Risen to Serve – Romans 6:4-14

Unfortunately, something happened with the video for this service and it was not recorded. But below you will find a rough transcript. This message was preached on April 20, 2025 by Pastor Logan Mauldin at Redeemer Baptist Church at Romeo in Dunnellon, Florida. It is the 4th message in a series on the church called Built Together.

Good morning and Happy Easter! This morning, we join our voices with the angels at the empty tomb, with the women who ran to tell the disciples, and with the global church throughout the centuries proclaiming with joy: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

What an amazing truth to celebrate. Jesus Rose from the grave. It was there that he defeated sin and death, He secured our salvation, and He proclaimed His victory. But I want you to know that it didn’t end there.

Let’s open to Romans 6.

This morning, as we continue in our Built Together series, we’re focusing on this: Jesus is risen, and if we are in Christ, then we have been raised with Him. We don’t only rejoice in His resurrection, but we share in it and now we are empowered to live a new kind of life, the kind of life that Christ lived, a life of love and service.

Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. But we’re not just looking back at a historical event. We’re looking at a living hope that has real power in us today.

Romans 6:4 is the heartbeat of our passage. It encapsulates the whole message: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” That’s the Easter invitation. Not just to believe that Christ is risen, but to walk in newness of life because He is. This new life is one of love, of service, of being raised not just for ourselves but for the sake of others.

But before we can live the resurrection life, something else must happen first. Before there’s life, there has to be death. The new life we’re raised to begins with the old life being buried. Before we can have a resurrection, we must first have a funeral. That’s where Paul starts in Romans 6—and that’s where we begin too.

Let’s read Romans 6:4–14 together.

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 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. 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. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Overview: From Death to Devotion

Paul here paints a vivid picture of what it means to belong to the risen Christ. This passage is not merely theological reflection, it is a call to action. Resurrection is not just something we celebrate; it is something that transforms us. The empty tomb empowers a full life, a life no longer lived for self but for God.

Paul takes us on a journey. First, he reminds us that we have died with Christ. Our old way of life, the selfish, sin-enslaved life, is buried. Then he shows us that we are raised with Christ, not just for our own benefit, but to walk in newness of life. That new life is marked by service. And as we offer ourselves to God day by day, grace (not guilt) becomes the atmosphere we live in.

We’re going to follow this journey in 5 steps. Planted, Put Off, Powered, Presented, and Protected. Together, they show us what it means to be raised to serve.

1. Planted – United in His Death (vv. 4–5)

Paul begins with a profound image: burial. When we trusted in Jesus, we were united with Him in His death. Our old self, our sinful nature with its pride and self-centeredness, was crucified with Him. This is the funeral. This is what baptism pictures. As verse 4 says, “we were buried.” We weren’t lightly sprinkled with Jesus’ teaching and morals. We were buried with Him in His death.

And this is the true picture of the unity that we have been talking about for the last couple of weeks. As verse 5 says, “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.” What does it mean to be in Christ, what does it mean to have unity in the faith, it means to be crucified with him. That is what truly brings us together, that we are planted with Christ like a seed in the ground.

The seed must inevitably go into the ground and die in order for life to spring up. In the same way, if we are to experience new life in Christ, we must first experience the death of our old self. To be planted with Christ is to share both the cross and the crown. Our roots go down into the soil of His death so that our lives can grow up into His likeness.

We are united in fellowship with one another because we have been united with Christ in His death. We worship because Christ meets us in our death and gives us new life, and we grow in Christlikeness, as disciples, because he will not leave us to grow on our own but will cultivate us into his image. And we will see today that part of growing into his image is living for others. Living a new life that only his Spirit can empower.

2. Put Off – The Old Self Crucified and Discarded (vv. 6–7)

Verse 6 is crystal clear: “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing…” Why? “So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” This isn’t merely theological. It’s intensely practical. Because we died with Christ, sin no longer has rightful dominion. The chains of self-centeredness, pride, and self-protection have been broken.

Verse 7 reinforces this: “For one who has died has been set free from sin.” In other words, if you’ve died with Christ, you’ve been liberated from your old master. Now let’s be honest. This verse tells us that we’ve been set free from sin, but how many of you are believers and still feel the pull of sin daily. So, what does “freedom” mean if we still struggle?

Here’s how it works practically:

Being set free from sin doesn’t mean we’ll never feel temptation or failure. It means sin no longer has legal authority or controlling power over us. It’s like being released from prison – you might still hear the guards shouting in your head, but the door is open. You’re no longer under sin’s dominion. You don’t have to obey it anymore. The power of sin has been broken, though its presence hasn’t yet been eliminated.

Throughout church history many have spoken about this tension, but I like what Martin Luther said:

“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on.”

So yes, we still feel bound at times. But Romans 6 reminds us that those chains are broken. Luther reminds us we’re in process – growing, healing, becoming.

Karth Barth also said that the Old Man (our flesh) was drowned at our baptism but addressing this tension, he said, it turns out that rogue is an expert swimmer.

Therefore, we must never treat sin lightly, even when it has been dethroned and drowned. We must still, daily, kill it. That’s not a sign that we’re still slaves. It is constant vigilance and a battle cry of freedom.

Our service, then, begins with a funeral. We bury the old motives, the need for praise, the hunger for control, the fear of being overlooked. That version of you died. And in its place, a new life begins.

Think of Lazarus, raised from the dead in John 11. He walks out of the tomb, alive, yet still wrapped in burial cloths. Jesus says to those around him, “Unbind him, and let him go.” What use are burial clothes to a living man? Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily entangles.” Sin is our burial clothes and they don’t belong on us now that we have been raised.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:22-24, “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

But notice that Jesus didn’t just tell Lazarus to take off those dead man’s clothes himself. He could see that he was bound, so he told those around him to help him. He needed help. And that’s true for us too. We are raised, but we still carry some remnants of the grave. And part of our service to each other is to help remove those old wrappings, to speak truth, to love with patience, and to walk with each other into freedom.

3. Powered – Living in Resurrection Power (vv. 8–11)

That new walk is where Paul is going to focus in the next few verses. He doesn’t leave us buried, We put off the old self because we have been raised. In verse 8, he says, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” This life isn’t only in the future. It begins now.

Jesus Himself promised it. In John 5:24, He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” That’s not future tense. That’s now. Eternal life is not only a destination, it’s a present reality.

Resurrection life begins now because Christ is alive now. And because He lives, we live. This hope isn’t wishful thinking. It’s anchored in the unshakable reality of Easter. Verse 9 declares, “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” Christ’s resurrection was not just a miracle, it was a conquest. Death has been dethroned, and Christ now reigns in resurrection power.

Verse 10 takes us deeper: “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.” This is the pattern: a death that breaks the power of sin, and a life fully devoted to God.

Because Christ is raised, we’re already walking in newness of life. We don’t wait for heaven to begin living to God. We’ve already been brought from death to life. That’s why Paul says in verse 11: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” It’s your new identity, and it’s already underway.

That word “consider” is important. It’s not just feeling differently, it’s thinking differently. It’s believing what God says is true of you now because of Jesus. This is where hope comes alive.

So, when we feel weak, we look to the risen Christ. When we feel hopeless, we boast in the resurrection. We remember: Christ is alive — and so are we, in Him.

4. Presented – Offering Ourselves Daily to God (vv. 12–13)

In verses 12-13, Paul shifts from identity to action. What is this new life that we are walking in? It’s a life of love and service, fueled by resurrection hope and powered by grace. We’re not just raised from something — we’re raised for something: to live unto God, to glorify Him, and to serve others.

We just saw a beautiful sunrise this morning. When Christ rose from the dead, the eternal morning began. The shadows of sin and death still linger in places, but the light has broken through — and it will never go out. We live in that dawning light. And every act of love, every moment of surrender, every step in grace is a sign that the resurrection is already at work in us.

Verse 12 says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” If resurrection life is in you, then stop letting sin call the shots. You are not its slave anymore.

To let sin reign is to let death rule. It’s to live in death, to function like a spiritual zombie. You’re moving, breathing, maybe even going through the motions of life, but inwardly disconnected from the source of life. Zombies don’t grow. They decay. They don’t serve. They devour. That’s what sin does when it reigns unchecked, it turns us inward, consuming rather than contributing, dragging us toward isolation and rot instead of love and life.

Paul says: Don’t let that happen. You’ve been raised to something better.

Verse 13 makes it clear how we fight that: “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.” That’s resurrection language. That’s worship language.

In fact, if you were here with us a few weeks ago, we talked about how true worship is presenting ourselves to God – body, mind, and spirit – in response to His mercy. That same heartbeat is here again. This is the daily offering of discipleship: “Here I am, Lord. Take my hands, my thoughts, my time, my desires. Use them for righteousness.”

Why? Because you’ve been brought from death to life. You’re not giving God dead works. You’re presenting living hands, living hearts, living time, and living words, all energized by the Spirit and made new through Christ.

This is not about trying harder. It’s about living into the freedom Christ has won for you, choosing life instead of death, offering yourself to God not out of obligation but as an act of joyful surrender. Worship and discipleship go hand in hand: we present ourselves in worship, and we walk it out in obedience.

But what does this look like practically? It looks like Jesus.

In Philippians 2, we’re reminded that Christ, though equal with God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. He humbled himself in obedience, all the way to the cross. And in John 13, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus rose from supper, laid aside His outer garments, and tied a towel around His waist. Then He knelt to wash the disciples’ feet, even Judas’. The King took the form of a servant. That’s resurrection life.

Resurrection life doesn’t make us kings in the worldly sense. It makes us servants in the kingdom sense. It’s the daily dying to self and rising in Christ to say, “How can I love today? How can I serve today? How can I present my hands not to build my kingdom, but His?”

And the incredible part? You are not left to do this in your own strength. The very life of Christ, that humble, servant-hearted, never-ending life, is now alive in you. That’s what we walk in. That’s what the Spirit empowers every single day.

5. Protected – Living Under Grace, Not Law (v. 14)

You’ve been made alive — so live like it. Offer every part of yourself to God: your hands, your voice, your habits, your hours. Not as a guilt offering, but as a living offering. “Here I am, Lord. Use me.”

Finally, we come to verse 14, and I see tremendous assurance for living this new life of resurrection service: Paul says, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Thinking about living a life of service can become wearying if we think that our service needed to earn God’s love or approval. But that is not what we’re talking about at all when we talk about a life of service. Grace changes everything.

Our serving is not an attempt to gain love or favor. We serve because we are already beloved. You are not working to stay clean. You serve because Christ has already made you clean.

Grace becomes the soil in which faithful service grows. You will mess up. You will get tired. But grace is what lifts you, sustains you, and sends you back out with joy.

This is not just a command to keep trying. It’s a promise. Sin will not reign. Grace will. And that’s good news, especially for weary hearts.

Because let’s be honest, resurrection life sounds glorious, but living it out day by day can feel tiring. Pouring yourself out for others, laying down your pride, your preferences, your time. It adds up. There are days when you wonder, “Can I keep doing this?” But here’s the promise: you don’t live this new life on your own. You live it under grace — carried, motivated, and empowered by the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 15:10 says it so well, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

Paul didn’t coast through life, he worked. He served. He gave. He suffered. But even in that, he knew the fuel for his labor wasn’t personal grit. It was divine grace. That same grace that raised Jesus from the dead is now at work in you.

Imagine a pitcher being constantly filled with water from a faucet. As long as the faucet keeps running, the pitcher never runs dry, in fact, it overflows. Now imagine that pitcher isn’t just sitting there. It’s being used to fill cups, to refresh others, to pour into dry and empty lives. That pitcher can keep giving, not because it’s so strong or so big, but because it’s connected to a source that never runs out.

That’s grace.

When we serve in our own strength, it’s like trying to pour out water from a pitcher that’s been sitting in the sun all day, there’s only so much you can give. But when we’re connected to the faucet of grace, the never-ending supply of God’s mercy, power, and presence, we can keep pouring, keep serving, and keep loving. Not without fatigue, but without despair. Not without cost, but never without supply.

Grace doesn’t just forgive your past, it fuels your present. You are not under law, wringing yourself out for approval. You are under grace, being filled to overflow.

This ties right back to John 13 where Jesus, fully aware of who He was, knowing He came from God and was going back to God, took up the towel. He wasn’t insecure. He wasn’t frantic. He wasn’t trying to earn the Father’s love. He was full, so full of grace that He poured Himself out in service. And that’s the life we’re called to live in Him.

When you pour yourself out in obedience to Christ, grace is not depleted, it’s deepened. You’re not running on empty. Grace refills. The more you walk in it, the more it carries you.

And here’s the ultimate encouragement: grace will finish what it started. Because you’re not under law, you’re under grace. And grace doesn’t just rescue you from death. It lifts you, fuels you, and keeps you until the day you see Jesus face to face.

CONCLUSION: Risen to Serve

So what does this mean for us today on Easter Sunday?

Today, we celebrate the greatest victory the world has ever known. Death is defeated. Sin is broken. The grave is empty. But Jesus didn’t rise just to show off His power. He rose to share it. To raise us with Him, and to set us free to live differently. To walk in newness of life.

We’ve been planted with Him in death and powered by His resurrection life. Our old selves have been put off, nailed to the cross with Jesus. In worship we’ve presented ourselves to God as instruments not of selfishness, but of service. And here’s the good news: that life of love and service is not something we carry out in our own strength. It is protected and sustained by Christ Himself, who now lives in us.

On this Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate that Christ is risen, and in Him, we too are raised. But raised to what? Raised to serve. Raised to live. Raised to love. Not in the old way, dragging around the dirty towel of our own failed righteousness, but in the new way: clothed in Christ, equipped by His Spirit, and sent into the world with his righteousness.

Remember that towel from the children’s message? I held up that grimy rag to show what our own efforts at righteousness look like: stained, worn out, and unable to do anything but spread the mess around. That’s what it looks like when we try to save ourselves. But in Christ, we’ve been given something better. We’ve been given His righteousness. Not just for show, but for service.

He gives us a clean towel, a new life, a servant’s heart. And that towel doesn’t just move the dirt around, it wipes away tears, lifts up the weary, brings healing and hope. It’s the towel of someone who’s been transformed, not just forgiven, but remade.

So church, don’t go back to the dirty towel. Don’t wrap yourself up in shame or pride, trying to prove yourself. You’ve already died with Christ. And now you’re raised with Him to serve.

In resurrection power we can live this new life of service. Let’s go and love like Jesus.