Adrian Rogers - Abounding Victory Through Amazing Grace (02/06/2026)
Pastor Adrian teaches from Romans 6 teaches that we are saved completely by God's amazing grace, not by our works, but this grace is not a license to keep sinning. Instead, through knowing our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, and yielding our members to Him, we receive abounding victory over sin every single day.
Salvation by Grace Is Not a License to Sin
Be finding Romans chapter 6. We’re speaking today on this subject, Abounding Victory Through Amazing Grace. I hope you know by now that we are saved by God’s Amazing Grace. 'Tis nothing that we do. He does it all. If you come to God as a prince, he’ll send you away as a beggar. But if you come to God as a beggar, he’ll send you away a prince. When you come to God and say, “In my hand no price I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling,” then you will be saved as you trust Him by God’s Amazing Grace.
Dwight L. Moody, a famed evangelist of yesteryear, said he was in a meeting, and a man stood up and said, “I want to tell you briefly what it has taken me 42 years to learn.” Moody said, “Well I think I’ll listen. If I can learn in three minutes what it took him 42 years to learn, I think I’ll listen.” And he said, “This is what I’ve learned: three things. Number one, I can do nothing to earn salvation. Number two, God does not require me to do anything. And number three, Jesus Christ has done it all.” Now, friend, one man had to take 42 years to learn that and you have just heard it and learned it in about one minute. That is grace. That’s salvation by grace.
But being saved by grace is not a license to sin. It is not sinning that proves grace. It is not sinning that recognizes grace. Now, look if you will in Romans chapter 6 and verses 1 and 2, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid.” So many people think that when we preach the message of grace that we’re being light on sin. You have missed it a 180°. There is nothing that liberates you from a life of sin like God’s Amazing Grace. So, what we’re going to be talking about today is abounding victory through Amazing Grace.
God's Plan for You Is Constant Victory
Let me tell you something, God’s plan for you today, tomorrow and the rest of your life is victory. Not victory sometimes, victory all times. Not victory some places, victory every place. You are to have continual victory, conscious victory and conspicuous victory. Do you have it? You are to have continual victory. You’re to have contagious victory. You’re to have conspicuous victory. You are to have victory every day and every way.
Now, there are three key words in Romans chapter 6. I have pointed these to you before, I’ll do it again. I want you to look at these three words. If you’ll understand these three words, you’ll understand the abounding victory that comes through amazing grace. Chapter 6 verse 6: knowing. Just put a circle around the word, knowing. We’ll come back to it in a moment. But it is a key word. Romans 6 verse 6: knowing. There is something to know. And, then verse 11: reckon, “Likewise reckon.” Put a circle around the word reckon. And, then chapter 6 and verse 13: yield. Now, do you have it? Those are the three words: knowing, reckon and yield.
To know, to reckon and to yield is to have victory, I mean abounding victory only because of God’s Amazing Grace. Knowing deals with fact. Reckoning deals with faith. Yielding deals with function and these follow as night follows day: fact, faith, and function. Knowing, reckoning, and yielding. We do not continue in sin that grace may abound, but abounding grace gives us amazing victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Knowing: Our Identification with Christ
Now, I want us to look at these three things. The very first word, knowing, deals with something that we’re going to call your identification with Christ. Did you get it down? Get it in your head. Your identification with Christ. That is a matter of fact that you must know. Now, look if you will here in Romans 6 verse 6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” That is we should not be slaves of sin.
Now, what does identification mean? Identification with Christ? It means that we have become one with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have become one with Him because He became one with us. He took humanity that we might take His deity. Not that we’re gods, but God lives in us. He came to earth that we might go to Heaven. He took of our nature that we might take of His nature. We are identified with Him.
You see identification tells us that when Christ died, we died with Him and that deals with sin’s power. Get that. That deals with sin’s power. Now, think of the significance of it. Look in Romans 6 verse 6, look at it, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him.” Now, when Jesus died, the old Adrian died and hallelujah. And Calvary doesn’t just deal with my sin. Jesus didn’t just take my sin to the cross. Are you listening? Jesus didn’t just take my sin to the cross, He took me to the cross.
You see, if He had simply died for my sin, that would still leave me and I’m the problem. Does that sink in? If He just took my sin to the cross that still leaves me and I’m the problem. The cross does not merely deal with my sin, it deals with me, the source of my sin. Now, look at that verse. Now, folks, this is deep. It is simple, but it is deep. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him.” When He died, He died for me, therefore I died with Him on that cross.
We Died, Were Buried, and Were Raised with Christ
Dr. Robert G. Lee, the former Pastor of this church, went one time to the Holy land and he went to the place called Calvary; it was the first time he’d ever been to Israel. And the guide asked this question, “Have any of you ever been here before?” Dr. Lee raised his hand. The guide said, “When was that?” He said, “2,000 years ago.” 2,000 years ago. And he was there. I was there. You were there. When Jesus Christ died on that cross, He died for our sins and we died with Him.
Now, that deals with the penalty of sin, but it also deals with the power of sin. When a man dies, there’re two things that are true. If he’s a criminal, when he dies, there’s no more trial, there’s no more punishment. Isn’t that right? If he’s a criminal. Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. At least everybody believes that. Most people believe that. But when Lee Harvey Oswald died, they stopped prosecuting him. There’s no criminal court against Lee Harvey Oswald. Why? He’s dead. I mean when he’s dead, the penalty of the law fails. I mean, it’s over. Nobody’s going to put him in jail anymore. I mean, he’s dead. Drop the case.
Now there’s something else though. That deals with the penalty of sin, but what about the power of sin. What about a slave who dies? The slave has a master. The master tells him when to go to bed, when to get up. When to go to work, what to do, when to quit. What to eat and what not to eat. Some slave masters even told their slaves who they could marry and all of this. But suppose the slave dies, when the slave dies, then what power does his master have over him? Do you understand how the cross deals with both the penalty and the power of sin?
You see, Satan has been the slave master. When I died on that cross, the penalty of sin has been done with and the power of sin has been done with. Now, not only have I died with Him, look if you will in Romans 6 verses 6 and 7, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” We’re not slaves of sin. “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Freed from sin. Say, Amen. Freed from sin.
Baptism as the Symbol of New Life
Now, watch this. Now, look if you will as we continue to read in verses 3 and 4, just go back to verses 3 and 4, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death.” Now, not only did we die with Him, we were buried with Jesus. When Jesus died, I died. When Jesus was buried, I was buried. Why does the Bible put an emphasis upon the burial of Christ? Did you know that the burial of Jesus Christ is a part of the Gospel?
First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3 and 4, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day.” The burial, the burial of Jesus, a part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Jews put the dead out of sight as quickly as possible. When a person would die, they would bury him. Now, not only did the old Adrian I used to be die when I got saved, but the old Adrian was buried. I’m buried with Him. And therefore, Satan cannot intimidate me with the bones of my old life.
You know, your sin is in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. Now get this. Your sin is buried in the grave of God’s forgetfulness. And, when Satan comes looking for the old Adrian, I can say, “He’s not here.” “Well where’s the corpse? I want to ridicule it.” “You can’t do it, it’s buried.” Listen friend, I am dead and buried. But not only have we died with Him, not only were we buried with Him, but we have been raised with Him.
Look again if you will in Romans 6 verse 4, “Therefore, we’re buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also,” underscore that, “even so we also should walk in newness of life.” I’m not with Him still in the grave because He’s not in the grave. He has a life that the tomb could not keep, and when He came out of that grave, I came out of that grave to walk in newness of life.
The life I have now, I’m not just a forgiven, patched up old person, I’m a brand new person. I have resurrection life. And so do you. Augustine, that we call St. Augustine, an early Christian, before he was saved, had a life that he lived, a profligate life. He had many harlots who were friends and he would commit fornication with those harlots. When Augustine got saved, he had a radical and dramatic change. And after he was saved, he was walking down the street and one of his old girlfriends saw him. She was on this side of the street and he was on this side of the street, so he walked to that side of the street and put his head down and just kept on walking.
She recognized him. She said, “Augustine!” He didn’t lift his head. She said, “Augustine!” He kept on walking. She said, “Augustine, it is I!” He said, “Yes, but it is no longer I.” You see, “I’m crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ that lives in me.” He had a brand new life. And we need to understand this, friend, that that’s the significance of it. I died with Him, I was buried with Him and I rose with Him.
The Meaning and Symbolism of Baptism
Now, what’s the symbolism of it? The symbolism of it is baptism. Look in Romans 6 verse 3, “Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we’re buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” You see, baptism pictures the death, burial, and resurrection that happened when you trusted Christ.
Now, baptism doesn’t make it so, it shows it so. It is a symbol of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Water baptism is a symbol of our spiritual death, burial, and resurrection. The death, burial, and resurrection doesn’t take place up there in the baptistery; the resurrection took place at Calvary. And, it took place when you received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but that is the symbol of it. That is the emblem of it and that dear friend is why we baptize by immersion because you can’t baptize, you can’t bury a corpse with a few grains of sand, and you can’t bury a corpse with a few drops of water.
We are buried with Him by baptism. The only baptism taught in the Bible, water baptism, is by immersion, because that pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is a liquid tomb. That is where that old person is buried symbolically. And, you go into that water to say, “Goodbye” to the old man, come out of that water to say, “Hallelujah, I’ve been raised to walk in newness of life with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
You see, we have two wonderful ordinances in our church. We have the Lord’s Supper and we have baptism. Now, the Lord’s Supper pictures Christ’s death for the believer. Baptism pictures our death with Him. The Lord’s Supper, His death for us; baptism, our death with Him. Both of those are wonderful, beautiful symbols.
And so, the very first thing I want you to notice, there is a fact, I mean a fact to believe. Something you must know. Paul says, look at it now in verse 6, “Know this.” Know it, know it! I have given you truth; know it! When Jesus died, you died. When Jesus was buried, you were buried. When Christ came out of that grave, you came out of that grave. That is identification. You’re to know it. There’s a fact to know, okay?
Reckoning: Putting Faith into Action
Now, you ready for the next word? The first word is something you are to know. And I’ve tried to tell you what that is. Now, look if you will in Romans 6 verse 11, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.” Now, the first point deals with identification. This point deals with appropriation. Your identification, that’s a matter of fact. The appropriation of it is a matter of faith.
Now, you heard it with a head, now I want it to get in your heart. Now, I want you to reckon it. What does the word reckon mean. The word reckon is a bookkeeping term. You figure. It’s not a matter of feelings, but it is a matter of fact. Once you get the fact, then you begin to calculate on that fact. You began to act according to that fact. Reckoning is not closing your eyes and pretending. It is faith acting on what you know to be true.
Now, first of all, knowing. That friend is a matter of fact. Reckoning is a matter of faith in that fact. Now, you already know how to reckon. You did it when you got saved. I’m talking to saved people. When you got saved, you said, “I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins.” You weren’t there when it happened. You didn’t see Him literally with your own eyes. But you say, “It is a truth. He died for my sins, therefore I reckon, I stand on the fact that my sin has been paid for.” Well, friend not only did He die for you, you died with Him, reckon that also. Reckon that also.
You say, “Pastor, if my old man is dead, why can’t I make him lie down? I mean, why is it? I mean, yes, I know what you say is true, but I’m still having a struggle. I’m not living in victory. Why is it?” Well, you have to get the fact and then you have to learn how to reckon on that fact. A woman set her alarm clock and it went off at 6:00 in the morning; and it was 6:00 in the morning. But when she awakened, she thought, “It just can’t possibly be 6:00. Why it just seems like I’ve been asleep a few minutes.” Have you ever done that, slept so soundly that you go to sleep and it seems like the whole night has gone in a few minutes.
But she looked at the clock. The clock said 6:00, she looked outside, the sun was up. She looked at the other clocks and all of the other clocks said it was 6:00 in the morning. Well, friend if the sun, moon and stars and every other clock says it’s 6:00 don’t you think she better set aside her feelings and go by what she knows to be true. You reckon on it. It doesn’t matter whether you feel like it’s 6:00 in the morning or not; that’s not going to change it.
You see, the fact of the matter is that you’ve been dead for 2,000 years, don’t you think it’s time you had your funeral. I mean listen. What he’s saying is, “This is a fact, I was crucified with Christ. I was buried. I’ve been raised again. Now, therefore,” he says, “Reckon on it.” That is a matter of faith.
Now, the word crucified is in the aorist tense in the Greek language which means it took place once and for all, that’s never to be repeated. But the word reckon is in the present tense and that means that’s something you’re to continually do. Continually, day after day you’re to reckon yourself dead unto sin and alive unto God. You’re to say that, “Sin’s penalty does not stand against me, and sin’s power is broken over me. I, by faith, believe that.”
Now, if you don’t believe it, you’ll never have victory. You must believe what he tells you to believe. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.” Friend, I want to tell you, if that thought ever really gets into your heart. If you ever really say, “Hallelujah, it is true and I stand on it”, you’re about to be delivered. You’re about to be delivered.
Yielding: The Practical Step to Victory
Why is it this cannot get in people’s hearts? There is a fact to know. But friend, there is a reckoning to believe, to put into your heart by faith. Now, when you understand this, that Jesus Christ is alive in you. You’re dead to sin but alive to God. The Bible says in Colossians 3:3, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Now, here’s the third thing, here’s the third word. The first word is what? Know! The second word is what? Reckon! That’s a bookkeeping term. That means to bank on it, to calculate on it. Now, here’s the third thing. Your submission to Christ is a matter of function. You must yield to it. You must yield to it. Fact, faith, function.
Now, here’s where the rubber really meets the road. This completes the thing. This is how God’s Amazing Grace becomes abounding victory. Look if you will now, Romans 6 beginning in verse 12 through verse 14, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.” If it does. It’s only because you let it. It doesn’t have to anymore. The power of sin has been broken. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness,” when he says, your members, he’s talking about your hands, your feet, your eyes, your tongue, “your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin:” but now watch this, “but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”
Now, here’s the key, look at it, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Hallelujah! Praise God. Oh, folks, listen to this now, listen to this, get it in your heart. This is the most glorious truth. This is what will deliver you. This is amazing grace that gives abounding victory.
Romans 6 verses 1 and 2, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.” Read verse 14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you’re not under the law, but under grace.” Now, when you trust Christ, you get imputed righteousness, but what you need also is practical righteousness and it is done when first of all there’s a matter of fact something you know. And then you reckon on that fact, you say, “That is true. I reckon. I believe that. I take it by faith. That is a matter of faith. I take that fact. I get that fact in here. I stand on it. I calculate on it.” And, then the matter of function. Here’s where the victory begins. When you begin to yield to the Lord Jesus Christ.
How to Yield — Negative and Positive
Now, how do you yield? Well, there’s a negative and a positive. Look at the negative in verse 12, look at it, Romans 6 verse 12, look at it, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it to the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.” You can say to the devil, “I don’t have to obey you.” Now, before you were saved, you could never say that. You could never say that. You can say to the flesh, “I don’t have to obey you.” Before you were saved, you could never say that. You were a slave of Satan and you were a slave to your flesh.
Now, you don’t have to obey the devil. You don’t have to obey the flesh. You can choose. You can yield. You must choose against king Satan and king self and king sin. And you say to the devil, “No longer will these hands, no longer will these eyes, these members be your tools.” A man was on a train one time. He’d been saved as a godly man and a Christian. Some other men were sitting there drinking liquor and gambling with cards. They asked him if he would sit in. They needed a fourth man. He said, “Well I can’t play cards.” And, they said, “Well, why not?” He said, “I don’t have any hands.” Those hands were right there. They said, “You got hands.” He said, “No those are not mine, those belong to Jesus. Those are His hands, I don’t have any hands. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ that liveth in me.” I will not yield these members. I won’t do it. I won’t do it.”
Before that, you had no power to do that, but now that you know this. Now that you reckon this. Now, there’s a matter of function. You can say, “I will not yield my members as the instruments of unrighteousness.” There’s the dethronement of sin.
Now watch. There’s the enthronement of the Savior. Look in Romans 6 verse 13 again, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:” now watch, “but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.” Now, get this down big and plain and straight. In this matter of victory, it is not your ability that counts, it is not your responsibility, but it is your response to His ability. Your responsibility is your response to His ability.
Now, you must choose, listen, you can’t do it without Him; He will not do it without you. You must yield. I heard about a country man who came out of one of these side roads on Interstate 40 over here somewhere in Arkansas, in a little pick-up truck covered with dust, he just shot out, never slowed down. A great, big, eighteen wheeler pulled over, almost wrecked and the driver leaned out the window and said, “Hey, didn’t you see that sign?” He said, “What sign?” He said, “That sign that said, Y-I-E-L-D.” He said, “Well I opened the window and yelled as loud as I could.” Friend, you are to yield with all of your heart. Just yield. Yield to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Key Question: To Whom Will You Yield?
Now, I’m going to sum it up and I’m going to tell you something that has absolutely gripped my heart. One of the greatest truths I know. Are you listening? When temptation comes, you must yield and you will yield. When temptation comes, you must yield and you will yield. That much is settled. The only question is, which way will you yield? Will you yield to Satan? Or will you yield to Christ? That’s it. That’s the only question.
When temptation comes, you must yield. You must and you will. The only question is, to whom will you yield? That’s the only question. Stop fighting temptation! Why fight a battle already lost when you can enjoy a victory already won? Don’t fight temptation! Yield to Jesus! Did that get in? Yield to Jesus! When temptation comes, you say, “Hey, that old Adrian is dead. I don’t have to obey him. I’m no longer Satan’s slave. I died. I was buried. I was raised. Christ lives in me. Jesus I yield.” And brother, I want to tell you that incredible power will come into your life the moment you yield to Jesus Christ.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.” God forbid. Amazing grace gives abounding victory. Verse 14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you.”
The Emancipation Proclamation Analogy
Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and the scourge and the block of slavery began to be erased in this country. We still bear the scars of it. But you know the sad thing? When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, potentially, potentially every slave was freed. But you know in actuality every slave wasn’t freed? Do you know why? Some of them didn’t know it. And, do you know what else? Some of them who knew it, it was too big. They couldn’t take it in. They just could not take it in. I mean they’d been slaves so long, they just couldn’t take it in. They could not believe it. So while they knew it here, they didn’t know how to reckon it here. You understand? And then some of them continued to serve as slaves because they’d served as slaves so long they were intimidated by their old master. And, he would tell them to do this and that and they would yield to him when they didn’t have to.
Do you see, friend, what good is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? What good is the Gospel of grace? What good is God’s Emancipation Proclamation if you don’t know it, if you don’t reckon to it, and if you don’t yield on it? But when you yield, you’ll be free indeed. To know it is a matter of the head. To reckon it is a matter of the heart. And to yield is a matter of the will. Get those in you my friend. Get those in you.
There is our identification with Christ. That’s the fact you’re to know. There is, friend, our appropriation of Christ. That is the faith you’re to reckon with. There is our submission to Christ. That is, friend, the function that you’re to obey. And when you do that you’ll have victory. Wouldn’t you like victory? I mean, victory! Amazing grace and abounding victory. Isn’t grace wonderful? Just say, “Amen”.
Bow your heads in prayer. Father thank you for amazing grace and abounding victory. Now, while your head is bowed, if you’ve never received Christ as your personal Savior and Lord, God loves you. And because salvation is by grace, He will save you this very moment if you’ll trust Him. Why don’t you pray a prayer like this, “Oh, God, I know You love me and I know it’s Your grace that causes You to love me. Jesus, I believe You died for my sins. I believe You paid my sin debt. I want to reckon that true for me today. I want to believe by faith and trust You. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, save me Lord Jesus.” Would you ask Him that? “Save me Lord Jesus.” If you asked Him then pray this way, “Lord Jesus, thank You for saving me. I stand by faith. I don’t ask for a sign, I don’t look for a feeling. I stand on Your Word. And, now Lord Jesus because You died for me, I will live for You, and give me the courage to make this public. In Your holy name, Amen.