You Become What You Obey - Romans 6:13-23

Romans 6:13-23, "You Become What You Obey"

Introduction: Why We Jumped Ahead to Romans 7:1-6

• Sometimes you need to see where Paul is going to understand where you are.
• Romans 7:4: "So that you may belong to another."
• Romans 7 establishes belonging before behavior.
• Death changes jurisdiction.
• The old claim has been broken through Christ.
• We belong to the risen Christ.
• Union comes before fruit.
• Identity comes before obedience.
• Romans 7:4: We belong to Christ "in order that we may bear fruit for God."
• Now return to Romans 6 and hear Paul's commands through the lens of belonging.

Segment One: Who Gets Your Life?

Romans 6:13-16

• Romans 6:13, "Do not present your members to sin."
  • Sin is always asking for our participation.
  • Our bodies can become instruments of unrighteousness or righteousness.
  • Eyes, hands, mouth, sexuality, money, influence, time, imagination.
  • Same body, different Master.
• "Present yourselves to God."
  • We present ourselves because we have already been brought from death to life.
  • Obedience does not produce resurrection life.
  • Obedience flows from resurrection life.
  • Theology must eventually become embodied.
• Romans 6:14, "Sin will have no dominion over you."
  • Sin may still be present, but it is no longer king.
  • Temptation is not the same thing as dominion.
  • We do not fight for freedom, we fight from freedom.
  • Christ has broken sin's rightful claim.
• "Not under law but under grace."
  • Grace is not permission to remain enslaved.
  • Grace does not lower God's standard.
  • Grace liberates us to live under Christ's reign.
• Romans 6:15-16, "You are slaves of the one whom you obey."
  • Grace does not eliminate obedience, it redirects it.
  • Repeated obedience reveals functional allegiance.
  • What can command me and consistently receive an immediate "yes"?
  • Every act of surrender is formative.
  • Small presentations become patterns.
  • Patterns become habits.
  • Habits shape character.
  • Character determines direction.
• Application
  • What am I continually presenting to sin?
  • What part of my life have I kept off the altar?
  • What appetite has learned that when it speaks, I obey?
  • What am I presenting to Jesus?
  • Freedom is not having nobody to obey.
  • Freedom is finally being able to obey the One I was created for.

Segment Two: You Become What You Obey

Romans 6:17-23

• Romans 6:17, "You who were once slaves of sin."
  • "Were" is a gospel word.
  • The past can remain part of your testimony without remaining your identity.
  • The gospel changes who you belong to.
• "Obedient from the heart."
  • Christianity is not behavior modification.
  • God transforms the heart.
  • Jeremiah 31:33, the law written on the heart.
  • Ezekiel 36:26, the heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh.
  • Maturity is not merely restraint, it is reordered desire.
• Romans 6:18, "Set free from sin...slaves of righteousness."
  • Biblical freedom is not autonomy.
  • Everyone serves something.
  • Whatever you believe gives you life will eventually gain power over you.
  • The question is not, "Will I serve?"
  • The question is, "Whom will I serve?"
  • Belonging to God restores us to what we were created for.
• Romans 6:19, "Lawlessness leading to more lawlessness."
  • Sin is never satisfied.
  • Sin does not merely want an action, it wants territory.
  • Compromise tends to multiply.
  • Both sin and righteousness have trajectories.
• "Righteousness leading to sanctification."
  • Every day we are becoming something.
  • Sanctification is often ordinary obedience repeated over time.
  • A thousand little yeses to God shape a life.
  • Ask: "What is what I'm doing turning me into?"
• Romans 6:21, "What fruit were you getting?"
  • Do not judge sin by its advertisement.
  • Judge it by its harvest.
  • Sin advertises pleasure and hides the invoice.
  • What did the old master actually produce?
  • Shame, bondage, brokenness, and ultimately death.
• Romans 6:22, "The fruit you get leads to sanctification."
  • New Master, new fruit, new destination.
  • Romans 7:4 connects back: we belong to Christ so we may "bear fruit for God."
  • Fruit follows union.
  • The life we produce flows from the One to whom we belong.
• Romans 6:23, Wages vs. Gift
  • "The wages of sin is death."
  • Wages are earned.
  • "The free gift of God is eternal life."
  • Gifts are received.
  • Paul does not say the wages of righteousness are eternal life.
  • Sin gives us what we earned.
  • God gives us what Christ earned.
  • Death is earned, life is received.
  • Eternal life is found "in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Closing Application

• Look at the fruit.
• What is my current way of living producing in me?
• Don't merely ask, "Is this allowed?"
• Ask, "Where is this taking me?"
• Don't merely ask, "Can a Christian do this?"
• Ask, "What kind of person is this forming me into?"
• Every master produces fruit.
• Every road has a destination.
• Sin pays wages.
• God gives life.
• Belonging before behavior.
• Union before fruit.
• Identity before obedience.
• You become what you obey.