Dead To Sin, but Alive in Christ

Michael, Dennis family, brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. May God grant you grace, peace and strength this day as we mourn for your brother, Stephen.

As I said in our meeting together last week, this is not going to be easy. Even the message for today is not a promise of hope, necessarily, for your brother, Stephen. As I also mentioned last week, this message is for you and the rest of his family who are left with questions that may not be able to be answered. Mental illness can be very destructive to a person. Not only their own life but also the lives of those around them. Michael, you certainly know this first hand, as you and your brother had your moments when neither of you could work through things peacefully. Sin always gets in the way of our relationships, and people with severe mental illness, like your brother, who was held in bondage by schizophrenia.

The text that we consider today is Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians. He writes to them this chapter specifically with words of warning about continuing in sin after coming to faith. “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?”

In baptism, we were crucified with Him, with Jesus who took all our sin and crucified it with Himself conquering sin and the power of Satan in one act of self-less love. And so, we follow Paul’s instruction from the Lord to us, “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 are no longer enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” (vv 6-7).

Michael, as you have been baptized into Christ, you are now dead to sin, and alive in your Savior who gave His life for you. in order to flee from sin, one must submit themselves to the Lord. As James, the half-brother of Jesus tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:7–10, ESV) .

Even though Stephen was baptized into Christ, later in life he rejected him. This is a sad fact, Michael, as well you know. This leaves today a day of true mourning. As I stated earlier, this message from the Lord today is for you, and the rest of your family. It is not to late for you. You all heed the word of the Lord through His apostle Paul, “So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members (that is your body and it’s parts) 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” (vv 11-14).

I know full well how difficult this is from time to time. I too, am just like you all. There are times in my life when the good that I want to do is not what I find myself doing, rather the evil that I don’t want to do is what I find myself doing from time to time. Even Paul wrestled with his flesh that is sold under sin. He goes into this very deeply in the very next chapter of Romans. He confesses that he himself is a wretched man…and He pleads “who will save me from this body of death?” Then he points directly to the cross of Jesus, in a resounding verse of praise, “But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

There is a war being fought over your soul. The temptation is very great to toss God aside and live as the world lives. To give into temptation, to jump headlong into sin and allow it to master you. I know how hard it is to live as a Christian in the world we live in today. It appears that those who reject God are the ones having all the fun, the ones who are successful, the ones who have the wealth and prestige.

Look at your brother Stephen. This is the end result for each and everyone of us. However, this mortal life is so very short compared to eternity. Eternity with God is forever, it never has an end. And the greatest thing about this life that our Lord Jesus died for and was raised from the dead for, sin will no longer be a part of our lives. And as sin is not a part of us anymore, none of this stuff will ever be in our lives either. No longer will we death, which is staring us in the face today, especially eternal death. There will be no more suffering, no more crying, no more temptation, and no more sin.

This is the beautiful final result of the Gospel. Jesus Christ died for you. He endured the shame and torture and death that each one of us deserve for the things that we do. He even suffered through His Father in heaven turning away from Him during those final hours of agonizing death, because as Paul tells us, “For our sake He (that is God) made Him (that is Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV). He did all of this for you. He took all of your sins upon Himself and He paid the price demanded by God the Father as a penalty for those sins. You have forgiveness now. But even more than His crucifixion, there is the most important part, His resurrection. As Christ was raised on Easter morning, He has even conquered our final enemy, death itself. None of you have to end up in hell. But that is a decision that you must make for yourselves.

Michael, and all you who have been baptized, have put on Christ. As our text says, that all who are baptized have been baptized into Christ, you are in Christ Jesus now. And as you have communed here at this altar, you have received the body and blood of Jesus. So, not only are you in Jesus, but He is also in you. And so I also share with you this one last piece from Paul, “Working together with him (that is with God), then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:1–2, ESV)

Michael, and Dennis family, I know this is a very difficult time for you all. This message has not been easy for you to hear either. But now is the favorable time. I urge you to seriously consider this day whom you will serve. You can continue to serve yourself, giving in to the passions of your flesh, doing what is right in your own eyes, or you can faithfully serve the Lord. The choice is yours. There is no obstacle in your way, Christ comes to you today with a message of redemption, a message of hope for you all. He has done everything for you and your salvation. Do you believe this?

If you have never heard this, or have been questioning Jesus, know for certain that He loves you beyond what you can ever know or understand. His love for you took Him to the cross just for you. His love for you led Him to pray for you. As those Roman soldiers were nailing Him to the cross, He prayed “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” And you know, all of us have had that time in our lives where we did not know what we were doing. Baptized into Christ Jesus, sometimes we act as if that is our fire insurance. That we could live how we wished and it did not matter to God. Well, it certainly does. If it didn’t Jesus would not have to have been born for the purpose of that horrifying death.

Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven, and He now sits at the right hand of the Father. That is a place of authority, a place of unparalleled honor and glory. But the greatest thing of all, is that as He sits in that position, He has His Father’s ear. And He prays on behalf of you to His Father. He wants you to join Him in the everlasting life of His paradise.

And this is where I leave you with these closing words, a vision given to the apostle John, in Revelation we read what is coming for all who believe and are baptized:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”” (Revelation 21:1–8, ESV)

You all who believe in Christ Jesus, that He paid for all your sins, and you confess Him with your own mouth in the presence of others, you will receive the crown of life. You will behold your savior face to face, as He welcomes you into His Father’s paradise, and He will walk up to welcome you, gently place His nail scarred hands on your face and with the swipe of His thumb, He will wipe away those last tears from your eyes. You will never cry again, you will never suffer again, and most importantly, you will never die!