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June 30, 2002
6th Sunday of Pentecost
Romans 6:1-11
Pastor Joel Zank

WE HAVE A NEW LIFE TO LIVE

(Romans 6:1-11) Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 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- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In the name of Jesus who died to make us alive, dear fellow redeemed,

You've heard the story about the scorpion and the fox haven't you? There was this scorpion who wanted to cross the river, but couldn't because he was such a poor swimmer. So he asked a fox if he could cross the stream on his back. "Are you crazy?" exclaimed the fox. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown." "My dear fox," laughed the scorpion, "If I were to sting you, I would die too. Now where's the logic in that?" "I guess you're right" said the fox. "Go ahead-hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and all went well for a time, but when the two were no further than half way across the river, the scorpion gave the fox a mighty sting. As they both began to sink to the bottom, the fox gasping for breath, cried out: "You said there would be no logic in stinging me. Why did you do it?" "It had nothing to do with logic," said the drowning scorpion. "It's just my nature."

I have to think the dying fox found that excuse to be a rather poor one. But for as lousy as it is, it sure is handy isn't it? How often haven't we tried to use the very same excuse when a fellow Christian, or for that matter, our own conscience accuses us of sin. There is something very illogical about sinning against God who knows and sees everything. So when caught red-handed, when there's no denying what we've done, we often shrug our shoulders and say, "I couldn't help it. That's just the way I am."

Today the Word of God shows us just how poor and how dangerous to the soul our excuse really is as the Apostle Paul reminds us all of something we need to hear again and again: Jesus did not save us in our sins so that we may go right on sinning. Jesus has saved us from our sins and because he has, WE HAVE A NEW LIFE TO LIVE 1)as people who are dead to sin; 2)as people who are alive to God.

When you and I excuse our sin the way the scorpion excused his, we do so figuring that God will forgive us anyway. That seems like a pretty safe bet doesn't it? After all, the Bible says in the verse just prior to our text: "...where sin increased, grace increased all the more" (Romans 5:20). What else can that mean except that no matter how many sins we commit, no matter how terrible those sins may be, God's grace will always rise to the occasion and forgive our sins completely. What a wonderful promise, but how easily we sinners abuse that promise by confusing free grace with cheap grace. By that I mean we often take the love God gives us so freely and we cheapen it by treating it as if it were a license to sin. We develop a "so what" attitude toward sin: "So what if I cheat, so what if I get a divorce, so what if is my language is filthy, so what if I gossip, so what if I lose my temper, God will forgive me."

But is that how it really works with God's forgiveness? Let me restate the question using Paul's words from our text: "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" Like a bunch of self-indulgent brats shall we run up our bill of sin, counting on a rich Father in heaven to cover debts with forgiveness? Scripture has a couple of answers to this question. The first is spoken to our sinful nature in the only language it understands-the language of threats. The writer to the Hebrews warns: "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God" (Hebrews 10:26-27). Every time we choose to sin, figuring we will stop and make things right with God later on, we bring God's judgment of hell upon ourselves. So God's law gives me an answer to Paul's question, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" No way! We'll end up in hell if we do that. The truth is, the law shows me I've earned that fate for myself many times over. But because I'm a sinner, that's all the law can do for me-show me my sins and guilt. It cannot help me to stop sinning; and it cannot help me to pay for the sins I've already committed.

So we're back to Paul's question, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" If all we had were God's law, we'd have to answer, "Why not-we're hopeless sinners anyway!" But God has given us better message than the law and with it a better answer to our question. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? We can say with the Apostle Paul, "By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (v.2).

There was a time when sin owned us as a master owns a slave. Our situation seemed hopeless because freedom from this tyrant would come only when death claimed us and took our souls to hell. Only in the grave would our bodies find some relief from the slave master of sin. Sin has no control over a corpse. But here is good news, though we are still among the living, we have already died to sin! How can this be? Paul tells us, "...all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death" (v.3).

Through baptism a union exists between you and Christ. So intimate is this union that not only does Paul say that Christ died for you, or in place of you, but he actually says that through baptism you became a partner in Christ's death. Through baptism your sinful nature was joined to Jesus on the cross. There it suffered the same horrible punishment that Jesus did under God's righteous judgment against sin and sinners. Paul says in verses 6 & 7 of our text: "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 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." By the time they laid Jesus' body in the tomb on Good Friday he was done with sin and sin was done him. He had paid sin's wages in full. He was free. Our sin, which he had claimed as his own and paid for, could no longer torment him. Through baptism Jesus' death and burial have become ours. With our sin's wages fully paid on our behalf, sin no longer has the right to control us, just as hell no longer has the right to claim us. We are dead to sin!

When someone falls into a deep sleep, we say he's dead to the world. The world may call and call to him, but it has no influence over him. Thanks to Jesus we are now dead to sin in the same way. The old life of slavery is over. We have a new life! Thanks to Jesus we are now God's heaven-bound saints, his forgiven people, forgiven even for the times we have abused and cheapened his grace in the past.

So how do we want to live this new life of forgiveness? This is an important question because sin is going to keep tempting us. It will try to resurrect the old Adam in us, and through it enslave us all over again. Every day sin will make its appeal to our selfishness, our lust, and our greed. But if we go back to our old master every time it offers us some twisted form of pleasure, what are we saying to him who gave his life to rescue us from sin? Thanks, but no thanks? Is that what we want to tell Jesus? Never. We want to thank him with our words and our actions. Let sin call to us. We're dead to sin. We won't snap to attention when it begins shouting orders. We'll be too busy serving our Savior. Don't forget, we have a new life to live as people who are alive to God!

Paul speaks of baptism as the funeral of our sinful nature, and so it is. But baptism is also the birthplace of our new self, the Christ-like nature that now controls our lives. Paul says, "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. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection" (vv. 4-5).

Christ's resurrection from the dead is our guarantee that we are declared innocent of sin before God. Jesus was raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25). Therefore Christ's resurrection means that some day our bodies will be raised from the dead and glorified in heaven just like Jesus. But that's not all! Christ's resurrection also has meaning for our spiritual lives here on earth. Through baptism we are joined to Jesus and his resurrection right now. In the power that is his as almighty God, he's living a new life the other side of the grave. He's put sin and death far behind him. Through baptism we can too. Through baptism we are able to tap into Jesus' life and power today. Listen again to the closing verses of our text: "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Vv. 8-11).

The good news that Jesus' holiness and God's forgiveness are ours is powerful news that moves and enables us to live a life of thanks to Jesus, thanks that we show him by the way we love and forgive each other, thanks that we show him by turning away from the sin that entices us, thanks that we show him by using our time and talents and treasures to serve him-this is what it means to be alive to God. All that we are and all that we have are his to do with as he pleases. It means his will is our will all of the time.

Now it may be for you as it is for me, that there seems to be more of the old in my life than the new, more sin than holiness. If you find the same in your life, remember, the newness of our life is not based on how new we feel at any given moment, but rather on God's timeless promise that new life is ours always and only through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our new life isn't a feeling we have. It's a declaration of God. It's good to remember this because our sin can leave us feeling pretty old. Newness comes not from excusing our sins, but from confessing them all each day to Christ and receiving his forgiveness for every last one of them.

What Paul is telling us is that new life is revitalized in us each day as we remain in Christ. Someone once said that a Christian is in Christ like a fish is in water. Being in Christ means swimming every day in the ocean of his Word-in the sea of his promised forgiveness. That's where new life comes from. So if we Christians are feeling like fish out of water, we need to make our way back to the Word. For nothing but daily meditation and frequent reflection on God's great love for us will keep us dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen.