Romans 6:11-23, Hebrews 2:14-15
May 17, 2026
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Consumer Christianity is now normative. The consumer Christian is one who utilizes the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions, but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts, feelings, and intentions over to the kingdom of the heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it.”

~ Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

“The truth of the matter is rather as Christ says, ‘He who is not with me is against me.’ … He does not say ‘He who is not with me is not against me either, but merely neutral.’”

~ The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer and author

“When you lived under sin, you did not divide your allegiance between sin and righteousness. Now that you live under righteousness, you should do the same and devote yourselves entirely to it.”

~ Homilies in Romans by John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), archbishop of Constantinople

“If you are in Christ, your life and your story become enfolded by another story, Another’s story. You don’t have to discover or craft, create or achieve, invent or reinvent your own identity. Your identity is found not deep within yourself but outside of yourself. Who are you? You are in Christ! And you no longer need to fear the judgment of God. When God looks at you, he sees you hidden in Christ. This is freedom. This is confidence. This is good, good news.”

~ Rankin Wilbourne, contemporary minister and author

Sermon Passage

Romans 6:11-23, Hebrews 2:14-15 (ESV)

Romans 6

¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ 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? ¹⁷ 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, ¹⁸ and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hebrews 2

¹⁴ Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.