In Jason Dohm's sermon 'Implications of Being in Christ,' based on Romans 6:1-7, he explores the profound theological truth that all of human life is shaped by whether one is under Adam or Christ. The sermon emphasizes the critical distinction between continuing in sin and living a life transformed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Dohm argues that being 'in Christ' means being united with Him in death and resurrection, symbolized by baptism, which results in a new creation and a life no longer dominated by sin. He refutes the notion that grace allows for continued sin, highlighting the false conclusions of those who misuse the doctrine of grace. Dohm underscores the certainty that believers are freed from sin’s power and should walk in newness of life, urging introspection to ensure genuine faith and transformation. The sermon closes with an appeal for authenticity in faith and reliance on God's transformative power.

The sermon text is Romans 6, 1-7, I'll be reading verses 1-9. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that Jesus as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For He who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.

Death no longer has dominion over Him." The title of the sermon this morning is implications of being in Christ. Who is the head of your race? Adam or Christ is theological, but it's not simply theoretical. Here's what I mean. Who the head of your race is, whether it's Adam or Christ, is Bible truth.

And we wouldn't know it at all unless the Bible addressed it. If Paul hadn't brought us to these things we wouldn't discern them outside of the specific revelation of Scripture. But it isn't just classroom material, facts to be memorized. It's full of inescapable implications. So it is theological, but it's not theoretical.

All of human life is shaped by these theological truths. Now, I'm in the intro, I'm getting warmed up at speaking, you're getting warmed up at listening. So you might have missed it. Think of how breathtaking that claim is. All of human life is shaped by these theological truths.

So you're warmed up to listening. You should make me prove it. If somebody says, all of life is shaped by this, you ought to make them prove it. Well, I'm going to try to use the time to prove it, And you'll be the judge. The real world implications are dominant features of our lives.

Whether Adam is the head of your family or whether Christ is, is a dominant feature of your life. And so Paul is bringing us face to face with these things, so that we have to deal with them. If the implications are really that dumbfounding, don't you want to deal with them? Yes, yes we do. So as we come to the text, let's just take a minute and ask God to help us.

God, we're coming to a text. Thankful that you haven't left us guessing but you've left us your word. Truth revealed from heaven. It tells us things we would never discern on our own but are truths which aren't just theoretical. Amen.

Well we're subdividing today as usual. Let's bite off verses one and two. I'll reread them again. Hopefully your Bible is still open to Romans chapter 6. Follow along as I reread verses 1 and 2 and then I'll stop and talk about them.

Romans 6. Paul writes, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

In these two verses, Paul gives us a proposition met by an unequivocal denial. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, denial fills in the blank. He gives us a proposition and then he shoots it down with an unequivocal denial. He issues a firm denial of this proposition that he sets before us. He begins by saying, what shall we say then?

Say to what? What are we commenting upon? What are we speaking about? Well we're saying something to the immediate context and to the broader context of all that he's been teaching. What's the immediate context?

I look at the last two verses of chapter 5. It doesn't get any more immediate than that. It's the two verses that lead into our text. Here in Romans 5, 20 and 21, Paul said this in last week's text, Moreover The law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now that's what he taught us. There's a false conclusion that you could draw from that. Don't stop sinning or grace will stop abounding. If grace super abounds when sin abounds then let sin abound so that grace won't stop super abounding. That was what the Greek word actually means, super abounds, where sin abounds, grace super abounds.

Continue in sin that grace may abound. It's a false conclusion. What's the broader context? Well, for chapters now leading into chapter 6, into our text, Paul has been carefully, systematically, insistently teaching that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. He said it in pretty much every way that it could be said.

He keeps coming back to it. He's been pounding it home again and again and again, teaching us carefully, systematically, insistently that salvation is 100% the free gift of God. And that it isn't even 0.00001% the result of law keeping. By grace alone, a free gift through faith alone. Not law keeping, but simple trust.

Not in anything in you, but in Jesus Christ who he is and what he's done. There is a false conclusion that you could draw from that. Who cares about law keeping? If it can't save you, why spend a single second caring about it? Continue in sin that grace may abound.

Grace is the gift of God that results in salvation. Law keeping plays no role whatsoever in it. So keep the grace flowing by keeping the sin flowing. What is Paul's response to these false conclusions? Certainly not!

Exclamation point. God forbid! Exclamation point. By no means! Exclamation point.

Those are actually the renderings of different translations. Certainly not is our translation. King James says, God forbid, which isn't literal at all, but it has the increased force that you actually find in the Greek. So the King James translators felt free to stray from a word for word there just to get the extra force that is found in the original language. By no means, I think, is ESV.

All of them are good. It ends up with this emphatic denial of this proposition. It communicates. This is Paul communicating. I absolutely recoil from the fact that anybody could think I've been saying that.

I've never taught that. I've never meant that. I don't think that. I'm not teaching that. How does Paul back up his protest?

This certainly is not really a protest against you thinking he could have been teaching that in any way. How does he back up his protest? He says this, How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? You have to ask, who is we? We are those whose family head is no longer Adam, but is now the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember, this is the context. This we were born in Adam, we all are, and inherited the corruptions from Adam, but They've had that score settled by a new head of the family. They've changed families. They've changed races from the physical race of Adam into the spiritual race of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has settled that And this is not an exhortation.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it is not an exhortation as if Paul were saying, believers strive to die to sin now. You go work at it now. Go work at it now. Paul's not saying that. Instead, it is a statement of fact.

The believer in Jesus has died to sin. Period. Amen. That is a current and ongoing reality, perpetual reality. It is a reality that won't ever come to an end.

It is once and for all settled from a past action. Paul is establishing a basic nonsensical inconsistency, which he will further explain in the verses to come. So we're coming back to that. But it is a basic, fundamental, nonsensical, makes no sense, inconsistency. It's incompatible with the reality of what happens when somebody changes races.

From Adam's race with all its corruption of nature, a physical race that you're born into and you inherit that into Jesus's race or Jesus's family where he is the spiritual head and he settled all those scores. This is the basic nonsensical inconsistency. How can those who are in Christ live sin dominated lives? How could it be that someone who has changed races still lives the same old sin dominated life? How can that be?

Matthew Poole says this, and I think he says it very helpfully. He's in the habit of doing that. If you don't have Matthew Poole, You might want to get him. He's a great commentator. And it's cheap too.

It's been out of print for long enough that it's cheap. So there you go. There's your tip for the day. Matthew Poole's good and cheap. Ha ha ha.

Matthew Poole says this. They are said to be dead to sin who do not live under the power and dominion of it. Fall into it they may, but live and lie in it, they cannot. Thank you Matthew Poole. They just can't.

They used to be able to live in it all the time, lie in it all the time, but now they just can't. Why not? They're not of that race anymore. They're not members of a race dominated by the corruption that Adam brought into our race the race that we were all born into They have a new head of the family who settled those scores and Brought fundamental change Verses three and four Moving on to the next subsection subsection. Follow along as I reread Romans 6 verses 3 and 4.

Paul continues, Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ, into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Here in these two verses Paul sets before us the glorious doctrine of union with Christ. So if you're filling in blanks, union fills in the blank. The glorious doctrine, Oh, is it glorious.

Of union with Christ. Of coming into inseparable oneness with Jesus Christ. A bond that can never and will never be broken with Jesus Christ. Paul is returning to the argument that he made in the second half of chapter 15, which is that we are inescapably dominated by the defining act of the head of our race. So remember, this is the argument that Paul just took half a chapter to make.

Did you buy his argument? That we are inescapably dominated, we're dominated and there's no wiggling out of the domination by the defining act of the head of our race. If you're in Adam's race, he has a defining act and it inescapably dominates you in your life. If you're part of Jesus Christ's race, he has a defining act and you're inescapably dominated by it. If Adam is the head of your race, if he's your family head, then you're inescapably dominated by his defining act.

It happened in Genesis 3. It was in the garden. There was one express command to obey and he threw our whole race into rebellion against God by violating that law, by rebelling against God. And so corruption came into his nature, and so everyone who was born in his family line after him inherited that corruption. Adam didn't come into the world with that corruption, But I did, and you did, and I was inescapably dominated by it.

If Jesus is the head of your race, Jesus is your family head, then you are inescapably dominated by His defining act. What's His defining act? He went to the cross for sinners and bled and died. He was buried. Three days later, he rose and he ascended into heaven.

And now, he's interceding for his people. He's pleading the cause of his people now. Can I roll that into one defining act? That's sort of cheating, but let me cheat. And so when his defining act dominates your life, it's because you've been given a new heart.

You don't have the same heart anymore. So this is the connection to baptism. Paul speaks of this in terms of baptism. This is the connection to baptism which is the outward play acting of those defining acts. It's a play-acting of the defining acts of the head of a race, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In baptism, I am put down into the water, being symbolically united to Him in His death and burial. That's what we're play acting. You're dead. You're buried. And then I'm raised back up out of the water being symbolically united to Him in His resurrection.

Jesus didn't stay dead. I'm no longer dead. Jesus was raised from the dead. I am raised from the dead. When I'm joined to Jesus by grace alone, free gift, through faith alone, simple trust in someone else outside of myself, his death becomes my death, his resurrection becomes my resurrection.

I have a claim to it, it's mine, Because it's his and I'm inseparably joined to him. That's how it works. Listen to Paul say it another way in 2 Corinthians 5.17. Almost every sermon, every text we're in, has one, maybe two, but it's usually one other place in the Bible that just puts the point right on it. I think this is it.

2 Corinthians 5.17 There Paul writes, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, inseparably joined to the head of a new race, therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. I'm not supposed to add to scripture but can I say brand new creation? Brand new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. I died in his death.

I was raised from the dead in his resurrection. I am not who I was. I am not improved. I'm new. I'm more than just what you can accomplish with New Year's resolutions.

People of God, please say Amen. I am more than can be accomplished by turning over a new leaf and trying harder and doing better. I'm not improved. I'm new. I'm brand new.

All things have become new. Listen to how God describes this transformation. I'm not going to tell you until after I've read it so you'll just listen. Listen to how God describes this transformation. This is the voice of God.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them." That's Ezekiel 36.

25-27. Ezekiel 36. 25-27. God gives you a new heart. You don't turn over a new leaf.

God puts His Spirit within you. It's not just you trying harder. God causes you to walk in his statutes and keep his judgments. It's not simple behavior or modification. This is the spiritual reality of everyone who is born again.

Because that's what it means to be born again. I'm not saying that God says this causes you to be born again. I'm saying this is God describing being born again. It's not cause and effect. It is being born again.

Just a description of what it means when a person is born again. Now listen to Paul's question in our text again. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? He's really saying, how shall the born again not really be born again? How shall a new creation be not new at all but be overwhelmingly old.

How shall someone with a new heart not have new affections? How can you have a new heart without new affections? How shall someone with God's Spirit not have any fruits of the Spirit? It's not work harder to get the Spirit. Ezekiel 36, God says, I will put my spirit within you.

So a past reality that God accomplished is being described there. So how can you be filled with the Spirit of God, but there's no fruit from the Spirit? This is the basic nonsensical inconsistency. It is foundational, it makes no sense, and it doesn't match up. If that has really happened to a person, can they really live the old life unbroken?

This is the whole argument. Now, this can easily lead to more false conclusions about the continued presence of sin in a Christian's life. All I can say is, come back in the weeks to come. Paul's going to deal with all those. I'm not dealing with them today because Paul's not dealing with them today.

But for now, just accept Paul's conclusion. We who truly have Jesus as our family head should walk in newness of life. This is Paul's conclusion. For now be content with that. He's going to get to the other questions and answers.

He knows what you're thinking. He'll address it. He can't do it all in one week, he didn't do it all in one sentence. For now this is his conclusion. We who truly have Jesus as our family head, who are no longer in Adam but now are in Christ, should walk in newness of life.

Because we can walk in newness of life in ways that no son or daughter of Adam can. This is the argument. Sons and daughters of Adam can't walk in newness of life. Does that mean they can never be nice? That's not what I said.

That's not what Paul is saying. Does that mean they can't be respectable? That's not what I said. That's not what Paul is saying. But they can't walk fundamentally in newness of life, which includes what's happening on the inside as well as what's happening on the outside unless they change races, unless they change families.

But when you have changed races, leaving Adam's physical race, joining Jesus' spiritual race, you can and should walk in newness of life. Paul is teaching that. When the things that are symbolized by baptism happen to you, your spiritual reality totally changes. Not because you turn over a new leaf or resolve to try harder, but because God raises you from the dead spiritually. You see how different those things are.

I made a New Year's resolution. Good for you. Me too. It's April and most of mine are already broken. God raised me from the dead spiritually.

That's continuing. My New Year's resolutions didn't fare so well. My being raised from the dead spiritually by God is continuing on. Not surprisingly. You are a new creation so you should walk in newness of life.

New person, new life. In the New Testament, walk, walk in newness of life. It refers to patterns of life. What your life is generally characterized by. So, it doesn't mean that there are no low points, no bad moments, but it means that you can generally be characterized in this way.

That the patterns of your life are this way. That should not be dominated by sin. Your patterns of life, what you're generally characterized by, should not be dominated by sin as if Adam were still your family head. That should really worry you if the patterns of your life are still dominated by sin as if Adam were still your family head. Union with Christ being inseparably joined to Jesus by faith, being in Christ results in a totally new spiritual reality which results in a different life.

Is Paul really saying anything controversial here? Not when you think of it in those terms. Our last subsection, 5 through 7. Romans 6, 5 through 7. Follow along as I reread.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. This last verse is we have the certainty of it all. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, certainty fills in the blank. The certainty of it all. Paul uses the word if for if we have been united together, not to say that these things are uncertain, but to teach that if the first condition exists, then the second condition must exist.

He's actually not teaching uncertainty, he's doing the opposite, he's teaching certainty. He's saying if the first condition exists, and by definition it does for anyone who's in Christ, Then the second condition always exists, must exist, can do nothing but exist. It's completely certain. If a person has been united together in the likeness of Jesus' death, Jesus took on sin and died to conquer sin and death right why did he die to conquer sin and death for his people then that person certainly shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Paul says, knowing this, here the certainty.

This is knowing not guessing. Knowing not surmising. For the believer, the old man as a believer who I was with Adam as my family head, that man was crucified with Jesus. That man went to the cross with Jesus. That old man is dead and buried in Jesus' death.

That, this is the purpose, that the body of sin might be done away with. Here's what Rob Ventura says about the body of sin. It says the body of sin is the old self completely ruled and dominated by the power of sin. That, another purpose statement, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Paul, what are you saying?

That the death of Jesus on the cross satisfies the penalty for sin on behalf of his people. But it also breaks the power of sin on behalf of his people. I think Paul would, if he were here, he might say, don't stop short. The death of Jesus on the cross satisfies the penalty for sin on behalf of his people. He goes to the cross and pays the price for the sins of his people.

Paul, we're here. I think he would say, yes, amen, preach it preacher. And then he would say, but don't stop there. Jesus's death on the cross also breaks the power of sin on behalf of His people so His people don't have to live as slaves! If you are in Christ know this with certainty.

Your sin debt has been paid down to the last penny. He left you nothing to pay. And the power of sin has been broken in your life. You don't have to serve it. Verse 7, For he who has died has been freed from sin.

This is a certainty, says Paul. And says Jesus, listen to Jesus in John 8.36. John 8.36, This is Jesus speaking of himself. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you are free indeed. You go back and look at the context in John 8, he's talking about freedom from sin.

So this isn't a stretch or I'm not applying it in a different way. I'm saying exactly what Jesus was saying in John chapter 8. If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. You're really free if Jesus sets you free. Applications, I give you two.

There's so much more to say, but I have more weeks to say it. He's right on the same topic for the next, I think, three weeks. I felt so free coming into the pulpit today knowing that if I miss something I could just get it next week or the week after. Applications one. Paul is teaching that believers are saved from sin not saved to sin.

Is that too obvious? Believers are saved from sin, not saved to sin, not saved to give them the freedom to sin all they like. Let's continue in sin that grace may abound. There are two kinds of people who reason in this way. Fake Christians who cherish their sins and fake Christians who want works to be a part of salvation.

Really, two separate ends of the continuum. Let me say that again. So if you didn't get it the first time, you get it now. So here's the proposition that Paul has been waging war against in our text. Let's continue in sin that grace may abound.

Two kinds of people reason like that. Fake Christians who cherish their sins, they want the name, the reputation of being alive, but they've never been anything but dead. They're not real Christians. They cherish their sins, but they want the reputation of being alive. They reason that way.

And fake Christians who want works to be a part of salvation. So when somebody preaches that salvation is by grace alone a free gift only through faith alone, only simple trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ, you add nothing to it and they say, no that will make people have loose living and they won't be good like me thinking that they've added something to their equation for salvation they reason like that. Authentic believers don't reason in this way. Authentic believers reason this way. Jesus, thank you for bleeding and dying from my many sins against you.

Help me not to live like that anymore. I don't want to live like that anymore. I don't want to serve sin like a slave anymore. Please don't lead me into temptation. I'm not sure I would pass the test.

Please deliver me from evil. That's how real believers reason. Not, let's send all we want So the grace will abound. If you think like that, let it frighten you. Number two.

If you are a believer, you should walk in newness of life. And you can walk in newness of life. And if you hold a profession of faith in Jesus, but there's never really been any newness of life This is a great time to take inventory And understand this I'm not accusing nobody a nutton because things can look so identical on the outside and be fundamentally different because of all that no one else can see that's happening behind the windshield and in your heart. To me, it looks identical, but they're fundamentally opposite. I just can't discern it.

And no one can. I'm just saying when you come to a text like this, you have to say to people, I assume you're here because you hold a profession of belief in Jesus. I assume that's why you're here. But if even though you've cleaned up okay on the outside and you enjoy the respect of everyone around you. Everyone else thinks, oh, of course she's a believer, of course he's a believer, but in your heart, you know, I'm never different.

I'm no different than when I was just a son or daughter of Adam. It's never really been any fundamental change. It's just been a little clean up on the outside. It's a great time to come face to face with that and take inventory and examine yourself. The most dangerous position in the world isn't the person who isn't trusting in Jesus and isn't pretending to trust in Jesus.

It's the person who's trusting in Jesus who is not trusting in Jesus, but they've assumed that they have been. So they have no real interest in claim upon Jesus's death on the cross but they have assumed that they do because they've fallen in with people who also have a profession. That's the most dangerous place in the world to be. God help you if you're in that position. God show it to you if you're in that position.

God I end praying that whatever we are in our Christianity we would be real. And If there's anyone hearing this sermon that has faked everyone out including themselves, that you would not let another day pass under that delusion, in that terribly dangerous condition. Show them. Help them, Lord. Thank you for the sweetness that it is to be in your son to be free indeed.

I pray that we would all know and love what it's like to be free indeed. You would help us to walk in newness of life. Pray in Jesus name, Amen.