Help with Being Holy: Death to Sin (Part A)

Romans
Written By Steve Estes

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Romans 6:1-11
July 3, 2022

Romans 6:1-11: What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he loves to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Sermon Outline

1. Paul's basic position

2. Paul is talking to Christians (i.e., people who have been baptized)

3. Overcoming sin starts with something we are to know

  • We must know that "We died"

  • We must know that "We died to sin"

  • We must know that "Our death to sin has to do with Christ's death"

4. Wrong views of death to sin

  • Death to sin as a psychological change

  • Death to sin as a death to sin's allure

  • Death to sin as a stimulus

Benediction

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,... to him be glory and power for ever and ever!  Amen. — paraphrased from Revelation 1:5

Steve Estes

Steve Estes has been senior pastor at Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, Pennsylvania, for over thirty-five years. 

Steve’s books and other writings began with his longtime friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada. As teenagers, they grappled with why God allowed Joni’s paralysis in a swimming accident in the Chesapeake Bay. Steve left for college . . . they kept in touch . . . she liked the style of his letters. When her 1976 autobiography Joni spawned thousands of reader responses, she asked Steve to join her in crafting a follow-up. The result was A Step Further in 1978.

Later, Wycliffe Bible Translators commissioned Steve to write the biography of former college friend Chet Bitterman, a Wycliffe linguist who was kidnapped and murdered by political terrorists in Colombia in 1981. Other books and articles followed, including When God Weeps (with Joni) and A Better December (a giveaway book for non-Christian friends at Christmas.)

Steve was educated at Westminster Theological Seminary, Columbia Bible College and Jerusalem University College in Israel. He has taught homiletics at Westminster and is a board member of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.

But Steve would say his most significant life achievement was persuading college classmate Verna Stoltzfus to marry him in 1974.  They now have eight children and more grandchildren than can fit in a van.

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Help with Being Holy: What is Holiness? Do I Need It?