Sermon Outline

Free from the Power of Sin Galatians 5.24

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” Romans  6.6 (NIV)

Jesus Died For Us Romans 5.8-11

Jesus died for us and as our substitute paid the penalty for our sin. We are reconciled, justified, and free from the wrath of God. No more condemnation. Romans 8.1

We Died With Christ Romans 6.1-6

God deals with the power of sin by our death with Christ

-Baptized into Christ: Spirit baptism joins us to the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12.12-13

-Union with Christ: means that the consequences of the literal death and resurrection of Christ become ours Ephesians 2.5-6; Romans 8.17; Colossians 2.9-10. “In Christ” or “with Christ”. Not an experience but a spiritual reality.

-Our Old Man: Who we were in Adam. “in the flesh”, a “slave to sin”, the “natural man who does not know God”, the “man without the Spirit”. 2 Corinthians 5.17

-The Body of Sin: My physical body which includes my mind, my imaginations, and all my senses once used to experience and express the sin of the “old man”.

-Done Away With: annul, make ineffective, inoperative render powerless, unemployed

-That we should no longer be slaves to sin: Free from the power of sin.

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Conclusion

In Christ we are free from the power of sin but continue to live in conflict with the flesh which is the effects of sin left in our body.

MEDITATIONS FOR THE WEEK

[Take some daily quiet time alone with God]

Monday: Read Colossians 2.9-12. Our union with Christ and its consequences are evident in these verses. Take time to praise God for giving you His Spirit and uniting you to Christ.

Tuesday: Think about Colossians 3.1-4. As a result of our union with Christ we should live in a certain way. Take time to thank God for His high calling and enablement in Christ.

Wednesday: Read Colossians 3.5-19. As result of our union with Christ we should put certain behaviors off and put certain behaviors on. Take time to ask God for greater understand, more power, and put off and put on.

Thursday: Meditate on Ephesians 4.20-24. Because of what God has done for us in Christ we are to do certain things. Take time to thank God for His work in Christ and then do your part in obedience to God.

Friday: Think about Ephesians 4.25-32. The new life in Christ is outlined in specific behaviors to the end of the book. Take time to worship this God for putting you “in Christ” to live a holy and loving life

Union With Christ

The Scriptures declare that through the operation of God, there is constituted a union of the soul with Christ different in kind from God’s natural and providential relation with all spirits, as well as from all unions of mere association or sympathy, moral likeness, or moral influence – a union of life, in which the human spirit, while then most truly possessing its own individuality and personal distinctness, is interpenetrated and energized by the Spirit of God, is made inscrutably but indissolubly one with Him, and so becomes a member and partaker of that regenerated, believing, and justified humanity of which He is the head. (A. H. Strong)

Union with Christ is not union with a system of doctrine, nor with external religious influences, nor with an organized church, nor with an ideal man – but rather union with a personal, risen, living omnipotent Lord. (J. A. Stewart)

“The central truth of all theology”. (J. W. Alexander)

Sermon Notes

Free From the Power of Sin Galatians 5.24

-This morning we are going to turn our attention to what God did on the cross for us in Christ to free us from the power of sin so that we could have victory over the flesh.

-This will not be an easy sermon to grasp. …Having a clear understanding in your mind of the terms we use will be important. …You may want to follow in your bulletin and later read over the sermon notes online in order to better understand the terms used and the truth we are going to look at this morning.

-Let’s begin with Romans 5.8-11. [Read]

-These verses tell us that Christ died for us. …I want to emphasize for us. …By dying for us Christ paid the penalty for our sin. …We are reconciled to God. …In the death of Christ for us God also declares us justified in His sight. …We are fully and completely accepted by God and righteous before God because of the death of Christ for us. …That is why Romans 8.1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. …In the death of Christ for us God also saves us from His wrath on the day of judgment.

-It is on the basis of the truth of Christ dying for us that Paul pleads with the Galatians believers not to try to be justified before God by keeping the law. …Since they are justified by faith in Christ who died for them they should not try to justify themselves by works.

-By faith in the death of Christ for us we are free from the penalty of sin.

-Most Christians know about Christ dying for them on the cross so that they can have eternal life. …More Christians need to understand the truth of Justification, and need to learn to live without trying to earn God’s acceptance, and need to stand on the foundation of God’s acceptance and grow in holiness and love.

-Now listen carefully. …Not only did Christ die FOR us as a substitute, but we also died WITH Christ. …Please read with me Romans 6.1-5. [Read]

-Not only does God deal with the penalty of sin by Christ dying for us, God also deals with the power of sin over us by our dying with Christ. …We were all born slaves to sin and under the wrath of God. …The death of Christ as our substitute removes the penalty of sin and the wrath of God. ..But it is our death in union with Christ which removes the power of sin over our lives.

-Paul says, “we died to sin”. …This is an aorist tense which means a completed once and for all time action in the past. …As far as God is concerned when you died with Christ, you died to sin and sin no longer has any power over you. …Sin no longer enslaves you, controls you, rules you, or has any claim over you if you are truly saved. …The Christian is free from the power of sin.

-What does it mean to be united with Christ and how does this happen? …In verse 3 we are told that, “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death”.

-The baptism referred to here is not water baptism but baptism in the Holy Spirit. …Water baptism is not only a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ and identification with the teachings of Christ, water baptism is also an expression of our Spirit baptism which joins us to the body of Christ.

-Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12.12-13. [Read]

-When we became Christians, God gave us His Holy Spirit and joined us by this Spirit to the body of Christ. …We became one with Christ, united to Christ when God gave us the Holy Spirit.

-What this union with Christ means is that the consequences of the literal death and resurrection of Christ become mine. …By my union with Christ it is as if I died on the cross, and as if I were raised from the tomb, and as if I ascended into heaven, even as Christ did. …By His Sovereign power God gives me the Holy Spirit and joins me to Christ, and to His death and resurrection.

-Because of this truth of being united with Christ, Paul can write in Ephesians 2.5-6, “God made us alive with Christ …and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”.

-One of the great truths of Scripture is the truth of our union with Christ. …The phrase, “in Christ” or “with Christ” is often used to express this truth and it means that we are united to Christ and all that Christ has done and all that Christ now is. …We are one with Christ. …That is why Paul can say things like “we are co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8.17) and “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ”(Col 2.9-10)

-I believe that this truth of union with Christ was a key component of Paul’s theology and one of the great sources of strength in his life. …John Murray writes, “Union with Christ is really the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation not only in its application but also in its once-for-all accomplishment in the finished work of Christ”. …Paul often speaks about being “in Christ”.

-So we are united to Christ by the work of God as He gives us the Holy Spirit.

-Our union with Christ is not an experience we feel but a spiritual reality that we must take at face value and believe whether we feel in union with Christ or not. …As a Christian you are “in Christ” and all the consequences of Christ’s death and resurrection and ascension are yours in Christ.

–Verse 6 tells us of a fundamental consequence of our union in the death of Christ. …It begins with the words “we know”. …I want to emphasize once again the vital importance of knowing what God has done for us in Christ. …Before we ever try to live the Christian life we need to know God and know what God has done on the cross, so that we have the truth upon which to live in the freedom for which Christ has set us free. …This verse teaches us one of those vital truths that lead to freedom in Christ when we know it and apply it.

-Let me remind you that the context of this chapter is that we are dead to sin. (v2) …Paul is now going to explain how it came about that we are dead to sin. …The fact is that we are dead to sin in our union with the death of Christ.

-The first term in this verse we need to understand is “our old self” literally “our old man”. …This is a description of our life in Adam before we came to Christ. …This is the man that Paul describes elsewhere as being “in the flesh”, a “slave to sin”, the “natural man who does not know God”, the “man without the Spirit of God”. …This is you and I before our conversion to Christ indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind and by nature children of wrath.

-We need to understand that all of humanity is divided into two groups – those who are “in Adam” and those who are “in Christ”. …We were all born into the race of Adam by natural birth. …Some of us are now in the race of Christ by the new birth. …This morning you are either “in Adam” or “in Christ”. …If you are in Adam you are a slave to sin and under the judgment of God. …You cannot please God and you refuse to submit to God, and the holy demands of a Sovereign God offend you. …In Adam you are destined for hell. …If you are a believer and you have the Holy Spirit within you, you are “in Christ”, and “in the Spirit”, and are no longer “in Adam”.

-The reason why you are no longer in Adam as a Christian is because your old life in Adam was crucified with Christ at Calvary. …The old you is dead and buried and no longer able to serve sin. …Two illustrations which may help.

-Soon after Augustine’s conversion, he was walking down the street in Milan, Italy. There he met a prostitute whom he had known most intimately. She called to him but he would not answer. He kept right on walking.

“Augustine,” she called again. “It is I!”

Without missing a beat and with the assurance of Christ in his heart, he replied, “Yes, but it is no longer I.” …Because of Christ and His Spirit, Augustine was a changed man. He was born again, a brand new creation.

-Watchman Nee tells of a Christian brother who was traveling to a speaking engagement by train and was in a compartment with 3 other men. They decided to play cards and needing a fourth player asked the man to join them. He said, “I cannot join you for I have left my hands at home”. Seeing that the man had two perfectly good hands they asked what he meant. He went on to explain to them that the old card playing man along with his hands was dead and he was now a new man in Christ and that all of his body parts were now given unto God’s service.

-If you are a Christian you are not a makeover project but a new creation in Christ. …2 Corinthians 5.17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” …The old you in Adam was put to death with Christ on the cross and a new you in Christ has been raised up in its place. …That is why Paul says in Ephesians 4.22-24, “put off the former conduct of the old man …and put on the new man created in righteousness and true holiness”. …Or in Colossians 3.9-10, “do not lie to one another having put off the old man with his practices and having put on the new man being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one creating him”. …The man of sin you used to be in Adam died in union with Christ. …You are a new man in Christ, so live like a new man. …Don’t live as if the old man is still alive.

-It is also important to not try to put the old man to death, because the old man you were in Adam is already dead. …Galatians 5.24 does not say crucify the old man but crucify the flesh (more next week). …The old man cannot be crucified because he has already been crucified in your union with the death of Christ.

-The next part of the verse says, “so that”. …The death of the old man in Christ has an important result, “that the body of sin might be done away with”.

-The second term we need to understand is “the body of sin”. …Body of sin is not another term for “our old man”. …The body here is my physical body which includes my mind, my imaginations, and all my senses. …In Adam my body and all of its component parts served sin. …My body spent many years being the vehicle through which sin was experienced and expressed. …My body was a body of sin and knew only the power of sin over it.

-Now in union with the death of Christ something has happened to this body that once served sin. …The body of sin is “done away with”. …The KJV says “destroyed”. …Destroyed does not properly express the meaning of the Greek word used. …NKJV has changed the translation to “done away with”. …The Greek word used here means, “to cease; to put an end to; to do away with; to render powerless; to annul; to abolish; to make ineffective; impotent; to render idle; inactive; inoperative. …The essence of the word is to be inactive, idle, unused and the meaning in this context is that the body which was once a slave to sin and an instrument of sin now ceases to be an instrument of sin. …Since my old man is crucified and dead, the body that once served as its instrument of sin is no longer needed. …With regard to sin my body along with the mind, imaginations and senses, is unemployed. …The body as far as its service to sin is concerned has been put out of business by the death of the old man. …The power of sin that once controlled my body and all its component parts has been taken away by the death of my old man in union with the death of Christ, and the services of the body of sin are done away with. …Paul is also looking to the future in our final deliverance from sin.

-Paul concludes verse 6 by saying this very thing, “that we should no longer be slaves to sin”. …My old man who was a slave to sin was crucified with Christ and this body which was once under the power of sin and the instrument of sin is now free from the power of sin. …As you read the rest of chapter 6 you will find Paul exhorting us as Christians who are now free from the power of sin to give the parts of our body to the service of righteousness. [Read 6.11-14]

-Now, let me conclude by making this very important statement. …Even though my old man is dead and my body is no longer under the power of sin, sin is still active in my body in the form of the flesh. …My body that was once under the total power of sin is no longer under the power of sin, but the effects of sin still linger in my body and continue to try and control the body. …What we were in Adam is no more but until heaven and the redemption of our bodies the temptation to live in Adam always remains. …The body is delivered from slavery to sin but is not yet delivered from the effects of sin received when Adam fell to sin. …I am saved but my body is still under the effects and influence of sin. …Until I am transferred into the presence of God and receive a new body, there will always be a conflict between the flesh that is still at work in my body and the Spirit of God that calls my body to serve God.

-Christianity is much about making the body a servant to truth and God’s Spirit by walking in the Spirit.

-Let me close with an illustration which might help you to understand that the power of sin has been broken but the conflict with the flesh is still very real

-A pirate ship dominated by a ruthless captain was defeated in battle by a British ship led by a benevolent commander. When the battle was over the British commander dispatched a group of his trustworthy lieutenants to sail the pirate ship back to England. The pirate captain and his henchman were locked in a cage on the deck of the pirate ship, and the remainder of the more agreeable pirates were enlisted as British sailors. In transit, these former pirates grew accustomed to a new kind of leadership. They found themselves holding their heads high under the respectful treatment of their new officers.

At one point, however, the caged pirate captain began shouting curses at his former crew, trying to intimidate them into submission once again. At first, the former pirates were visibly shaken and a few of them even obeyed some of his orders. Eventually, however, they regained their composure as they realized that their former captain had no true power over them. He could only attempt to intimidate them, but he was no longer their true master.

-So it is with us in Christ. …The flesh continues to attempt to enslave us but sin has no more power over us because in Christ our old man is dead and we are dead to sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. …We need to learn about our new life in Christ and then live it out, to the Glory of God.