The Christian and Sin, Part 1  
1 John 3:4-7  
By Sean Kelly  

We're kind of a small group. But again, this morning here, between people that are autistic and people that are subbing for other people that are sick, we lost a small portion of our class around here. Good morning.

We're in 1 John, chapter 3. What I'd like to do when I thought about this chapter, I want to read a little bit more than what we got on our notes to start out with. So if you have your Bibles, let's turn to 1 John, chapter 2.

And this morning I want to read verses 2:28 through 3:9. So Nathan's not here to be our starting off reader.  

"And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.  

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God."

So here we're looking at this, really verses 4 through 9 is kind of all together. I decided to break it off. I didn't want to tackle this all at once here. So I promised the Christian and sin, part one. And next week we'll cover even a little bit more in depth.

But the reason why I wanted to read this whole passage from chapter 2:28 is John here is taking a look at how the Christian is supposed to act. And he starts out kind of in the positive that it's in light of Christ's coming. Christ is returning.

That makes us ask, how should we act? In a positive sense, he talks about everyone that has this hope purifying himself just as He is pure. And that whole section there is focused on the positive.

God is righteous, so we should be righteous. Christ is coming, so we should live in light of that.

So in verse 4, even though it looks like a total change, he's really not. He’s focusing on the other side of it. You should be righteous because Christ is righteous. You should be righteous because He's coming back. You should be righteous because that's what a child of God is.  

Now, here's what a child of God isn't. Here are the things we need to remove from our lives when you're talking about sin.  

And so I think these really go together very well, even though we don't always think of it that way because they seem obvious. I think he's making this stark contrast between how we’re supposed to live as Christians and how we’re not.  

So here, and I think of this lesson as John taking a straight talk. And I think this is going to be a pretty great lesson. It's pretty straightforward. It's right to the point.  

There’s not a lot of things like illustrations or analogies that John is using here. He's just saying it as it is. So I think we'll get this pretty easily. But it's a good reminder for us, mainly about the seriousness of our sin and how as Christians, we ought to be different than what the world is.  

Even here, you see a contrast in chapter 3, where it talks about the children of God. And then in verse 8, which we're going to get to next week, it talks about the children of the devil being the ones who sin.

And so there's that contrast. The children of God act a different way. If you're a Christian, you shouldn’t act like a child of the devil. You're not acting like you're supposed to act, obviously.  

So that's kind of why I wanted to read that, to put it in context here. Another reason I opened to this passage is I kind of said everything in a much longer, more thorough way. So we're just going to jump into our notes here.

So in 1 John 3:4, "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness."  

So here we see that John starts off by equating sin and lawlessness. So what's the difference? How do we define what's sin and what's lawlessness?  

And you guys are all looking at your papers and reading the answer. Those of you who haven't looked at your papers, how would you, if someone said, what's the difference between sin and lawlessness? How would you explain that?

Lawlessness is like a character trait, a front to sin, and sin is like an individual incident?  

Okay, anybody have anything to add to that? That's pretty good, actually. I like that. That’s better than what I wrote.

So I have sin. Sin focuses on the individual acts. And here, whoever commits sin is committing an individual act of sin.

Then lawlessness is kind of a state of being. It's not conforming to the law or the commands of God. It’s to have this whole lifestyle that you're not living the way God wants you to. 

And John is saying that when we sin, we’re being lawless. We may say, "Oh, it's just one sin. It's not a big deal." But John is saying it is a big deal. He's making the point that this is serious. This is something that we need to realize, that when we sin, we’re breaking God's law.

We’re acting like people that aren’t Christians. So here he gives basically two phrases in this passage. The first one is, "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness." So the one committing sin is also committing lawlessness. You can't separate them.

Let’s look at James 2:10-11. Go ahead. 

"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' Now, if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." (James 2:10-11)

So James is showing us that you can't separate these two things. You can't separate sin from sinfulness or from lawlessness. In fact, he makes the point here. The law says, "Do not commit adultery," and, "Do not murder." You might go around saying, "I've never committed adultery. I'm great." But if you murdered somebody, you still broke the law. You're still a sinful person. And James is, I think, addressing this. You know, we can say, "Well, it’s only one area of sin, man. It’s only once in a while I’m sinning."

Well, that’s not appropriate for the Christian. That's part of being lawless. So the one committing sin also commits lawlessness. And then he makes the statement, "Sin is lawlessness."

As Christians, we're to be different. We're supposed to live a different way. We’re not supposed to live like children of the devil but like children of God. And so, if we're habitually in our sin, if we're struggling with our sin, we're not living the way God wants us to.  

So sin is lawlessness. Let’s look at a few verses here. Romans 6:17-20. Go ahead.  

"But thanks be to God, that though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification." (Romans 6:17-20)  

There’s a lot here. Before we were saved, before Christ rescued us, we were slaves to sin. We were enslaved to our sin. You can kind of see that a non-Christian doesn’t care whether they’re sinning against God or not. They do what they want to do. They do what their desires tell them to do, and that means to sin, and they’re enslaved to that.  

And Paul here says, "You obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered." So the form of doctrine to which they were delivered is the faith. That’s what we talked about this morning in the morning service. You learn about Jesus Christ, about who He is

, what He’s done for you. That’s the faith. It’s not just about being saved. It’s about everything that Christ wants us to do—the Matthew 28 idea, where He’s teaching all things that He commanded. That’s the faith.  

And so, you believed in Jesus, and now you’re to follow Jesus. That’s the doctrine you’re saved to.  

In verse 19, he kind of admits, "Okay, you guys are weak in the flesh because you’re human." So he says, "Having been set free from sin..." So our state is we’re no longer enslaved to sin. We’ve been set free from that. We become slaves of righteousness. That’s where we stand positionally.  

We’re free from sin, and we’re slaves to righteousness. But then verse 19 talks about, "As you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness, even more lawlessness, now present your members as slaves to righteousness, for sanctification." Even though we’re positionally in that freedom from the slavery of sin, sometimes we don’t act like that.  

We put ourselves back under that bondage. We become enslaved to our sin again, even though positionally, we’ve been freed from that. Paul’s saying, "You need to stop being a slave to sin. You need to start acting like a slave of righteousness because that’s what you are in Christ."

So there’s a difference there between what we are positionally and what we are practically, and there shouldn’t be. We should be enslaving ourselves to righteousness.

In verse 20, I add that on. I guess I had it in there, but you can see this: "When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." (Romans 6:20) When you’re enslaved to sin, there’s a difference between what you were in the past and what you are in the present.

So there’s a difference. There should be a difference in how we act in the present, that we don’t act like we did in the past. So, sin is lawlessness here.

Titus 2:14. Who would like to read this? Ted, go ahead.  

"Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." (Titus 2:14)

Paul talks about how our sins are lawless deeds. Our sin is lawlessness. And Christ has redeemed us from every lawless deed, that we may be zealous for good works. 

Sin is lawlessness, and anyone who commits sin is committing lawlessness. We can’t brush off our sin as if it’s no big deal. Christ died for it. It’s okay. It’s not really a concern. It **is** a concern. Sin goes against everything that God prizes.

A couple points here, actually, the next point here, we’re going to see that it’s a big deal. Sin is a huge deal in our lives.

1 John 3:5, the next point we’re going to get to here: "And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin." (1 John 3:5) Just so we’re on the same page, who is the "He" here? Jesus Christ, right? This is specifically the Son of God here. And so, what is Christ’s relationship to sin?

I think this is a strange word. You do think of relationships in a positive sense, like if you have a relationship with your wife, that usually means you have a good thing going there, right? You interact, you love each other, you care for each other, you do things for each other. Here in Christ’s relationship with sin, it’s a negative relationship. There’s a separation of Christ from sin. John is making this point that if sin is lawlessness, look at Christ. He’s our example. If we’re children of God and we’re going to be like Christ, what’s His relationship with sin?  

The first thing that he points out is that, you know, He was manifested to take away sin, to take away our sins. So He takes away our sins. That’s the first thing. He’s not there to enable us to sin more because of His grace, which Romans 5 and 6 talk about. He’s not there to just excuse our sin. He’s there to take away our sins. That’s His relationship with sin. This word "manifested" means to be made known, to be revealed or shown.

So He was revealed. The purpose that He came, the purpose that He became a human being, the main purpose that He was here for was to take away our sins.

Now notice here in the text, it’s not "He was manifested to take away our sin." This is plural, "sins," right? And we talked about this very early on, I remember, in 1 John, the difference between "sin" and "sins." Sin is our kind of nature or attitude towards sin, how we are as a person towards sin. "Sins" are the individual acts.

So He was manifested, and we know it’s true that He takes away our sin. The Bible teaches that also. But John makes the point here, He’s also keen to take away our sins—our sinful acts, our sinful behaviors. So in this context, John is referring to our practice. He was manifested to change us from the sinful people we were without Christ to holy and righteous people now that we have Christ.

We’re going to spend a lot of time in Romans 6 this morning. It’s a good chapter. So we’re going to go back a few verses from where we were before, and I’ll take this in two parts. You see the verses both together, but let’s start with verses 5-7.

Who would like to read that?

"For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin." (Romans 6:5-7)

So here it says, "We’ve been united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also be united with Him in a resurrection like His." What’s the purpose of that? Being united with Him in the likeness of His death, knowing this: our old man was crucified with Him. Our old man is our sin nature, right?

So this is the positional taking away of that slavery to sin that we had. But then it goes on to say that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. What does that mean? That we should no longer be slaves to sin. This is in regard to our actions.

The reason why He died and rose again is not only to give us position and forgive us before God, but also to change us and help us to be practically holy. That’s something that His death accomplished—that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

And in verse 7, he goes on to say, "For one who has died has been set free from sin." You don’t have to sin anymore. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, it changes not only who you are positionally, it changes how you act. Then we let it work in us. And so He was manifested to take away not only our sin but our sins also. He was manifested so that we would live the way Christ wants us to live.

Let’s read our next two verses, verses 8-11. Go ahead.

"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:8-11)

So if I were to say the death and resurrection of Christ have practical application in our lives, we would say that the death of Christ takes away our sin, right? So what does His resurrection do for us? A lot of people, I think, would answer, "Well, that gives us a chance to be resurrected in the future, right, because He’s resurrected."

But that’s not the point that Paul is making here. The resurrection affects our life **right now**.

"Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:11)

This is practical. This is what we’re doing in our lives. I’m not trying to minimize the salvation we have in Christ—that being rescued from our sin—because that’s a big part of it too. But Romans 6 is a practical chapter. This is about how we live and follow Him.

This relationship to death and resurrection, not only for salvation but for sanctification, changes how we live now. Chapters 3-5 of Romans talk very much about being saved, but chapters 6-8 are about our sanctification. This is where Paul is going with this, that Christ’s death and resurrection not only provide us salvation but also sanctification in our lives.

We ought to be changed because Christ died and rose again. He was manifested to take away our sins—the world, our acts, the way we live. He’s changing us. That’s what He was manifested to do, manifested to take away our sins.

And why

 is that? Because He says, "In Him there is no sin." So part of His relationship to sin is not only to take away our sins but also that He has no relationship with sin. That’s His relationship with sin. Sin is not a part of Him. There is no sin in Christ.

If you’re here this morning and you’ve been here for a while, and you think that we’ve ever preached that Christ has sinned, then you’ve really not listened at all. I think this would be an obvious truth. I’m not telling you anything new at this point, right? Anybody having a problem with Christ being without sin?

Anyways, just to show that this is talked about, I don’t think I need to convince you of this. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5:21. Go ahead.

"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

This is a huge thing—God, who does not know sin, who’s apart from sin, who’s fully separate from sin, became sin for us. He took that burden on the cross. That is huge. That is something almost unfathomable, that God—who is with us, who is perfect, who is righteous, who is holy—would bear our sins for us. But Christ, being the one who was with us, did just that.

Let’s look at Hebrews 4:15. Go ahead, Judah.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)

Even as He was on earth, He was tempted in every way that man can be tempted, and yet He was without sin. That’s Christ’s nature. He is sinless—without sin.

Again, I’m not showing you anything new here. I’m sure I don’t need to elaborate too much on this. I think you get that.

Okay, one more passage, and this one kind of sums up what we’re talking about—2 Corinthians 5:21 again.

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Christ was manifested to take away our sins, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him—not only positionally but practically, that we may live righteously.

So that’s Christ’s relationship to sin. Sin is lawlessness, sin is bad, sin is an evil thing. And when you look at Christ, you see that Christ came, and one of His purposes is that He came to deal with sin in our lives because He’s without sin.

So then how do we do that? How do we get to this point where we’ve purged sin from our life and we’re living for God, and we’re not struggling with sin anymore? Well, because of the contrast between those who do sin and those who do not.

Contrast verse 6. It says, "Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him." (1 John 3:6)

So here we go again. Here’s the word "abides." I’m giving you the exact same definition every week in this series, but this occurs over and over. By the end of the class, I’m expecting several of you to be like, "Oh, the Greek word is 'meno,' and it means to remain, to stay, to live, to dwell." You’ll be able to recite that definition.

This occurs over and over. So we think of this. And again, I like to use this example. I live at 4102 Northeast 44th Drive in Des Moines, Iowa, 450. What does that mean? That’s where I live. That’s my residence. That’s the place where all my stuff is. That’s the place where my family is. That’s the place where most of my meals are. That’s the place I sleep. It’s a place that is identified with me so much that I put this on every form I fill out and everything that I have to send to the government or to my healthcare provider or my insurance or whatever it is. I’m connected to this address.

Here in this passage, the one who abides in Him—what does that mean? Well, we’re so connected to Christ, we’re identified with Him, that we live in His presence. We live in Him. That’s the abiding here.

And here he says, "Whoever abides in Him does not sin." So what does this mean? Whoever abides in Him does not sin. And I’ve brought this up several times as we’ve taught this. Does this mean we’re going to be 100% free from sin, that we’re never going to sin again? Has anybody raised their hand here saying you never sin, you never struggle with sin?

I should put my hand down right now. That’s what I should do—put my hand down. So it doesn’t mean we never sin.

Let’s look at 1 John 1:8. We’re going to go back a few months to what we studied before. Go ahead.

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)

So here John’s writing for the church, saying if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. So it’s not that we’re ever fully without sin, right? This is not what John is talking about here.

But the goal here is not living life in sin—that as little as possible, we’re struggling with sin. Okay? And let’s look at 1 John 2:1, which is another passage we studied in the past. Go ahead.

"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1)

So the beginning of the verse there, he writes these things, so what? "So that you may not sin." That’s the ultimate goal. That’s the goal—that we get to that point of righteousness, that we’re no longer struggling with our sin. Sin becomes a rare occurrence, and it becomes something that is abnormal rather than a normal thing that we’re doing.

And even there, he says, the goal is that you may not sin, but if you do sin, no more: Jesus Christ has taken care of it. He’s our advocate with the Father. It goes on to say He’s the propitiation—the wrath-removing sacrifice—for our sins.

So, no, what you see here is that whoever abides in Him does not sin. The idea is not living in habitual sin. The idea goes back to this: are you a slave of sin or a slave of righteousness? Well, I’m living my life mostly as if I’m acting like a slave of righteousness, because I am. That’s the goal. That’s what we ought to be. I’m not saying I do that perfectly, but that’s the goal. That’s what we’re aiming for.

Let’s look at 1 John 5:18. Again, we see the same kind of language: "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him." (1 John 5:18)

Again, it’s not that we’re 100% perfect, but overall, the view of our life, the way that we’re living, we’re not controlled by sin in our life. And here, even, I believe, John gives the context, where he says, "He who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him." You know, we’re overcoming that temptation. We’re living on the right path for God.

So the one abiding does not sin. But what about the one who’s sinning? What’s his problem?

Well, the one who’s sinning, there are two things said about him. First of all, that he has not seen Christ. The word "seen" means to observe or to understand. This is not just a general like, "Oh, I saw a car go by on the road." It’s this idea of deep understanding—this idea of spiritual sight, knowing the truth. The person who lives in sin doesn’t know Christ. They’re acting like an unsaved person.

If you see somebody that consistently lives in sin, your first thought should be, "I don’t think this person is saved." In fact, if you go to 1 Corinthians 5, you remember the guy who was caught in adultery with his stepmother. Paul admonished the church to put him out and treat him like an unsaved person. Not that it made him unsaved, but because he wasn’t acting like he was saved, the church shouldn’t treat him like a believer. They shouldn’t even assume that he is saved because his life was inconsistent with what a Christian should be.

And John is saying basically the same thing here. Whoever sins is like a person that has not seen Christ and has no idea who Christ is or what Christ did for him. The person who consistently sins is consistent with someone who is not saved.

So, John says, "He has neither seen Him nor known Him." To know Christ is to have an intimate and complete knowledge of Christ. It’s not like this person doesn’t know anything about Christ. Obviously, they don’t have a relationship with Christ. They don’t know Him personally. That’s the type of person who sins.

So, if you’re living like

 that, you’re acting like an unsaved person. You’re not acting like someone who’s abiding in Christ. You’re acting like someone who does not know Christ and has not seen Christ. If all you do is sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, that’s your lifestyle.

Let’s look at a few verses here: Philippians 3:8-15. Go ahead, Dr. Warner.

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own." (Philippians 3:8-15)

Over and over, Paul talks about knowing Christ, having knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, knowing the power of His resurrection. Here, you know, we look at this stuff and say, "Well, this seems like a lot of positional stuff, that I’m found in Him, I have a righteousness not of my own, but through faith in Christ." That sounds like a positional righteousness, right?

But you get to the very end of this passage, and it says, "Becoming like Him in His death." What does that mean, "Becoming like Him in His death"? "Becoming like" is the same kind of word that we see in Romans 12:1-2, where it says, "Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." It’s about how you’re living. And Paul says all these things—knowing Christ, having this knowledge of who He is and the knowledge of His death and resurrection for me—change the way I live.  

So Paul is saying, "That knowledge of Christ conforms me to what Christ wants me to be." So there, that knowledge of knowing Christ in our life, and the people who sin, are acting like they don’t know Christ.

And if you’re an unsaved person, that’s the way you’re supposed to act, right? If you don’t have Christ, you’re not going to act like you have Christ. But if you’re a saved person and you know Christ but you’re acting like you don’t know Christ, there’s something wrong there. There’s something that’s not connected. There’s something that doesn’t go together.

You know, it’s like Titus 1:16. Who would like to read that? Go ahead.

"They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work." (Titus 1:16)

So this is talking about people who have crept into the church. They profess to know God. That idea is that they know who God is, they know God’s will for them, they understand who God is. But you see that Paul is saying their works don’t match up. Their works deny what they profess. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

And for someone who doesn’t know Christ, you would expect that. You expect them to act a certain way. I have people that I work with. One guy I consider a friend, but he’ll come into work and casually swear and tell really crass jokes. He likes to get reactions from people, so he pushes little buttons.

But if I were to come to you and start acting like that, you’d say, "What’s going on? You’re saved. That’s not the way you’re supposed to be acting." Your works are showing that you’re not living rightly.

So, the ones sinning are the ones who have not seen Christ and have not known Christ. When we sin, when we live in sin, I’m not saying, you know, just once in a while, when your flesh takes control. When you sin, recognize it, confess it to God. But when you’re consistently living in sin, you’re not acting like a servant of God. You’re acting like someone who does not know Christ.

So that’s why John brings up this contrast here. How are you acting? Are you living in sin? Because if you are, you’re not being a Christian. You might be a Christian, you might be saved, but you’re not acting the way a Christian should act.

So there’s a contrast between those who sin and those who do not. And then John gives one little positive in the middle of this passage. 1 John 3:7:

"Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous." (1 John 3:7)

So the contrast here: the people who are sinning don’t know God, they haven’t seen God. But the reality is those who practice righteousness are righteous, just as He is righteous.

So our actions don’t save us, right? Our actions don’t make us more acceptable before God. But our actions **do** show who we are. Our actions can prove that.

If we say we’re Christians, this is what John is getting at here: those who are practicing righteousness, those who are living an overall consistent righteous life before God, guess what? You can be pretty sure they’re Christians, because that’s what righteous people do when they’re living like they should.

This whole passage is about: if you’re a Christian, you don’t live in sin. You don’t live like an unsaved person. You take steps to live righteously. So if you’re a Christian, you’re righteous. So act that way. And if you’re acting that way, that shows that Christ is working in you.

So, the ones who practice righteousness are righteous. Going back to Romans 6 again, verses 16-18. Who wants to read that?

"Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." (Romans 6:16-18)

Again, this is talking practically about how we live our lives. "You are slaves of the one whom you obey." Whether you’re obeying sin or whether you’re obeying righteousness, it’s something you’re doing. It’s something that’s shown out in your actions.

In verse 17, Paul is complimenting the Romans a little bit here. He says that even though you were slaves of sin, "You obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine to which you were delivered." You obeyed the truth. You obeyed the truth of who Jesus Christ was and what He’s done for you. And having been set free, you became slaves of righteousness.

So the ones who practice righteousness are righteous. They became slaves of righteousness because they were made righteous by Christ. That’s why.

Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5:21 again. We had that a couple of occasions ago. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

That we might become. This is not saying that we **are** the righteousness of God positionally, but that we might **become** righteous in our lives.

So those who practice righteousness are righteous. And why is that? Why are righteous people practicing righteousness? Because God is righteous. Christ is righteous. He’s the example. He’s the one we should be looking to. We have a righteous Lord and Savior. He desires that we live righteously.

Let’s look at Hebrews 1:8-9, the last verse here, John.

"But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions.’" (Hebrews 1:8-9)

What does a scepter represent? What is Christ’s scepter? It’s a scepter of righteousness. His authority, His kingship, His lordship are characterized by His righteous character. That’s the thing. We have a righteous God, a righteous King, in Christ. That’s what His kingdom is about. That’s what His kingdom is characterized by: righteousness.

And Christ is righteous. Therefore, those who are in His kingdom ought to be living according to a righteous standard. In fact, he goes on to say, "You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness." We’ve been talking about lawlessness from the beginning of this, right? Sin is lawlessness.

Christ **hates** lawlessness. He **loves** righteousness. So if we love Christ and we want to please Him, we ought to love the things that He loves, right? And He loves righteousness, so we ought to love righteousness and live righteous lives. It’s very simple.

The person who practices righteousness is righteous because Christ is righteous. This is what He’s about, this is what He loves. This is the defining characteristic of who Jesus Christ is. And He’s righteous.

And therefore, because we’re a part of that, because we’re in Christ, because we’re abiding in Him, we want to live righteously in our lives.

It’s a very simple concept, and I don’t think I’m telling you anything super new this morning. I think that this is probably all stuff you knew. You could have said that too. I would have said the same thing.

But it’s a good reminder. John brings this up after showing us that we have a hope in Christ because of His coming, of His character, and as He comes back to take us home. That should be our motivation.

Now let’s look at the opposite. If we’re sinning, we’re not doing that. If we’re sinning, we’re not acting like people who are expecting Christ to come back. We’re not acting like people who understand Christ’s righteousness and His kingdom. And we need to change that about ourselves if we’re not doing that.

So, my takeaways this morning:

1. Sin is serious. Those who live in sin are being lawless. Christ, who is without sin, became sin for us so that we can be righteous. Those who sin are not living their lives in the power and presence of God. We need to take a serious look at how we are living, and if we are still enslaved to sin, we need to purge that sin from our lives and replace it with obedience to Christ. That’s just who we should be as Christians. That is within the nature and character of who we are as the children of God, that we are living in a righteous way, that we’re putting off that sin, that we’re getting rid of it. We need to take that matter seriously.

2. The second point here, and again it’s a very simple point: those who practice righteousness are righteous. If we’re made righteous before God, then we should act like it. Turn it around here. The idea is, the proof of a righteous person is his righteous acts. If you’re a righteous person, that means you ought to be living righteously, so you can prove that you’re righteous. God desires that righteousness.

So, those are two big things. Next week’s takeaways will probably be very similar, because we’re continuing on with this part of the passage. But I think it’s important that we get that.

Any thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Let’s go ahead and close in prayer.

Josiah, will you close us in prayer?

"Continue to practice righteousness, Lord, all your commandments and share this. Thank you, others, Lord, and be the example of righteousness in our workplaces and in our schools as we go around our daily life. Thank you."