MAN’S FAITHFULNESS TO GOD

Romans 6:1 – 8:39

INTRODUCTION:            INTRODUCTION:

In 1972, Sandy and I were finishing up our senior years at Lincoln Christian College.  We owned a high-mileage 1968 Buick LeSabre that had a multitude of problems – including a tendency to overheat.  Late one Sunday evening, I fell asleep while driving back to school and wrecked the car, smashing in the front-end.  When it got out of the body shop, it looked great, ran better than ever and never overheated again.  I was so impressed that, since that time, I have made it a point to wreck every car I’ve ever owned.

OK, not really.  And wouldn’t that be silly logic?  But some people apply the same silly logic to the subject of grace.  They say that since God’s grace is a marvelous blessing and since we receive God’s grace because of our sin, therefore we should sin more so we can receive more grace and be more blessed.  And besides, the more sin we commit and the more sin God’s grace covers, the better God looks; so it is to God’s advantage for me to sin more.  I’m doing God a favor every time I sin. 

Now maybe everyone hasn’t thought it out to that degree but many people live by the same faulty construct.  Mae West is reported to have said, “I sin: that’s my job.  God has to forgive me: that’s His job.”  And again, not everyone is as brash as Mae West but many people sin with impunity because they believe God is required to forgive them unconditionally.

The problem of such presumption and such illogical logic is pretty old.  It is as old as the first century.  It is as old as the apostle Paul.  It is as old as the church, itself.

In Romans chapters 6, 7 & 8 the apostle Paul addresses people who were saying that since God’s grace cancels our sin, we ought to sin more so we can receive more grace.  To correct this fatally flawed thinking, Paul goes all the way back to the most basic assumptions we make.  He challenges us to change the way we think about ourselves because what we believe will control how we behave. 

In Romans 6, 7 and 8 Paul says we are to consider ourselves as:            

I.                    DEAD TO SIN

“Dead Man Walking” was the name of a 1995 movie starring Susan Sarandon.  The title comes from the practice, in some prisons, of announcing “Dead man walking; dead man walking here!” when an inmate is being taken to death row to await his execution.  The phrase was taken from a poem by Thomas Hardy and it is an acknowledgement that the inmate is a dying man, alone, a castaway, considered by his peers to be untouchable and worthy of nothing but death.

The phrase “dead man walking” has another application, though.  Every Christian is a dead man walking: dead with reference to sin.  In Romans 6, the apostle Paul wrote:

¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ^2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ^3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ^4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

^5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. ^6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ^7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

^8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ^9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ^10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

^11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ^12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ^13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ^14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Paul says that we are to consider ourselves as dead with reference to sin.  I used to think that meant that when I became a Christian, I would be dead to sin: I would be dead to temptation and dead to transgression.  I thought it meant that real Christians are done with sin and never sin again.

But because I was still tempted and because I still sinned, that wasn’t very good news.  It made me feel like I must not be a Christian.

Later, I came to realize that I had misunderstood this teaching.  Paul says that I died to sin and then he also says that Jesus died to sin.  Verse 10 reads: The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  Now in saying that Jesus died to sin, does Paul mean that Jesus used to sin but that there came a point when he died to sin and he doesn’t sin any longer?  Certainly not!  Jesus never sinned.

Does it mean that Jesus used to be tempted but that he came to a point where he was not tempted any longer?  Certainly not because when Jesus prayed in the garden on the night that he was betrayed, the Bible says that he sweat great drops of blood as he agonized over whether to go through with this crucifixion or give in to the temptation to duck out a side gate and run away.  He was tempted in the wilderness, he was tempted in the garden and the writer of Hebrews says he was tempted in all points like we are.

Obviously Paul did not mean that when we become Christians that we are no longer tempted and that we no longer sin.  So what did he mean when he told us to consider ourselves as dead to sin?  Simply this: dead men owe no debts.  Because of my sin, at one time, I carried a crushing load of debt because the penalty for sin is death. 

Jesus died to sin and in so doing, he took my place, bore my sin and paid my debt.  Now this is really good news: I can consider myself dead with regard to sin because Jesus died in my place and I am no longer under the penalty of sin.  My sentence, my debt, my price was paid.  Now I can consider myself as a dead man with reference to my sins.

II.    BURIED WITH CHRIST

Not only can I consider myself like a dead man with reference to my sins, I can consider myself as a buried man, with reference to Christ.

In Romans 6:3-4, Paul wrote: ^3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ^4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

In the marvelous symbolism of baptism, the disciple of Jesus has the chance to reenact the burial of Jesus.  Just as Jesus died because of sin, we die with him.  For a moment, we stop breathing.  For a moment we close our eyes, as in death.  For a moment, we are laid into a tomb (a water tomb) as in death.  We are buried with Jesus in baptism in a watery grave.

Jesus was baptized…when he was thirty years old.  He was baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin, John.  But in this text, Paul does not say we are reenacting Jesus’ baptism.  He does not say we are united with him because we are baptized like he was.  Paul says we are buried with him.  We are united with him by identifying with his burial.  Why do you suppose he said that?  Is Jesus’ burial that important?

Yes, actually it is.  You see if Jesus had died but was never buried, his death would not have been the real death of a real person.  In that day and in that culture, after people died, they were buried…totally and completely under ground.  They didn’t just sprinkle a little bit of dirt on the head of the deceased and call him “buried”.  They didn’t just pour a pitcher of dirt over his head and call him “buried”.  They put them all the way in the ground.  And that is what happened to Jesus.

Think of this, had there been no burial, there could have been no resurrection.  Were there no sealed tomb, there could be no empty tomb to celebrate.

Burial was not a mere formality; it was the way the dead were laid to rest with the expectation that they would stay put.

Paul wants us to consider ourselves as having been baptized into Christ’s death and as having been buried with him through baptism (Paul’s words, not mine).  The old man of sin who died with regard to sin, was also buried with Christ.  Buried with anyone else, there would be the expectation that I would stay put.  But buried with Christ, there is the anticipation that I’ll rise!

III.    RAISED TO LIFE

Buried with Christ, there is the anticipation that I’ll rise!  I can anticipate that because he rose. 

The basic theme of this passage of Scripture is that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are not only historical facts and significant doctrines, they are also personal experiences since through baptism we have come to share in them ourselves.

Jesus really died – completely and totally dead.  Jesus was really buried – completely and totally buried.  Then Jesus rose again – completely and totally alive forever more.

In the drama which is baptism, I can act out and anticipate my resurrection.  Paul says “^4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ^5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”  Very often when we think about that verse, we think about the fact that we have been buried with Christ through baptism into death in order that we may live for eternity.  And that is true and Paul makes reference to that in verse 5.  He says that if we have been united with Jesus like this (by means of baptism) in his death, we certainly will be united with him in his resurrection.  “Will be” meaning in the future.  That is an actual fact but that is not specifically what Paul had been thinking about, writing about or teaching about. 

Remember that Paul’s starting point was that we ought not to use God’s grace as an excuse to go on sinning.  Just because my Buick LeSabre was better after I got it out of the body shop is no reason to say I should wreck my car every chance I get.  And just because God extends grace and forgiveness is no reason to keep on sinning so I can get more grace.

Paul’s reasoning is that if, with Christ, we died with regard to sin (and are thus no longer under the guilty-sentence that had been imposed because of our sin); and if, with Christ, we were buried in anticipation of being raised; then when we are raised with Christ, it is in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection. 

When Jesus was raised from the dead, he rose to die no more.  Death had no more claim on him.  But not only could death lay no more claim on him, neither could Satan.  Jesus had carried to the cross every sin of every sinner.  He, who had never sinned, became legally guilty of every sin that had ever been committed by every person who had lived, was living or would live.  But once he not only bore those sins but also paid those penalties, sin could not lay any claim to him ever again.  And neither could Satan.  Satan had been trying to defeat Jesus for 33 years but after Jesus’ resurrection, Satan was powerless to defeat Jesus.

If we have been united with Jesus in his death, Paul says we will certainly be united with him in his resurrection.  In the context of this passage, I think he is saying that Satan is powerless to defeat you.  Satan does not want you to know that.  Satan wants you to think he can make you sin and make you fall and make you fail.  But he cannot.  Once you have been united with Jesus in his death, the only power Satan has over you is the power you decide to give him. 

Satan could not defeat Jesus but Jesus could have surrendered to him.  Thank God, he did not.  Satan cannot defeat you but you can surrender to him.  I pray to God you will not.

In your baptism, you are united with Christ in his death, in his burial and in his resurrection.  Once you are united with him in his resurrection, you are legally pardoned from the penalty of all your sin.  Will you accept the pardon Jesus offers you?

CONCLUSION:           

In 1830 George Wilson was convicted of shooting and killing a federal employee while robbing the United States Mail.  For these crimes, he was sentenced to be hanged.  President Andrew Jackson issued a pardon for Wilson, but he refused to accept it.  The matter went to the U.S. Supreme Court.   Chief Justice Marshall concluded that Wilson would have to be executed.  “A pardon is a slip of paper,” wrote Marshall, “the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned.  If it is refused, it is no pardon.  George Wilson must be hanged.”

INVITATION:                        #466 – “Give Me Thy Heart”

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