Walk in the Way of Life

Bryan Schneider

September 19, 2026

Romans 6:1-4

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As you move from one country to another, you will be expected to change a lot of the ways in which you live your life.

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Abundant grace never gives us permission to keep sinning. Paul emphatically rejects treating grace as an excuse for disobedience.
Christians have a new Lord. We cannot gladly serve both Jesus and sin, our former master.
Baptism is a sign and seal of union with Jesus by faith; his death brings cleansing and redemption through his blood.
Baptism does not automatically make someone born again or unite them to Jesus. We must actually trust and rest in him.
The indwelling Holy Spirit enables a new way of life: honest work and generosity instead of stealing, and words that build up instead of tearing down.
Freedom from sin’s tyranny is a reason to keep fighting sin with joy. Our strength comes from union with Jesus in his death and resurrection.
Daily dependence on Jesus sustains the battle. His righteousness, the shield of faith, and the instruction of Scripture equip us to obey.

Read Romans 5:20–6:4. Paul answers a distortion of grace: forgiveness is not permission to remain under sin’s rule. Following the sermon’s four points, consider why union with the crucified and risen Jesus means both a new Lord and a new way of life. Baptism points to this grace, while the call is to trust Christ and depend on his Spirit in daily obedience.

Biblical Themes

Grace and holiness belong together: the gospel gives no permission to make peace with sin.
A change of lordship: those who belong to Jesus cannot willingly treat sin as their rightful master.
Union with Jesus in his death and resurrection provides the foundation for new life.
Baptism points to Christ and his benefits; the outward sign must not become a substitute for faith.
The fight against sin continues, but Christians fight in dependence on Christ and the indwelling Spirit.

Scripture Connections

Romans 5:20–21 and 6:1–4 — Read in the sermon. How does Paul move from the abundance of grace to the rejection of continuing in sin?
Romans 5:12–14 — Discussed in the sermon as the background of sin and death reigning in Adam. Contrast this old dominion with belonging to Jesus.
Romans 3:23–26 and 4:25 — Explicitly discussed in the sermon. Trace how Jesus’ blood, death, and resurrection ground redemption and justification.
1 Peter 1:18–19 — The sermon alludes to Peter’s contrast between silver or gold and Christ’s precious blood. Consider the cost of redemption.
Matthew 7:21–23 — The sermon alludes to Jesus’ warning about saying “Lord, Lord.” Discuss why outward religious claims cannot replace knowing Christ.
Ephesians 4:28–32 and 6:10–18 — The sermon draws on these teachings about changed work and speech and the armor of God. Identify both a concrete act of obedience and the source of strength for it.
John 15:4–5 — The sermon alludes to abiding in Jesus and bearing fruit. How does this shape the way we approach the struggle against sin?
Colossians 1:13–14 — An added study connection, not an explicitly cited passage in the sermon: compare rescue from darkness into the Son’s kingdom with the sermon’s picture of a new King.

Practical Applications

Name one way you have presumed on grace. Confess it and ask Jesus for help to turn from it.
Let your baptism direct you to Christ’s promise and the call to faith, rather than treating the outward sign as an automatic guarantee of new birth.
Choose one concrete replacement for an old sinful habit: generous work, encouraging speech, patience, kindness, or love.
When you fall into sin, confess it and return to Jesus instead of accepting discouragement as a reason to stop fighting.
Before a difficult conversation or recurring temptation, read Scripture and pray for the Spirit’s help. Remember that your strength is in Christ.
End the study by thanking Jesus for his death and resurrection and asking him to help you bear fruit for God’s glory.

Historical Context

The sermon places Romans 6 within Paul’s preceding argument in Romans 1–5: sin brings judgment, and salvation comes through Jesus by grace. Paul anticipates an objection that abundant grace encourages lawlessness. The preacher’s citizenship and assimilation illustration introduces the changed life that follows belonging to a new kingdom.

Westminster Standards

Westminster Confession of Faith 26.1
All Saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by his Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory: And, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each others gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, publique and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.
Connection to the sermon: This study connection describes union with Christ by the Spirit and faith, including fellowship in his death and resurrection. It supports the sermon’s foundation for new life and extends that union’s implications to serving fellow believers.
Westminster Larger Catechism 155
The Spirit of God maketh the Reading, but especially the Preaching of the Word, an effectuall means of enlightning, convincing, and humbling sinners, of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ, of conforming them to his Image, and subduing them to his will, of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions, of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holinesse and comfort through faith unto salvation.
Connection to the sermon: This study connection explains how the Spirit uses the Word to draw us to Christ and strengthen us against temptation. It complements the sermon’s call to receive Scripture’s correction and training instead of relying on our own strength.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 26
Christ executeth the Office of a King, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
Connection to the sermon: This study connection captures the sermon’s central encouragement: Jesus is our new King, who rules and defends his people. Obedience rests on his saving power.

This transcript is provided to make the message easier to revisit. Minor transcription errors may remain.

Welcome you to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. I don't have the page number right before my eyes. Somewhere around page 1,000, but if you're thumbing through, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Romans chapter 6. And this morning we'll be looking at verses 1 through 4, but just for some context, we're going to start at chapter 5, verse 20. And read through chapter six, verse four. Be now God's word.

Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized in his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. That ends a portion of this reading of God's word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, it is a gift of wisdom from you. Words dripping with gold and honey. Sweeter to us than even honey from the honeycomb. A royal gift from you, our King. So Father, we pray that your Spirit would please help us to understand it. Provoke us, teach us, train us, Lord, to live it. You are good. You are a wonderful God and a great King. Father, please be with us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon

There's a word that's kind of a hot topic word right now. There's a lot of immigration stuff in the news. But one of the words that I think is interesting is this idea of assimilation. assimilation, right? If you're going to move from one country to another country, you're going to go from one people group and you're going to change your citizenship, you're going to move to another country, you're going to start being expected to live a different way, eat different foods, maybe even learn a different language. You're going to change all sorts of habits in your life. That's the beginning of what Paul is going to describe A little bit here in chapter 6, but then especially once we get into chapter 12, 13, 14, and 15. Is when we are saved, when we are given new life and united to Jesus, that's going to necessarily change our lives.

Because we're a part of a different kingdom now. A different king, a different lord, a different life. And so by the time you walk out of here today, I hope the truth that you'll take home with you is that you have a new king. which means you get to walk in a new life. You have a new king. That's your blessing. You get to walk in the newness of life.

Increasing Grace Does Not Mean We Should Sin More

And so our roadmap as we work through these first four chapters, first four verses of Romans 6 is that first we'll see that grace increasing does not mean that we should sin more. Grace increasing does not mean that we should sin more. Secondly, I'm going to ask, have you died to sin? Thirdly, you are united to Jesus, your Lord. And we're going to talk about what that means. And then fourthly, the command from the Lord to walk in the newness of life. So first, grace increasing does not mean we should sin more.

Notice that when Paul starts here with a question, what shall we say then? So he's anticipating either what people have objected to his gospel or may object to his gospel. He wants to start off right away. What shall we say then? Say about what? What's he talking about? That's why I had us read before verses 20 and 21 of chapter 5.

But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Oh, okay, so you can imagine Paul talking to people in the church, and he's telling this gospel, and they go, okay, you don't like the law, the law brings death, okay, so what are you, some type of antinomian? You're against the law? You just want people to live lawless lives, because you know, the more you sin, the more grace you get, and so we should sin, so grace might abound. Is that what we should say?

The strongest. The absolute strongest way to say no is found in Romans 6 verse 2 at the very beginning. Meganoita. May it never be. The King James will wrestle with that because it's the strongest emphatic no possible that the King James will actually say, God forbid! Don't even let that come into your mind.

No, that is such out of the pits of hell and such a twisting of the gospel that if you think that you get grace and so you can just keep on sinning and sinning and sinning, you've not understood what I just said in Romans 1, 2, and 3. Sin is real. God's judgment is real. And the only hope of it is in Jesus Christ. So may it never come into your mind that somehow because you're under King Jesus, you get to live all the sin you want. No, certainly not. We do not presume upon God's grace. Our God is gracious. Our God is loving. Our God is kind. But He is no fool, and He won't be played as a toy. He is a King of righteousness. Adonai Tzavaot, the King of Righteousness. That is his title, that is his name. He won't be made a mockery of.

Have You Died to Sin?

So my question to you is, have you died to sin? That's our second point. Have you, personally, I'm asking you, have you all died to sin? That's what Romans 6, 2 asks. There's a second question. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? We just went through Romans chapter 5.

There was a king who reigned over the world. Sin and death. In the first man, Adam, sin and death reigned. And death spread like a malignant cancer all throughout humanity. And sin had its tyrannical rule. Death was the kingdom. And sin was its pleasure.

That's what we looked at in Romans chapter 5 verses 12 and 14. Therefore justice through one man's sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed where there is no law.

Nevertheless, death reigned. from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. Death reigned. Death had a dominion, death had a kingdom. And so Paul asks in Romans chapter six, verse two, how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it.

If sin was your old king, if sin was your old taskmaster, if sin is the one that you served because you willingly desired the things in your heart to go chase after the things that are contrary to God, how if you have been, you were at enmity with God because we were in Adam, how can we then go and keep serving the old taskmaster?

Just willfully, hey, this is great. I get Jesus and I get sin. This is wonderful. Do you know what you call that type of person? A traitor. That's not the Christian life. We cannot have two masters. We have a new Lord. We have a great king. Look at the one who does not just whip us in the back with, obey, obey, obey, but one who has said, I love you, and I saw you in your deadness and your transgression and your sin, and I still saved you, and you get to serve me in a kingdom of life and of grace forever.

You Are United to Jesus Your Lord

You are united to Jesus, your Lord. This is where Paul's gonna go in verse three and four. Another question in verse 3. So you were united to Jesus your Lord. Look with me at verse 3. He asks a question. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. He asked the question first right away, are you ignorant? Literally the translation of, or do you not know? It's just one word there. Are you without knowledge? Do you not understand what I've been telling you about this whole time? But this is a passage that made me, I had to read a bunch of stuff to kind of make sure, what exactly is Paul saying here?

Because it's not the way we typically think of stuff like baptism. But he uses baptism one, two, three different times. Baptism ties the thing, so what is he talking about with baptism? What he's going to get at, and we'll find this especially in verse 5 as we continue on next week, is he's talking about our union to Jesus. Our being united to our new king. So baptism is a sign and a seal of this grace that we have, that we have been taken out of this kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of life. We're no longer at enmity with God. That's being united to Jesus in two ways.

First is his death. Verse 3, as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death. You were united to Jesus, and baptism was a sign and a seal of your being united to Jesus by faith. And in Jesus' death, there's a number of different things that that represents. Being baptized into Jesus' death is being baptized because of his atoning blood. Being baptized is part of your being cleansed from your sins. Part of it is that you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. In his death, you were redeemed. And in Jesus's death, you were also made. That's a whole big word of propitiation. that we looked at in chapter three. You're no longer an enemy, but you're a friend with God because the judge sees the price has been paid.

This is where he was getting at in Romans chapter three, verse 23 through 26. Romans chapter three, Paul talks about the death of Jesus and what this did for us. He says, for there is no difference whether Jew or Greek. He says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And Peter helps us out. What is that redemption in Christ Jesus? That's Jesus paying out His own blood, more precious than silver or gold, to redeem you from the slave market of sin. Verse 25 of Romans 3, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood.

Right? There's no more enmity between you and God. You're no longer guilty. You're declared righteous. Through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus.

Some of you are baptized when you were adults. Some of you as you got old, maybe you were converted to the faith, maybe you were older in your age or a young person or whatever and you made a profession of faith because you didn't have any connection with the covenant family and you made a profession that Jesus is my Lord, he died for my sins, I love him and I'm gonna follow him.

Your baptism is crying out to you, remember your profession. And for those of you who were baptized as infants or young people, you were brought into that kingdom. The question is, will you embrace the faith? Will you actually hold on to Jesus that His blood was poured out for you? Your baptism cries out to you. Your parents reading the Bible to you and praying for you and you coming in church and sitting week in and week out isn't meant to just fall on deaf ears.

But will you hear of the King who poured out His own blood for you? died for you, has loved you, and will you follow Him? We were united to Jesus, and our baptism is part of that sign that we have been united to Jesus in His death, but also even more than that, we have been united to Him in His resurrection. That's what Paul continues on in verse 24. Jesus really did die. Jesus the God-man truly did lay down His life for sinners. Nobody took His life from Him. Jesus gave it for Himself, freely offered.

He died for our sins, and as Romans chapter 4 verse 25 said, why did Jesus raise? Romans chapter 4, who was delivered up, that's His death, who is delivered up because of our offenses and who is raised because of our justification for us to be declared righteous.

If you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you are united in Jesus Christ, your baptism cries out to you that your Savior, your Lord, He lives. And He is righteous, and you get the blessing of following after Him, because you've been united to Him. His Spirit is in you. Now there's a couple of things I need to warn you about here. One is, some people have read Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 4, and they put a little bit too much automatic on it. Well, if you are baptized, then you're immediately united to Jesus. Because that's what this says, right? You were baptized into his death. So if you're baptized, you're in Jesus.

I think Jesus has got a couple words to speak about that. I think that's exactly the attitude Jesus was getting at when he said some people are going to come at the last judgment day and they're going to say, Lord, Lord. And they're going to talk about all the good things that they tried to do.

What did I say? Away from me. I never knew you. Right? Because it wasn't about what you were going to do. It's about whether you were actually in me or not. Did you actually believe in me? Did you rest in me? Was I your only hope? Was I your king? Was I your lord? Did you love me?

Baptism isn't what's going to regenerate you. It's not going to be what makes you born again or unite you to Jesus. Not automatically. But secondly, is, and I'm just going to go over this one fastly, is I don't think the mode of baptism is being talked about here.

There's a lot of people, even some of my really good friends, who want to lean in really heavy that this is saying there's a specific way that we need to be baptized, and that specific way is only by full immersion. And they'll use all sorts of ideas and metaphors for that. And I just want to say that whole idea rests in this idea of what baptizo means. And sometimes it's sprinkling, sometimes it's pouring, sometimes it's immersing. I'm not gonna get into that argument, but I don't think that's what the point of this entire passage is.

Walk in the Newness of Life

The point of this passage is, do you find your life hidden in Christ? Are you ignorant of what God has done for you? Because Paul is concerned. Paul's concerned about the gospel and the radical work that the true gospel does in people's lives by the Spirit. And that's why he goes on in the rest of verse four, Not just that we've been in our baptism, united to Him in His death and His resurrection by the glory of the Father, but lastly, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. You get a new lease on life. Fourth point is just walk in the newness of life.

You are free. You are free from being a slave to sin. If the Spirit is in you, you have a choice. In your Christian life, you have the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling in you that you are able to put away the deeds of the flesh. You are able, if you were one who sinned, you don't have to keep sinning. If you stole, you can steal no longer, but you can work your tail off and provide for your family and give to people who are in need. If you are united to Jesus, you no longer have to be a gossip and a slanderer and somebody who's tearing down people with your words, but you can use your words to impart grace to people and build them up. You are no longer a slave to sin. I'm not saying you're never going to struggle with sin.

Oh boy, we're going to get into that in chapter 7. But sin and Satan will try to convince you, Christian, that well, yeah, you fell into some sin. You might as well just stay there. You're not strong enough. You're never going to beat this sin. You're always going to be a sinner. One of the worst things that happens for Christians is if you get discouraged and you take your eyes off Jesus and you stop fighting sin because you think that you're actually still a slave to it.

Paul is telling us you are free and we're gonna spend a lot of time on this over the next few weeks. You are free from the tyranny of sin's power. You have the freedom, because you are united to Jesus in his death and resurrection, you have the freedom to obey out of joy, boasting in Jesus. You have the freedom to put away sin. Why, I think this is such a blessing.

You are in a warfare. We love the end of the book of Ephesians where it's got the armor of God. You've got the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, and the belt of truth, and the shield of faith. You have all these different parts of the armor.

But there's something that will trip us up. As we start to put on that armor, and we go out to battle, sometimes it's an internal battle, because we've got stuff we've got to work on in our own lives. Sometimes it's because we're going out into the world and we know that it is a dark world that does not welcome us in a friendly way. We may put on that helmet of salvation day after day, pick up our shield of faith day after day, put on the breastplate of righteousness, put on the belt of truth, shot our feet even with the gospel and walk out and think, I'm gonna be the one who gets the victory.

No, we're in a battle, it's not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the principalities of this era. But if you think that you are doing this from your own strength, you will find yourself beat up and discouraged constantly. Here's what I want you to start to go with, right? You're fighting from a place of strength.

You didn't earn your helmet of salvation. The breastplate of righteousness is not because you are righteous enough yourself, you wear the king's righteousness. the shield of faith that quenches the fiery darts of the devil, is you looking to Jesus every single day, every single hour, because you need Him to help you in the battle. You go in your scriptures, and you read the scriptures, and you find them teaching you, and correcting you, and rebuking you, and training you, because you know that these are words from the King, and therefore you're good, and they're gonna help you. And you put on, you shod your feet with the gospel of peace. because we know we need the good news.

Do not put your trust, your hope in the strength of men, of princes or horses, or yourself. God has called us to walk in the newness of life, this pattern of life, and everything that's come before this, Romans 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 has been that God did this for you.

You don't do this from your own strength. There's no, but I also need to warn you, what this tells us right here in chapter six, verse four, is that there's no way, there's no way to just be a carnal, a fleshly Christian. We don't get to say, we are a Christian. By the way, when you call yourself a Christian, you're taking the name of Christ, your King, on you. We don't get to walk in the way of the devil and take the name of Jesus on us. We get to walk in the newness of life. We get to follow in obedience to our King.

When we want to be brawlers, filled with anger, Instead, we get to put on patience and kindness, even with toddlers who may drive us nuts. Or your spouse, who just seems like they're not listening again. When you may want to just tongue lash that person at work who just, man, they get under your skin, you get to show love, because you're not a slave You get to walk in the newness of life. These are just a few examples. We go all over the place with this. We don't fight from a place of self-strength, we fight from a place of strength because we are in Jesus, united to him.

That's what Jesus said, right? When he was talking to his disciples, he said, if you abide in me, if you remain in me, you will bear much good fruit. So are you rejoicing in Jesus? Are you remaining in Jesus? Are you remembering the gospel? Are you preaching it to yourself? Are you confessing your sins that, yeah, I got this stuff that's messed up, I need your help.

Give me strength for the battle today. Help me, strengthen me, Lord, that I can walk in the newness of life. This is what Romans 6 is gonna be teaching us. Like I said, when we get to chapter 12 and it turns to specific ways that we get to walk after Jesus, it's filled with the hope of the gospel first.

You get to live your life by the power of God to the glory of God. Christian, you have a new king. Your life is hidden in Christ, your new king. You've been united to Him in His death and in His resurrection. So walk in the newness of life found in your King Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. God, we thank You. We thank You, Lord, for giving us Your Word, because we, by ourselves, may even be tempted by the devil, that we can just keep on sinning, because you'll have more grace. Lord, please do not let us be ignorant of this temptation. But God, strengthen our slack hands, steady our feeble knees. Lord, we pray that you might let us truly, by your Spirit, abide in Jesus, our King, our Lord, our Savior, our righteousness. Please help us bear good fruit. May we live for your glory, for you truly are a good God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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