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It can’t be done
It can’t be done
I bought a heater at the start of winter. I got it out of the box and plugged it in only to find out that it would not run. I tried a few other things and it would run for about 15 seconds but cut off. I tried everything but it would not work. The only thing left to do was to go get a new one. How crazy would it have been if I would have been satisfied with 15 seconds of heat. I would have just tried and tried over and over again. This is what we do when we try to do it on our own.
The death and resurrection of Christ is God’s answer to humanity’s problem. Will you respond?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
It Deals with the Problem of Sin (1-4)
It Deals with the Problem of Sin (1-4)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
A. Our identity is now in Christ
- Paul presents a question that is a result of 5:20-21
- How should a Christian view sin in our lives now if grace increased because of sin?
- This is an issue in our time
- Some believe that since we are under grace and not law, it means that we can have somewhat of a casual view toward sin.
- They may say things like, “It’s ok (toward sin), we are under grace and not the law.”, “I don’t have to worry about sin because I am under grace.”
- This is not the biblical view of we are to have toward sin and is not the biblical view of being under grace
- Paul will show us in this passage
- If a believer has died to sin, how can they continue in it
- There is a new identity
- It is impossible to think that a Christian who has died to sin would still live in it
- This is speaking of a willful state of sin
- “Life in sin cannot coexist with death to sin.” F.F. Bruce
- Paul now show us a picture of what new identity in Christ is all about
- We have been placed into Christ and therefore, have a new relationship with Him and a new relationship toward sin
- Baptism here is initiatory in that it is the moment that we signal we belong to Christ
- This new identity should lead to righteousness
- It is a new way of life
- This new life is walking in an empowering way through the Holy Spirit to live our God’s Word
- Our death to sin makes it possible to live a new life
- “Paul’s answer is that if we understood our baptism we would see that it is inconceivable, a self-contradiction, to think a Christian can simple continue in the old way of life.” (78)
- “The believer no longer has the same relationship to sin he or she used to have; you are no longer under its dominion as you once were; you have been raised into new life with Christ – that is why it is inconceivable that you would continue in sin.” (78)
B. ILL – Think of a parent who forgives a child and then the child goes back and does it again
C. We must understand this new identity
1. We have been talking about it
2. Who you are is dependent on who Christ is and what He has accomplished
3. ILL – those who are alive medically speaking but are just there and the only thing keeping them alive is machines – that is not life
4. Why would we want to live like dead people when we are alive?
It Deals with our Problem of Subjection (5-7)
It Deals with our Problem of Subjection (5-7)
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
A. Sin is no longer the main influence in our lives
- This death and resurrection is key to understanding that we as believers who live a new life are no longer under obligation to sin
- “I cannot help it,” is not a phrase a Christian should use
- A slave who dies is no longer under obligation to that master
- Our Body rules by sin done away with means that the power that kept us is now done away with
- “Here, as elsewhere, Paul implies that baptism symbolizes not what we have done, but what has been done for us.” (74)
- “Naming ceremonies do not transform us inwardly. Yet they make a lifelong difference to us.” (75)
- “Look at what your baptism pictures: listen to what your baptism says; and as faith takes hold of its message remember what it tells you about who you are in Christ.” (76)
- “… thinking through the logic of the gospel corrects, cleanses, recalibrates, transforms, and sanctifies us emotionally as well as intellectually.” (77)
- “Paul’s answer is that if we understood our baptism we would see that it is inconceivable, a self-contradiction, to think a Christian can simple continue in the old way of life.” (78)
- “The believer no longer has the same relationship to sin he or she used to have; you are no longer under its dominion as you once were; you have been raised into new life with Christ – that is why it is inconceivable that you would continue in sin.” (78)
- Body of sin might be brought to nothing – inoperable, or barren, of no effect, no longer able to exercise the authority it once had
- It suggests not annihilation but disabling
- “Yes, sin continues to indwell us. Yes, we must battle against its influences. But it no longer reigns over us. It no longer has a legitimate or legal claim on us, for in Christ we have died to the realm in which sin reigned. We are no longer sin’s citizens.” (83)
- “We were born addicted to sin and under its dominion. Now we are in Christ, ‘set free from sin’. But it may take us some time to realize that we are new men and women in Christ.” (90)
- Our power to defeat sin comes from the presence of Christ in our lives
- Again it must be emphasized that sin still is at war against us, but it no longer is an internal force controlling us. Christ is the internal power in our lives, and sin is now an external power trying to defeat us.
- Our daily lives should be characterized by the new realm Christ has brought about, as see in a new moral stance and new priorities to live for God rather than for the things of this world.
B. ILL – a slave and when he dies he is no longer bound to be ruled by his master
C. The things that are the biggest issues humanity faces are answered through the death and resurrection of Christ
It points to God’s intervention into His creation
It points to God’s care for His creation
It is a demonstration of God’s dealing with evil
Could he rid the world of all evil tonight at midnight? If he did, which of us would be left at 12:01? Or how many of us would push a button to eliminate all of our pain and suffering if, by so doing, we also eliminated all of our free choices? It is interesting to see how God has dealt with the problem of our evil. He sent his Son to take the sins of the world on himself, to die for those sins, to rise from the dead, and to offer eternal life to everyone who comes to him in belief and repentance.[1] Gary Habermas and Michael Licona
Could he rid the world of all evil tonight at midnight? If he did, which of us would be left at 12:01? Or how many of us would push a button to eliminate all of our pain and suffering if, by so doing, we also eliminated all of our free choices? It is interesting to see how God has dealt with the problem of our evil. He sent his Son to take the sins of the world on himself, to die for those sins, to rise from the dead, and to offer eternal life to everyone who comes to him in belief and repentance.[1] Gary Habermas and Michael Licona
[1]Habermas, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 174.
It points to salvation
It Deals with our Greatest Need (8-11)
It Deals with our Greatest Need (8-11)
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
A. Notice Paul tells us to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God
- Consider: Actually, the verb logízomai means to put together with one’s mind, to count, to occupy oneself with reckonings or calculations[1] To value
- Paul now explains this further
- As Christ died to sin and now lives to God, so we who have died to with him will also live to God
- We have a new master
- Our identity is in Christ and that is who we are now
- We are free
- What were we freed to do?
- Not to go on sinning and act like it is a big deal
- To live with Jesus and to the glory of God
- Paul has been showing what God has done for us in Christ
- Now, he shows us how we are to respond
- We must conform and renew our minds
- We must learn to live as those who are alive to Christ and dead to sin
- We cannot take sin casually
- We must cut it off
- Colin Kruse: “As Christ died for our sins once for all, so we ought now to count ourselves dead to sin in the sense that we are released from its tyranny as a result of what Christ has done; and as Christ now lives in a restored relationship with God following his death on the cross, so we are to count ourselves alive to God in Christ.”
- Our responsibility is to take with all seriousness the fact that in Christ we have died to sin[2]
- The very idea of responding positively to sin’s invitation should strike the believer as morbid. For the Christian to choose to sin is the spiritual equivalent of digging up a corpse for fellowship. A genuine death to sin means that the entire perspective of the believer has been radically altered.[3]
B. ILL – working at Save-A-Lot and having a key and coming in the back. After I quiet, the relationship changed and when I shopped I knew everybody working there but did not have access to what was mine before
C. Where do we go from here?
1. We have to have a different mindset
2. Paul says to consider
3. Neither I nor anyone else can give that mindset to you
4. It is something you have to surrender to the Lord in
We are not, therefore, to regard the cross as defeat and the resurrection as victory. Rather, the cross was the victory won, and the resurrection the victory endorsed, proclaimed and demonstrated.
John Stott
[1]Zodhiates, Spiros. The complete word study dictionary: New Testament 2000 : n. pag. Print.
[2]Mounce, Robert H. Romans. Vol. 27. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995. Print. The New American Commentary.
[3]Mounce, Robert H. Romans. Vol. 27. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995. Print. The New American Commentary.