Scripture referenced 20 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
-
James 2:14 faith without works cannot save
14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
1 Corinthians 15:45
describing Adam and Christ as the first and last Adam
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Matthew 1:20
angel tells Joseph the child conceived in Mary is of the Holy Spirit
20 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 5:18
one transgression brought condemnation; one act of righteousness brought justification
18 So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
James 2:10
breaking one point of the law makes a person guilty of all of it
10 For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Hebrews 4:15
Christ was tempted in all things as we are yet without sin
15 For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 6:1
rhetorical question whether we should continue in sin that grace may increase
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 6:3-7
baptized into Christ's death, buried with him, raised to newness of life, old self crucified
3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
John 11
story of Lazarus raised from the dead as a picture of new life in Christ
1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.
2 It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick.
3 The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”
4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
6 When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.”
8 The disciples told him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”
9 Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”
11 He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”
12 The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.
14 So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead.
15 I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”
16 Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go also, that we may die with him.”
17 So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.
18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away.
19 Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.
20 Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house.
21 Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.
22 Even now I know that, whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.
26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and is calling you.”
29 When she heard this, she arose quickly, and went to him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him.
31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”
32 Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”
33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!”
37 Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”
41 So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me.
42 I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”
45 Therefore many of the Jews, who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him.
46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done.
47 The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs.
48 If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
49 But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,
50 nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
51 Now he didn’t say this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,
52 and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
53 So from that day forward they took counsel that they might put him to death.
54 Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but departed from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim. He stayed there with his disciples.
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.
56 Then they sought for Jesus and spoke one with another, as they stood in the temple, “What do you…
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Ephesians 1:19-20
the surpassing greatness of God's power toward believers, the same power that raised Christ
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
20 which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Ephesians 2:1
we were dead in our transgressions
1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Ephesians 2:4-10
God made us alive with Christ by grace, raised us up, created for good works
4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, that no one would boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Colossians 3:1-3
set your hearts on things above, life hidden with Christ in God
1 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 6:8-14
dead to sin and alive to God, do not let sin reign, present members as instruments of righteousness
8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;
9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!
10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Philippians 3:12
Paul says he is not already perfect but presses on
12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 6:15-23
slaves to the one you obey, freed from sin, enslaved to righteousness, wages of sin is death
15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!
16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Matthew 6:24
no one can serve two masters
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 8:36
for his sake we are being put to death all day long
36 Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 7
the good I wish I do not do, but I practice the very evil I do not wish
1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;
11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
15 For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.
16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.
19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.
20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.
22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
2 Timothy 4:7-8
Paul at end of his life says he fought the good fight and a crown of righteousness awaits
7 I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.
8 From now on, there is stored up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message walked through Romans 6, focusing on what it means that Christians are no longer slaves to sin. The preacher opened by grounding the chapter in the larger arc of Romans, making sure the distinction between justification and sanctification was clear before pressing into the text. The heart of the teaching was that the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power God has placed in every believer.
What was said
Before getting into chapter 6, the preacher set the table with three words: justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification is freedom from the penalty of sin, received by faith alone as a gift. Sanctification is freedom from the power of sin, the ongoing work of God making us more righteous. Glorification is the final freedom, when we are in heaven and free even from the presence of sin. All three are God's doing, not ours.
To explain how we got here, she returned to Romans 5 and the contrast Paul draws between the first Adam and the last Adam. When Adam sinned, condemnation passed to all who come from him. When Christ obeyed, justification became available to all who are united with him. The point was that when we are justified, the sin nature that once had total power over us is made powerless, just as it was before Adam's fall, and we are no longer condemned.
Chapter 6 opens with a rhetorical question Paul already knows the answer to: shall we keep sinning so grace can increase? The preacher noted that this is not a real question but a rebuttal to people who heard Paul's teaching on grace and concluded it meant they could live however they liked. Paul's answer is may it never be, and his reason is that the person asking has fundamentally misunderstood what happened to them when they came to faith.
The center of the chapter is the union with Christ that baptism pictures. Our old self was crucified with Him, buried with Him, and raised with Him. The preacher used the story of Lazarus to make this concrete: Lazarus came out of the tomb still wrapped in grave clothes, and those clothes were taken off him. That is what happened to us. The old nature has been unbound. Nobody who has just been raised from the dead wants to walk back into the tomb and lie down again.
Because of this union, Paul tells his readers to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God, and not to hand their bodies over as instruments of unrighteousness. The preacher noted that the Greek word translated "instruments" can also mean weapons, and that sin, even when it feels private, always hurts someone. The charge is not to achieve perfection but to stop volunteering yourself to something that leads to death.
Verses 15 through 23 return to the slave-and-master image. You are a slave to whoever you obey. Pastor Ray's illustration of a wheel came up here: a wheel can only turn one direction at a time, and you cannot serve two masters at once. The preacher connected this to sanctification by saying that yielding to God builds momentum, the way exercise builds the desire to exercise more. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life, and the life that leads there is one of presenting yourself, day by day, as a servant of righteousness.
The sermon closed with the honest acknowledgment that this is a fight. Paul himself wrote in Romans 7 that he does the very thing he does not want to do. The preacher held that tension without resolving it too quickly, pointing to 2 Timothy 4 and Paul's words at the end of his life: "I have fought the good fight." The goal is not sinless perfection but a life of genuine surrender, trusting that God is doing in us what He raised Jesus to do.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray described Romans as Paul's least personal letter because he had never met the Romans. How does knowing that context change the way you read the doctrinal statements in this letter?
- The sermon described justification as freedom from the penalty of sin and sanctification as freedom from the power of sin. In your own experience, what does it look like day to day to actually live as someone who is free from sin's power rather than just free from its penalty?
and 3 more questions in the guide
