Living to God

Introduction:

Engage: He is risen! Today we gather to remember that glorious event, when our Lord walked out of his tomb after three days dead in it. That’s why the church as an institution exists at all, becuase 2000 years ago our savior rose from the dead on a Sunday morning, and our weekly meeting is a celebration of that. In fact, the resurrection is so important to all of Christianity that the apostle Paul was compelled by the Holy Spirit to say this about it:

1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Look, I’m not here today to ask the question of whether or not Jesus has been raised. The empty tomb testifies to it. The gospel spreading to the ends of the earth testifies to it. He is risen, it happened, and nothing can undo that historical fact.

Focus: Instead, today, we’ll ask and answer a more pressing question, and that question is this: What does the resurrection of Jesus mean, FOR YOU…? In our daily Christian life, in our battle against sin and our goal of joining Jesus in heaven, what does the resurrection mean “For YOU?”

So let’s go ahead and flip in our Bibles to Romans chapter 6.

STS: We’ll look to the apostle Paul for the answer to this question. In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul writes to the Romans to teach them the good news of Jesus, how his death and his resurrection applies to them. Paul’s intention in this section, is to explore all the benefits of being saved by Jesus. He tells us that God’s mercy is so great, that when our sin increased, and our rebellion should have caused separation from God, God created a way back to himself in Jesus. Paul says that when our sin increased, God’s grace through Jesus abounded all the more.

And becuase of the wonderful grace of God, some of the people of the Roman church might have been tempted to abuse this grace. Some of them thought: “If God’s grace in response to sin is so abundant, why not just keep sinning?”

Imagine I decided to purchase a giant house that I cannot afford. I really made a fool out of my lender, and somehow got the mortgage approved, but there was simply no way I was going to be able to afford the payments. After my bank account is drained, and the lender is about to foreclose on the house. I’m going to be homeless. there’s no way around it. I wanted the instant gratification of 8,000 square feet, but now i can’t even afford a month’s rent in any part of the city. None of my friends or family have a place for me to stay, but just before I’m shut out forever, a mysterious benefactor comes and pays my debt. The whole debt is paid, and not only that, but they give me a humble little home, paid in full. Not only that, but I’m given an inheritance, and a financial advisor. Things are looking very up for me. Now the temptation comes. If this person loves me so much to forgive all my debt, why not just gratify my desires for a mansion again? If I will get such an inheritance, why not just take out one more loan?

Transition: Why not sin so that grace may abound? I think that Paul gives us three reasons in our text today. And the first reason is this, #1 “We’ve Been Moved”.

I. We’ve been Moved!

Restatement: Becuase of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we no longer spiritually dwell where we were. We are some where completely new and better. Let’s read v.1 and 2

Romans 6:1–2 ESV

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Explain Text: So when Paul gets the question of “Should we believers in Jesus just sin then?” He answers, “By NO MEANS!” I really like what the King James says here, “God Forbid!” What he really means is this, “May that never become the reality!” Paul wants that question to be the farthest thing from our lips when we taste the sweet grace of God. And here’s why, we are no longer in sin. Paul imagines sin like a place, like this kingdom of death, where we were trapped. And he says, “How can we still live there? That place that separated us from God, that dulls our sense of who he is and how much he loves us, that brings us pain and suffering, and would have brought us hell, do you really want to stay there?”

He continues in v.3

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

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.

Paul reveals here for us that when we continue in sin, it’s because of a lack of knowledge. He starts it with “Do you not know?” for a reason, it’s because we often forget where we are. When we accepted Christ, and were baptized, we were moved with Jesus from death to life with him. Baptism for us signifies the spiritual reality that has happened to us. With Christ we have been moved into his death, and raised with his life.

Let’s go back to the kingdom analogy. There are two kingdoms we can be in, the kingdom of sin and death, or the kingdom of grace and life. Baptism is the gate of both of these kingdoms. Going down into the water signifies our leaving the kingdom of death, and coming up signifies entering the kingdom of life. The truth is, when we believed and were baptised, we were moved to a kingdom so different that it can be described as going from death to life.

And now, we don’t walk in sin and death, we walk in newness of life. If you want to know what that walk looks like now, look at how Jesus walked. Pure love and freedom even when faced with death. That can be ours, no, that is ours, because we have changed kingdoms. He is risen by the glory of the Father, and so are we. He moved from death to life, and so have we.

Illustration

Let me tell you a story. I’m an extremely heavy sleeper. Anyone know someone who could sleep through a bomb going off? That’s me. When I was 8 years old we had a thunderstorm absolutely tearing through my small town. I’m talking the kind of lightning that shakes your windows. Well, I was completely asleep through the entire thing. Except when my mom woke me up, yelling at me to get up and run to the neighbors house while she got my Dad up and out of our house (he has a disability, so he couldn’t leave without her help.) Anyways, as a stubborn little brat as I was, I protested. Let me go back to sleep! I’m not going to that mean lady’s house and this house is just fine. What I didn’t know was that while we were all sleeping a lightning bolt struck our house right on the top and the house was on fire. My parents awoke from the blast and I was dozing off. And it wasn’t until the police chief called my mom and said, “Your roof is on fire” that we realized the situation. Everything ended up fine, and the firefighters took care of it without major damage.

And just like me in that lightning storm, We were saved by someone outside us, and were called to leave a dangerous place . It took someone on the outside, the Holy Spirit, to shake us awake from our dead sleep and say, “The House is on fire.” Leave right now from this dangerous place! Come with me to somewhere safe! And we did, we believed in Jesus and were led to safety, but like me, sometimes, we protest a bit, and we think it’s safe to go back to that burning house by continuing in sin. Don’t. we don’t belong there anymore. Jesus rose, and now we live with him in newness of life.

Transition: But that’s not all that happened to us when Jesus rose. Paul gives us another reason not to stay in our sins. And that reason is, #2 "We’ve Been United”

II. We’ve been United!

Restatement: Becuase of the death and resurrection of Christ, and our belief in him, we have become one with the son of God. His death and resurrection is ours too.

Resummary: Here’s another way of saying it. Just like we were moved to a new place, we’ve been moved to a new person. Just as we were moved to a new kingdom, we were moved to a new king.

Let’s continue reading the scripture.

Romans 6:5–11 ESV

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. 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. 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.

Union: Paul often talks about believers as being “In Christ.” And here he explains exactly what that means for us. When we believed in Christ we were spiritually united with him in an extremely intimate way. Jesus himself uses the imagery of “vine and branches” to describe this unity.

John 15:5 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

To be united with Christ is to be interwoven with him. It means that when died, we died, and when Jesus rose, we rose. It means that the reality of the cross and empty tomb has become our reality and our salvation. The Scottish pastor, James Stewart described union with Christ in this way. Imagine an onion with its many layers. That’s us. Our first layer, the skin is our physical body. The second layer, is our work life and friendships, the third layer is our values and our deep connections with close friends, the fourth layer is our love for our family, our spouses and kids. The fifth layer is your deep desires, your personality. As you go deeper, you will hit the center of that onion, and there is where You dwell, that’s the deepest part of your soul, and there, Christ is. He’s not a separate layer, he IS that layer, interwoven in the deepest part of who you are. We are not Jesus himself. But we are one with him in a profound and unexplainable way becuase of his Spirit who dwells in us.

Dying:

And what does Paul say about our unity with him? That our old self was crucified with him. Think about this, YOU, not just your sins, but the OLD YOU, was up there on that Cross with Jesus, and that OLD SELF died with him. Paul proclaimed this boldly in Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And he did this so that old self, sinful person might be brought to nothing. Wiped out. Gone. That old person, full of self-destructive sin, is gone, and your sins with ‘em. Can you punish a corpse for its crimes? The Joplin police aren’t going to go to the grave of Bonnie and Clyde, and bring them in on charges from 1933. They’re dead. There’s nothing we can do to punish them anymore.

In the same way If we have died with Christ, God will not punish you for sin, there’s no punishment left. ALL of the punishment has been dealt out on Christ already. And the Father sees you as perfect, just as he sees his son Jesus. Satan’s accusations can’t stick becuase the sinner he’s accusing is already dead.

So the person you are now in Christ is no longer in slavery. Realize this for a second, that sin, which separated you from your loving father, is no longer inevitable for you. So many of us say, “Well, we all do it, I’ll probably sin again, so why fight it?” That’s the wrong attitude to have! YOU ARE FREE! Why on earth, would we indulge in the sin that put Jesus on the cross, and put us on the trajectory to hell, when we don’t have to anymore!

Resurrection:

And not only has sin been destroyed in us, but life have been brought to us through the resurrection of Christ! If we die with him, it’s a promise that we will rise with him. And because he is risen, he will never die again. Which means that we will never die again.

That’s why throughout the new testament the physical death of Christians is described as “falling asleep.” That’s because there is one huge difference between death and sleep. That difference is that you are expected to wake up! So when Paul says that Christ will never die again, he means that we will never die again! Oh listen and take in the freedom of that truth! In Jesus WE ARE INVINCIBLE. Just like he died once and for all, we died once and for all, Just as he rose once and for all, we rise once and for all.

When we receive true eternal life in Jesus, we will never die again. If we have faith in Jesus we will never go back to being dead and separated from God. Now we can walk in power of Christ and the love of Christ and the truth of Christ being unafraid of what anyone can do or say.

This is the mighty truth that Paul asks us to know. Let’s read v.11 again.

Romans 6:11 ESV

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The word here for “consider: in the original languages is a greek math term. Paul is saying, “count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.” DO THE MATH! When Jesus died, you died. When Jesus rose, you rose. Therefore, you are dead to sin and alive to God because of him. DO THE MATH! because Jesus lives forever, you live forever, DO THE MATH! You don’t have to sin anymore!

Transition: So where does this leave us? Jesus’ resurrection has moved us from death to life in union with himself, but what do we do now in our every day lives? In light of the amazing truths that we have just learned, what are we supposed to do? The answer lies in this third and final reason. #3, We Fight!

III. We Fight!

Becuase we’ve been promised freedom from sin, we can obey God freely without fear of judgement. Now, we fight sin and evil with all of our being.

Let’s read the last couple verses of our passage today.

Romans 6:12–14 ESV

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.

Here: Paul commands us to fight in three ways:

The first one is this: Don’t let sin rule over you. We’ve touched on this a little but, but here is where the rubber hits the road. Those sinful habits which plague you every day, don’t let them reign. So often we let sin reign when we struggle to obey. We say, I’m only human. And make excuses for ourselves. The truth is, sinning is anything but human. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God they became less human not more. Here’s how I know. When God created mankind in his image, he created us to be connected to him forever in paradise. It was our sin that separated us from him, that put death in the world, and removed us from that garden. And now, in Jesus, our loving Father created a way back to him. Now we can be truly human, and that means, putting God first, not sin. It means saying no when we are tempted, becuase sin isn’t our master anymore, and we want to obey our new master who saved us. And you CAN say no. By the power of Jesus YOU CAN FIGHT!

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

The second command is this: Don’t fight for the wrong side. The text says, don’t present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. The word “Members” is code for your body. That’s your eyes, your hands, your mouths, your brains. Don’t give those over to sin as instruments, or tools, or weapons for unrighteousness! Don’t let your eyes wander to places they shouldn’t and fight for the wrong side. Don't let your hands destroy and fight for the wrong side. Don’t let your mouths slander and fight for the wrong side. Don’t let your mind think sinful thoughts and fight for the wrong side. Don’t fight for the kingdom of sin, don’t fight for your old, dead self, don’t fight for Satan.

Fight your sin not your Savior.

The Third and final command is this: Fight from your life. This isn’t Fighting for your life. This is fighting from your life. Here’s what that means. Fighting for your life involves fear of death. It means that you avoid sin because you believe that your life is on the line. And the truth is, we have that instinct becuase our sin is what brought death and separation from God, but that’s not our identity anymore. Now we fight from our life. We fight from the life we already have through the resurrection of Jesus. Becuase he is risen, pardon my grammar, we is risen. And that life we now live is one of peace, and joy, becuase the battle we fight has already been won by Jesus. We have nothing to lose anymore.

And all these commands lay on this wonderful promise from God. Let’s read v.14 again.

Romans 6:14 ESV

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

We can fight because that promise is true for us believers. Sin will never be our king again, becuase we aren’t where we used to be. We have gone from lawbreakers to children of God, and that will not change.

Relevancy: Maybe fighting looks like this: When we are tempted to lust with our eyes after people and things that we should not have, We Do the Math. We look instead to the cross and empty tomb. We say to ourselves, “I don’t have to look at that. Sin has no dominion over me”

Or maybe it looks like this: When we are tempted to say angry and bitter words to our spouses, or friends, or enemies, we instead pray. We use our mouth as a weapon for good, and thank Christ for all he’s done.

Or maybe it looks like this: When we are tempted by thoughts of inadequacy and feeling unacceptable, we remember God’s promise, that we are not under law, but under grace. And there we will always have a home becuase we have been raised to life by God himself.

Conclusion

Therefore, with all of this glorious truth, we can answer our main question. What does Jesus’ resurrection mean for you? The answer is this: LIFE. Jesus resurrection means life for you.If you don’t hear anything else in this message, that is what I want you to hear. Jesus’ resurrection means life for you.

Invitation

If you haven’t trusted Christ, if you haven’t trusted the power of his death and resurrection for you. I urge you now. Receive that life. Don’t remain in death. Don’t remain on the path to hell where you are. Believe that Jesus is who he says he is, The Son of God, who came to die on the cross for all your sins, and who rose again on the third day to bring all believers to life with him. Then repent by Accepting God’s invitation to fight sin, and follow Him.

Maybe you have trusted Christ, but have fallen into a pit, you’ve stopped living for him and have gone your own way, confess that to him and follow him. He is gentle and will receive you back with Joy overflowing. Then re-connect to the church for help and guidance.

Conclusion

Through him we all have been moved from death to life, through him we have been crucified and raised, and through him we receive the life-giving grace that frees us from all sin. And that life, is what Easter, is all about.

Pray:

Father I thank you for the great truths you have revealed to us today. We are no longer where we were, we are somewhere much better with you. Lord Jesus, we thank you for making us one with you so that we could receive what you purchased for us with your blood, and so that we could live in the grace you have given to us. Lord, strengthen us in the fight against sin, so that we may worship you with everything we are. In the name of Jesus, king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.