New Year, New Life
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
should nothing of our effort stand, no legacy survive, unless the Lord does raise the house, in vain it’s builders strive
today is New Year’s Eve, which is the most optimistic day on the calendar here in America. Never are people more committed to becoming better versions of themselves than on this day. The future always looks brightest on December 31st, and we are never more excited about what tomorrow will bring. Excitement is in the air, we have made our resolutions, and we have good things coming.
Which makes two weeks from now really disappointing for most of us. Forbes does a study every year regarding New Year’s Resolution, which consistently has shown two things:
People desire to become better, new versions of themselves every year
People are really bad at becoming better, new versions of themselves
This year’s study showed that 80% of people are confident they can remain true to their resolutions for at least a full year, but of those people, only 4% claim to have kept last year’s resolution.
Now I’m not saying new year’s resolutions are a bad idea and I’m not trying to discourage you from making them, I only want to draw attention to the truth about us, that although we are desperately in need of becoming new, we are woefully incapable of making it happen.
And really, the news is worse than I’ve said. For as bad as we are at getting to the gym, eating healthy, budgeting our money, or living healthy lives, we’re even worse at living morally good and acceptable lives in the sight of God. No matter how many times we may pledge ourselves to changing and becoming better people, we find that we are completely incapable of doing it. This is the argument that the Apostle Paul makes in the first three chapters of Romans, culminating in the reality that “nobody is righteous, nobody seeks after God.”
Now I promise my intention isn’t to just beat everyone up and kill your optimism on New Year’s Eve; in fact, its just the opposite. Despite the statistics I just shared with you, today I want to encourage you that a new life isn’t only possible, isn’t only probable, but is guaranteed to the believer. Today I want to show you how the new life we all innately long for is ours in Christ, but it has nothing to do with new years resolutions and everything to do with our union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
But what does it that we have been united with Christ? How do we understand that? In our passage, Paul begins explaining like he does in some of his other letters; by discussing baptism, and that’s what I want to do as well.
We have been united with Christ
We have been united with Christ
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.
Paul makes the argument here that what Christ accomplished was a whole lot more than purchase you a room in heaven. More than that, Christ has done what we would never have dared to hope for: he has united us to himself. Another way of saying this is that he has identified us with himself so that his past, present, and future have become our own past, present, and future.
The implications for this are wide-reaching. This means that in your personal past was a crucifixion: the old self died with Christ. This means that in your personal past was a resurrection from the dead: the new self got out of the tomb with Jesus. This means that your present includes a glorious and powerful resurrection life: Just as Jesus is alive and demonstrating power over sin and death, so also are you. This means that your future is in eternal glory in God’s Kingdom as kings and queens with Christ.
How can this be?
In a sense, it’s fitting that Paul begins with baptism, because baptism is like the Christian’s new birth into God’s Kingdom.
For all of you that have been baptized: did you know that your baptism was the sign and seal of the New Covenant given to you? Did you know that in that sacrament, God was marking you as his own and sealing the promised blessings of the covenant to you? Did you know that in baptism, God is sealing your life in Christ?
The westminster confession speaks to this when it says
The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition Chapter XXVIII. Of Baptism
BAPTISM is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church,b but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ,d of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life
Baptism then isn’t so much about us or what we do, but more about God and what he is doing. In it, we see both a sign that points us to Jesus and a seal that marks our union with Christ. Just to be clear: we don’t believe that sacrament is magical, or that baptism is equivalent to salvation, we don’t believe that someone is saved just because they received the sacrament.
But for those of us who have also been given faith by God, looking back at your baptism should be a source of great joy for you. In it, you see God marking you as his own and sealing your union with his Son Jesus Christ.
In your baptism, you were buried with Christ and in your baptism, you resurrected from the dead with Christ. You were identified with him.
Now I want to spend some time talking about both of those in more detail. What does it mean that we died with Christ? What does it mean that we resurrected with him? How does this impact our lives?
In Christ, we are dead to sin
In Christ, we are dead to sin
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.
In our death with Christ, the slave to sin is dead.
In our death with Christ, the slave to sin is dead.
To die with Christ is to see the natural person pass away. To be united with Christ in his death means that as we look upon Jesus hanging upon the cross, suffering for the sins of the world, and ultimately breathing his last, we see ourselves hanging there with him. Though we did not have to endure the pain or judgement ourselves, we nonetheless find ourselves identified with that suffering.
This means that as we see the finality of death grip the Son of God, as he is buried in the tomb, as the tomb is sealed, we see ourselves buried there with him.
Why is death a good thing? Because it means that our natural selves, enslaved to sin as we are, is brought to nothing.
The body of sin is being brought to nothing.
The body of sin is being brought to nothing.
Remember, we are all born in sin. This is the argument that Paul makes in the early sections of Romans, and it is what we see evidenced in the world around us and in our own lives. Though we may often desire to do good, we find that we are incapable because of the sin that dwells in us.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
The frustration that we often feel about this struggle against sin is summed up by Paul a chapter later when he says, “wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
The reason we can celebrate our union with Christ in death is because in it, we see our sinful selves doomed for judgement dead and buried along with him.
Another reason we can celebrate the death we share with Christ, is that it means we also get to share in the resurrection of Christ.
What does that mean?
In Christ, we are alive to God
In Christ, we are alive to God
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.
In our resurrection with Christ, a new person has been born
In our resurrection with Christ, a new person has been born
In the place of the old self, who was buried in the tomb with Christ, we see that a new self walked out of the tomb with Christ. Surely we recognize that we have the same body, the same name, the same memories, and yet we also find that we are truly changed in our union with Christ.
As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Cor,
English Standard Version Chapter 5
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
But how are we different? What is “new” about the new creation? Paul explains in verse 14,
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
The new person is not dominated by sin, but lives for righteousness
The new person is not dominated by sin, but lives for righteousness
The “new creation” we become as we are united to Christ in his resurrection from the dead is a person that is no longer enslaved by sin, no longer forced to obey sinful passions.
This is something that I believe is largely underappreciated about what Christ has done for us. In dying and resurrecting from the dead and grafting us in to participate in those events, Christ has restored to us a will that can choose what is good and righteous. Christ has done so much more than give you a future; he has given you your present.
You, who were once enslaved by sin and found yourself powerless to fight it, have been set free by your union to Christ’s resurrection so that you might be righteous. That is why Paul says in verse 12-13,
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.
Just as we once presented ourselves to sin as slaves, we have now, as new creations in Christ, been given the ability to present ourselves to God for righteousness sake.
Now, you have not yet been made perfect. As one of my seminary professors liked to say, “the old man has been drowned in baptism, but he’s a pretty good swimmer and he pops up for air every once in a while.” God is still working out our sanctification and changing us more every day.
So although you are not yet perfect, Christ has given you the greatest gift you could possible receive: newness of life. You have been made truly new. That innate longing we all feel to be good, that feeling we get on New Year’s Eve as we long for something new that isn’t so dominated by junk, that newness of life we all look for, is yours in Christ Jesus.
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.
You have been made new, and your goodness isn’t dependent on the resolutions that you made or the new bestselling books giving you strategies to live more disciplined lives. While all that can be helpful, your new life that is free from sin is far more secure than all of that.
Your newness of life is yours by virtue of your union with Christ. You are new because he got up from the grave, and he brought you with him.
If you have faith in that savior Jesus Christ, take heart, for you have been and are being made new in Christ.
The call: Present yourselves to God as instruments for righteousness
The call: Present yourselves to God as instruments for righteousness
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.
FCF: We are naturally enslaved to sin
CFC: Christ has united us to himself, ushering us into resurrection life
The call: Draw near to Christ and embrace the resurrection life he has brought to you
We have been united to Christ
Our new life is based in this unification
Baptism is the sign and seal of this reality
We have died with Christ
We are naturally enslaved to sin
In our union with Christ, the slave to sin is dead
We have resurrected with Christ
In our union with Christ, we have resurrected from the dead
In our resurrection, we have become new creations for righteousness