Dead to Sin; Alive to God through Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Life is full of choices…
we choose to make a purchase (a new car or a used car)…
we choose what to order at a restaurant (burger or salad)…
For Students… we can choose to try out for a sport, get involved in Student Government, choose to focus on academics, or just having fun in school…
we can choose to enroll in a gym and then choose to go and choose habits that will make us more physically fit or stay at home and sleep in a little longer.
The bottom line is that we make choices every day but as followers of Jesus, we must choose to live for Jesus everyday.
We have to choose in a world full of temptation to seek the easier way, to give up when it’s hard, to promote self instead of living a life of obscurity.
We choose Jesus in a world that is full of sin, full of self-serving, self-gratifying, self-promoting agendas.
Following Jesus isn’t a debate to win but it’s a chosen life of obscurity that gives God all the glory. That means that it is not about me anymore, it’s all about Jesus.
At our meeting after church, I encouraged both Max and Johannaliz to read Romans 6. I don’t know if they had a chance to do that but I want to land there this evening.
Paul starts off with a question…
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
The question Paul asks is “shall we go on sinning so that God’s grace may increase?” Paul says of course not!
Paul challenges the faulty notion that as believers, God’s grace give us a license to sin. This false idea that God is somehow okay with us continuing to sin is a blatant disregard for God’s grace.
People who held this misguided did not have a righteous fear of the Lord and felt that they were not obligated to God’s moral law as long as they had faith and relied on God’s grace.
God’s grace is a gift that we all need because all have sinned and fallen short but when it comes to baptism our old self is buried and our new self in Christ is now alive.
God’s grace isn’t an excuse to keep us in sin but it’s the place where God can begin to work in your life.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
As believers, we are now identified as being “in Christ” because we are “dead to sin but alive to God”
This simply means that through Christ… through the sacrifice that Jesus paid for us… once and for all… we are now set free from sin’s control and sin’s influence.
We are now willing servants of Christ.
16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
What master are you choosing to serve?
We all have the choice as to what master we choose to obey. Either our master is sin or our master or the Lord.
Throughout the book of Acts, when referring to the public act of baptism in water, it was so closely associated with a decision to follow Christ that they were almost considered one event.
As Paul was testifying about his Damascus Road experience in Acts 22:16
16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
Let me be clear… it is a person’s faith in Christ, it is not baptism, which brings mankind into a relationship with Christ. The act of baptism is what outwardly shows the believer’s decision to identify with Jesus in his death and resurrection (v. 5)
4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
Baptism is a sign that the believer is dying to his or her old rebellious way…
Baptism is making a definite separation from sin so that he or she can live completely for God and obey HIM rather than obeying sin’s evil desires (v. 12).
12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.
If people say they are a believer and keep living in sin, they show that they really don’t understand what being a follower of Jesus really means.
John writes that if that’s the case, they are not true believers.
1 John 3:4–10 (NLT)
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in HIM will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know HIM or understand who HE is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
John asks, Who is your father?
Paul asks, who is your master?
In Romans, Paul stresses that individuals cannot be slaves (i.e., “willing servants”) to sin and slaves to Christ at the same time.
11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
Sin can be very controlling. A taskmaster that is relentless and brutal but we have a choice.
We can obey to our own sinful desires, the ones that enslaved us before we met Jesus.
Or, we can submit to the Lordship of Jesus and make righteousness our pursuit.
16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
The result of sin will be condemning judgment and eternal death but thank you Jesus we don’t have to live in condemnation but we can have victory over sin through Jesus Christ.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s grace is not an excuse for you to continue in sin but it’s by grace through faith in Christ that we can have newness of life.
Don’t stop relying on God’s grace because perfection is not possible on our own. Jesus is the only one who is 100 percent perfect and all of us need grace. Following Jesus isn’t a life of perfection but it’s a life of freedom that only comes through the righteousness of Jesus.
Jesus came to overcome sin… not just your sin but all sin for all mankind.
Baptism is not the end but it’s the beginning… it’s the starting point where we make it public. Old things are gone and the new things that Jesus has purchased for us have been resurrected.
Baptism is a significant step forward as followers of Jesus.
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus said in…
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Baptism is more then an