Romans 6:1-14
What Now?

I. What now? After a Major Stage in Life
A. What Now? After Some Major Event in Life
1. Maybe you want to start a restaurant? How do you start? First, find a location.
2. Is one of the first things you do is buy a sign? Do you hire staff right away?
3. You get married, then have children, then raise them. You wonder, is this all there is?
4. Inactivity doubles the risk for depression. They with-draw and become more inactive.
5. Some people waste their time and gravitate to whatever entertains them.
B. What Now? Is a Question for the Truly Saved?
1. After believing the gospel, is there anything you have to do?
2. After being freed from serving sin, is there anyone you have to serve?
II. The Myth of Neutrality (6:15-16)
A. Are We Live Like We Were Before?
1. “Yes” say those who pose the absurd question thrown at Paul (6:15).
2. The myth of neutrality: that you can be saved and what you do now is neutral. It’s justification without sanctification. Sanctification is growing in holiness.
3. “By no means.” It is the false teaching of antinomianism, lawlessness, easy-believism: the false idea that you have no new master; that we’re neutral.
4. True conversion is a transfer of one kind of slavery to another. It is switching masters.
B. “Do You Not Know” That Neutrality Is a Myth?
1. You serve one master or the other, either sin or the Lord (6:16)
2. You have to decide which master you will present yourself to: Sin or Obedience.
3. The antinomian gospel, that you can be saved and unchanged, is a diabolical lie.
III. The Master of Our New Selves (6: 17-19)
A. Christians Have Become Slaves of a New Master
1. The obedience, the right practice (orthopraxy).
a. The modern Christians often thinks that that is “legalism” to be told to “obey”.
b. You’ll have to accept the tortuous word “obey.” What you do now is obey.
2. The obedience “from the heart”; the right feeling, the right spirit (orthopathy).
a. Now you love God with all your heart and do as you please!
b. You have to have a heart that truly loves God and wants to obey Him.
3. The “standard of teaching”, the right doctrine, the orthodoxy
a. They are obedient to a “form of teaching,” a specific body of instruction.
b. Our church covenant is a standard of teaching, to which we are to be obedient.
B. Slaves To Righteousness
1. “Lawlessness” led to more lawlessness. We became more uninhibited.
2. If we disobey sin, then God is our master and He leads us to “sanctification” (6:19).
IV. The Moral of the Story (6: 20 To 23)
A. The Difference Salvation Makes
1. Which master we choose will result either in our moral deterioration or our moral transformation.
2. Now you serve God. It’s as big as the difference between reality and fiction.
3. The theory of the “carnal Christian” says we can continue in sin and still be saved.
a. They say, that the carnal Christian has just not yet made Jesus “Lord” of his life.
b. There may be some immature Christians for a while but all truly saved people are now “slaves to God” (6:22).
B. What Now? Sanctification, Growth in Holiness.
1. True conversion is an act of self-surrender which leads to obedient serving which leads to growing in holiness, fighting sin, maturing, becoming more like Jesus.
2. If you are not being sanctified, there is no reason to believe that you have been justified.
V. Invitation: True salvation begins a new life. You are free from sin but not free for neutrality. You’ve got to serve somebody! Sin will pay you with death. God will give you a gracious gift, found in Jesus Christ your Lord: eternal life. What now? From the heart, serve Him!