Given that we are now spiritually united to Christ by faith, we are freed from the dominion of sin, and we are alive unto God through the Holy Spirit. This new life that we now possess enables us to -put off sin- and to yield our own members as instruments of righteousness. However, putting off sin in our lives requires that we use the right offensive and defense strategies to resist sin and to present our members to God for his righteous ends. In this text, the apostle Paul reveals what these spiritual strategies are and why they can only be exercised under the influence of God's Spirit.

Before we were justified freely by the grace of God, we were slaves to sin and subject to its demands. However, through the sanctifying and sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, we are no longer slaves to sin, and we can now walk in newness of life. Yet, walking in newness of life can only be accomplished practically speaking by recognizing that our old self was crucified with Christ and that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God.

As Christians, we have received the sustaining grace of God in abundance. However, our reception of this grace is not a license for us to continue in sin. Rather, this grace empowers us to walk in newness of life. One way we testify to the power of this grace operating in our lives is through our baptism. Baptism is a powerful testimony to what has transpired in the lives of those who have been transformed by the Gospel and who now walk obediently in the power of the Spirit.

Paul tells us in this passage that God had a purpose in allowing sin, and after death, to spread from Adam to all men and women. That purpose was to spread His grace in the same way, from a perfect man and his one righteous act to all those desperately in need due to their sin.

We don't have to improve ourselves to the point that God will accept us. It is while we are deep in our rebellion against God as unbelievers, that God's own Son died because of our trespasses. It is amazing and unexpected that God is willing to act to save His enemies. Our hope of salvation then rests on how much greater God's embrace of use will be, after He has made us His people.

Paul, having finished giving us every reason why God is to be blessed in our hearts and worship, now turns to the practical outgrowth of his doxology. His first point is that Christians are to walk worthy of the calling of God. While our minds normally assume that Paul speaks of our personal holiness, it is corporate peace and solidarity that Paul has in mind. We best show our calling as saints when we demonstrate our love and unity.

The God of Abraham raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is our Lord, the very Jehovah of Abraham. God Incarnate was delivered up, as described by the Suffering Servant prophecy of Isaiah, as one bearing sins -but in place of the wicked- and one making many nations right with God -by virtue of the fact that the Incarnate God could not remain dead, but had to be alive-. If we are in union with Christ, his death pays the penalty for our sin and his current life shows that God's righteousness can be imputed to us.

This psalm clearly portrays the unlimited power of God. Because God rules and reigns that we are able to rejoice. This sermon shifts our focus away from our lack of control over the circumstances of this life and orients our hope in God's ability to carry out His perfect designs.