Romans 6,7 & the first bit of 8 part 4

"8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. " Romans 6:8-9

The price of sin is death (we know that) Christ died as the punishment for sin. There is now no punishment for sin for those in Jesus. This is so against the natural idea. We are brought up with the training, "If you break the rules, you will be punished!" How can it be that we will not be punished? What do we get? We don't get punished, we get trained. There is a word "disciplined" that word is usually used to mean punished, but it actually can mean "trained, reigned in." A disciplined horse, is not a horse that has been punished, it is a horse that does what it's rider tells it! An artist who is disciplined is not one who is punished but one who makes time and schedules work. A disciplined dieter is not someone who is hit every time they eat something, they are someone who eats what they should.

"God will discipline you if you keep doing that!" Is now the best thing we can hear. When we cannot discipline ourselves, God disciplines us! The worst thing that we can imagine is probably that God would remove us from the Earth early because we didn't behave, yet from God's point of view that is the best thing that can happen to us. We will then be glorified, we will be with Him. We will no longer have the problems we have. Suffering will end. (Sorry, I am not advocating an exit cult!)

"10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. " Romans 6:10

Having been freed from the punishment of sin He is not fee to do anything, (although I realise that He only wants to do His Father's will) He is free to live as His Father desires.

"11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:11

Just like Him, we now need to consider that we are the same. We no longer work for Potiphar, we now work for the King.

Like Jesus we need to consider ourselves dead to sin. That is, not fearing sin and its consequence, because Jesus has paid the consequence. We need to be “alive to God”
Living free from sin isn’t living wild and free

"12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. " Romans 6:12-13

Is it possible not to sin, yes!
Is it likely that we will sin, yes!
Is it possible for me to play an 18 hole golf course and get a hole in one on every hole? Yes, it is possible! Is it likely? Not really!
A team at half time have are done 37-nil. Is it possible that they will win? After all the other team managed to score a lot of goals in half a game! It is possible, but it isn't likely!

Although we have a new nature, we still have our old nature. Our new nature can only please God and our old nature cannot do anything but sin. It cannot please God. If it could there would be no need for a sacrifice.
Sin is not king in our lives anymore, Jesus is! Therefore we are called to no longer obey sin and let it reign over us.

"14For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:14

We are not under the law.
Sin is not master over us.
We are under grace! What is grace? I have covered this on a post called "Let's have a go at grace!" But to sum up, grace is the empowering presence of God enabling us to do what God has called us to do and become what God has called us to become.

Under the law the Jews were not able to do what God wanted them to do. Under grace we can! Grace has replaced the law for the believer. Punishment is a result of law, we have seen we are dead to the law and dead to sin. The punishment has been removed. Now God's grace is at work in us.