of us up. So if you know that's what's coming, then back here, by saving us, by crucifying us with Christ, bearing us and raising us and seating us in the heavenlies, He's well on the way of getting us at the end. So that when we go before Him and we show up, we will be perfect. We will be qualified, qualified to be the bride.

Not because you did anything, because He did it all. He did it all. Our simple job is just to believe that He did. That's all He asks us to do, is to believe Him. And it takes away the propensity to sin, the desire to sin, the desire to live in the flesh in any manner, and to serve God only, and to realize, wow, what a future we all have. being the bride of Christ. And I did nothing other than believe to get all of this. So let's close.

Father, how we thank you. Boy, what a plan you have for each one of us and all of us to be with you for all eternity, to be like you, to be able to behold your glory, to be one with you. All the things that you have told us that are true. We look forward to that, Father. We look forward not only to what's going to happen, but the fact that on a daily basis, an hourly basis, and a minute basis, you are conditionally freeing us from any dominion of that sin nature. And so we might live under grace alone. We thank you, Father. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.