The Four Cornerstones of Romans (Part 6: Knowing Some Things)

Start this post series from the beginning, here.

The Four Cornerstones of Romans (Part 6: Knowing Some Things)

Where the focus of part 4 (of this series of post) was becoming aware that there is knowledge to gain, this part is going to deliver that knowledge.

We are still in Romans chapter 6 as part of this second cornerstone of the Christian faith, which is, God’s grace. Chapter 5 of Romans was the chapter on our justification, and how through faith in the cross work of Christ, we are transferred from Adam’s administration into the administration of Christ. The following points were discussed:

• Paul has led us through the positional aspect of justification in Romans chapter 5.
• Justification is a verdict of righteousness and innocence declared upon us by the imputation of Christ’s
• It is God’s work and something that happens outside of our influence and control.
• We are literally transferred from the administration of Adam into the administration of Christ.

When we are moved into Christ’s administration, EVERYTHING changes. I’m going to say this again. When we are moved into Christ’s administration, EVERYTHING changes. This is important to understand! Paul uses the whole of Romans 6 to explain that we need to know this. We need to consider this carefully, meditate on it, and be renewed by it!

The whole of Romans 6 is about knowing some things. It's NOT about doing anything or experiencing anything. No! It’s ALL IN THE MIND. It’s about accepting your new POSITION by faith. This new position of justification (righteousness) comes by the knowledge of DEATH! Not death as in physical or spiritual death, but death as in becoming dead to sin. As this knowledge of justification, righteousness, and life, (attributes of Christ’s administration), starts to overwhelm our minds, we become naturally non-functional in sin. We start to die to the Adamic nature and the operation of sin in our lives, and we start to walk in that newness of Christ’s life within us.  

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. … 14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. … 17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Please know that this learning process is an ongoing thing. Unlike justification that is instant, a single event of salvation, this learning process of sanctification is a lifelong journey. We grow into it. We start as babes in the knowledge of Christ. We have teething pains. Our flesh will rebel against this process continually. You will have moments of weakness and you might ‘feel’ like you are losing the battle against sin, but faith in our positional status of justification stands strong and unmoveable. There is no condemnation from this position. But we have the responsibility of reasonable service to God. We persist in learning and changing by the knowledge of His Word. We mature daily, and slowly, over time, develop into sons of God, becoming more and more enlightened in the truth, exercising good judgements in life, bringing forth fruit unto God, and walking worthy of His kingdom, bringing glory to Christ.

We have learned that we are dead to sin positionally in Christ. The object now is to bring our physical state of mind and experience into the same conformity as our spiritual position. Without renewing our mind to conform to our positional standing, we are never going to overcome sin in our daily ‘earthly’ walk.

Overcoming sin is NOT by trying to do it in your own strength. It is NOT by laws and rules you set for yourself. It is NOT by doing things. Overcoming sin comes by being changed by the knowledge you learn concerning our new spiritual administration.

Where our default behaviour is to live according to Adam’s administration, we need to be ‘reprogrammed’, (our mind must become renewed in thinking) to act and react according to Christ’s administration.

• We need to know our position and spiritual reality (we are no longer in Adam’s domain)
• We need to allow the attributes of Christ’s administration to saturate our thoughts and understanding. Reading the Word, receiving the truth that Paul wrote, and learning of this administration and its attributes, and how they apply to your life, will allow the Word to start influencing your thoughts and behaviours. This will result in changes over you, changes on how you reason, how you make decisions, changes in your actions and your responses, changes in your behaviour. This is how Christ is formed within you and how you start to walk in the Spirit. Paul writes,

Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: [not eternally or physically, but die in function to God] but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (operate and function in the righteousness of Christ). 

• We should increase in knowledge, so that it will influence our flesh to conform. Conforming is NOT by our own strength or passion. It is an outflow of the Word (and Spirit) being formed in us.
• We need to learn to know God’s will and ways.
• We need to learn to respond to how God would respond in any given circumstance.
• We need to know how to execute good judgement and act in situations in the same way as God would, by being of the same mind as God, 1 Cor.2:16 – We have the mind of Christ.

When we can start thinking, and reacting this way, this is the beginning of mortifying the deeds of the flesh.

This is where grace is not just a spiritual status of justification in heaven, but it becomes tangibly evident in our thinking, in our behaviours, and in our daily living.

This is when Christ starts to get formed in us and where sin starts to diminish, not by us setting laws for ourselves, not by trying to defeat sin by our own strength, but simply because we are walking in the Spirit of the Word and bringing glory to Christ.

Where justification is the part of God’s grace that has saved us instantaneously from the penalty of sins, this part of God’s grace, known as sanctification, can be understood as that God is saving us daily from the power of sin by being transformed by the knowledge and application of His Word.

Paul writes more about this process in Romans chapter 7. We will continue on this subject in the next post.