Living in Grace
Nathan Zipfel
Year A - 2019-2020 • Sermon • Submitted
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Have you ever stopped and considered the difference between earning a wage and being given a gift? There really is a huge difference between the two and sometimes the difference is really blurred so much so that you can't really tell if something was earned or whether it was a gift.
I remember when I got my first paycheck. Because it was a union shop I got paid the union wages even though I was considered a temporary employee. I got that first check my second week working and was really excited. I was amazed at how much they paid me for doing something that I loved doing. I was proud as anything when I went to the bank to deposit that first paycheck into my first checking account.
While studying this week I realized just how much we can become slaves to lots of different things such as a time clock, or things, the need to have more and more stuff. Even worse we become slaves to self, the idea that I am the most important person in the world and the world revolves around me. The downfall of that idea is that as Christians ultimately we become slaves to sin.
Working with addicts and alcoholics I am seeing how quickly a person can be come a slave to their drug of choice. They will do and say most anything in order to get that next drink or that next high. Their entire lives revolve around their addiction.
Throughout the early chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans he deals with this issue of sin. Paul in chapter 3 reminds us that all of us have sinned. He wrote: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". That includes every one of us.
As he works through this issue of sin he comes to that passage over in chapter 7 where he comes to that age old struggle with sin that each of us has faced. He wrote:
15 I don’t know what I’m doing, because I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do the thing that I hate. 16 But if I’m doing the thing that I don’t want to do, I’m agreeing that the Law is right. 17 But now I’m not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it’s sin that lives in me. 18 I know that good doesn’t live in me—that is, in my body. The desire to do good is inside of me, but I can’t do it. 19 I don’t do the good that I want to do, but I do the evil that I don’t want to do. 20 But if I do the very thing that I don’t want to do, then I’m not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it is sin that lives in me that is doing it.
Have you been there with that struggle? Doing the very things you don't want to do but you do them anyways? That's the result of sin, the damage that it does to our lives.
Our text this morning starts out with the phrase “so then.” That is another way of saying “therefore.” Paul says there in verse 12
12 So then, don’t let sin rule your body, so that you do what it wants.
Why? Why is that important to Paul to point that out and make reference to it?
This is my own personal opinion about this but I think it squares with Paul's writings and it's this - It's not about you! For far too long in Christianity here in the United States we've made Christianity all about us, you and me and what we can get out of it. We've made faith intensely personal so that we can mold it and make it into what we want it to be so that we can get the most out of it.
I took a look at the top 10 Christian books for the month of June. The are:
RELATIONSHIP GOALS
THE 5 LOVE LANGUAGES
RELATIONSHIP GOALS STUDY GUIDE
GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD
TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER
JESUS CALLING
GIRL, WASH YOUR FACE
FIERCE, FREE, AND FULL OF FIRE
LIVE
IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY
Looking at that list, there is one book that is a devotional, but the rest are self-help, fix me books.
Christianity is not about me, it's about Him, Jesus, the one who died on the cross and rose from the grave and sits at the right hand of God the Father. Becoming a Christian is not about just getting a "get out of Hell free card". It's about falling in love with the God who created the universe, who loved us so much that He sent His son to die in our place to take upon himself the sins of the entire world.
He came to do this to give us a totally new life. Christianity is not just an add on or an accessory to this life. It's an entirely new life through Jesus Christ.
Paul writes in verses 1 and 2
1 So what are we going to say? Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply? 2 Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it?
So when Paul writes in verse 12
12 So then, don’t let sin rule your body, so that you do what it wants.
Paul is pointing back to what he's saying here in the early parts of this chapter.
Paul is saying that we died to sin, don't let it reign in your life. It's an oxymoron, a sinning Christian. To reign means "to possess or exercise sovereign power or authority." When we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, the power, the reign of sin in our life is broken. It no longer exercises power and authority over us. There is no place in the life of a Christian for sin.
Paul takes it a little further and tells us that when we are baptized we died to sin and were raised to new life. The symbolism of being put under the water is of dying and the coming out of the water is the resurrection to a new life. Dr Greathouse wrote:
Because of what Christ has done for us, we are no longer helpless slaves to sin. In fact, the enslaving power of sin in our lives is broken. Sin no longer reigns as our master. Through the liberating power of Christ’s saving death we are free not to sin. For the first time in our lives we can say no to sin. We no longer live in Adam but in Christ. Thus, our past does not determine our present or future. Thoroughly changed, the person we once were is “dead.” It is as if we enjoy a new life that is not our own.
Water baptism does not effect this reality, but it is a visible demonstration of our faith in the saving benefits of Christ’s death. Christ is the Liberator. Faith accepts the freedom he offers. Baptism is only the tangible expression of that faith. But it is more. With our “burial” beneath the baptismal waters, a bond of unity is created with Christ. Our baptism reenacts the burial and resurrection of Christ, and we participate in the drama of salvation with him. [1]
Did you catch what I said a moment ago? The person we once were is “dead.” When we come to saving faith in Jesus that person that we were up to that point dies, we die to sin. When we come to saving faith in Jesus we live a new life. All those sins that once defined us we died to. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Paul writing to the church at Corinth said "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Allow that to sink in. To many Christians live in the past, they live in the "if only".
You know, if only this hadn't happened to me, if only I hadn't done that. They live still trapped by the sin of their past. It's time to say stop it, enough is enough. As Paul said, if you are in Christ, if you've come to saving faith in Christ then the past is forgiven, you've been given a brand new life in Christ!
I do want to be sensitive to those who suffered abuse at the hands of others. That was not your fault - it's their sin, not yours. Don't hold onto it as yours, don't own it, it doesn't belong to you, it belongs to them. God can bring healing to those very painful memories that you live with. Those painful memories are like a sickness, they can stunt our spiritual and emotional health, but God can heal them.
James wrote:
14 If any of you are sick, they should call for the elders of the church, and the elders should pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven.
In Verse 12 of our text Paul seems to change gears, he writes:
12 So then, don’t let sin rule your body, so that you do what it wants.
Because of what God through Jesus has done for us Paul says, do not let sin reign in your life. He goes on and says "Don’t offer parts of your body to sin".
When we offer something to someone we're making it available to them for their use. Take for example you have a friend that who's doing some remodeling to their house and he needs a truck to pick up some building supplies. You have a truck so you offer it to him to use to run to Lowe's to pick up what he needs. What have you done? You've made your truck available to him to use. It was a conscious decision on your part to allow him to borrow your truck.
When you offer the parts of your body to sin, you are making the conscious decision to sin. You are making yourself available to participate in that sin whatever it may be. Growing up I don't know how many messages I heard on this text related to sexual sin. It includes that but it is so much more.
Take for example when you're with a group of people and they are talking badly about someone then you are offering yourself to the sin of slander.
What if a friend comes up to you and says "Did you hear about...." and you join in listening to the latest story and then you call another friend and tell them what you heard, you've offered yourself to the sin of gossip.
What if you hear about someone you know who recently made a purchase of something fairly expensive and then you sit around trying to figure out how they could afford it and then say to others that "it must be nice to be able to buy that". When you do that you're offering yourself to the sin of envy.
What if in Church you sing and praise God with the rest of the congregation but after the service someone asks for help with a ministry project and you just blow them off treating them like you're better than them and that you have no time for them. You're offering yourself to the sin of arrogance and insolence.
Do you see that there is so many ways that we can offer ourselves to sin? It really is a conscious choice on our part. Read more about that in Romans chapter 1. Sin doesn't just happen, it doesn't sneak up on us. Temptation may sneak up on us, catch us at a weak moment. Temptation isn't sin, it's what we do with that temptation that matters.
Paul says don't do it, don't offer yourself to sin, don't let it have control in your life. He's not just telling us what not to do, he's also telling us what to do. He finishes his thought when he writes "but rather offer yourselves to God". Offer yourselves to God. Doesn't Paul use similar language elsewhere in his writing?
1 So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service. 2 Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.
Christianity is not just about a list of things we shouldn't do. It's primary purpose is not avoiding this list of things in fear that if you step out of line God is going to zap you with a lightning bolt from Heaven.
Christianity is about falling in love with God who sent Jesus Christ to take your sins and mine and to suffer and die on the cross for them and then to be raised again so that we to might be raised to a new life through Him! Through the mighty power of the Holy Spirit we can be transformed into the very likeness of Christ.
Paul says that we have been brought from death to life and now, today is the time to offer ourselves, to make ourselves available to God as an instrument of righteousness. You see there really is only two choices. We can offer, make available our lives to wickedness or we can offer, make available our lives to righteousness. The choice is ours. It's a choice that we need to make daily.
There are far too many Christians who embrace the notion that because they went to an altar and prayed and accepted Jesus years ago that they don't need to do anything more. It's that concept of once you get saved you're always saved.
It's like buying fire insurance, I got it so I don't need to worry about it any longer, I can live anyway I want to now because I got my get out of hell free card. They are so wrong.
Paul says there is the last portion of verse 13:
Common English Bible Chapter 6
Instead, present yourselves to God as people who have been brought back to life from the dead, and offer all the parts of your body to God to be used as weapons to do right
Do you see what he says? “Present yourselves to God as people who have been brought back to life from the dead.” That is the case for us. We once were dead in sin. Now were are to live as “people who have been brought back to life from the dead” because in fact we have.
Make that decision today to offer yourself to God. Tomorrow make that decision to offer yourself to God. Pick up your cross daily and follow Him.
Paul even touches on that false idea of once saved your always saved. He asks the question "Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" Of course the answer is a resounding No!
Paul next turns to the idea of slavery. When we offer ourselves to sin, when we make ourselves available to sin we become slaves to that sin. It owns us, we don't own it. Where does sin lead to? Sin leads to death, separation from God.
The other choice is slavery or obedience to righteousness. Slavery to God or obedience to God leads to righteousness. Where does righteousness lead us to? Look at verse 19:
19 (I’m speaking with ordinary metaphors because of your limitations.) Once, you offered the parts of your body to be used as slaves to impurity and to lawless behavior that leads to still more lawless behavior. Now, you should present the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness, which makes your lives holy.
Righteousness leads to holiness. Peter wrote about this very same issue in 1 Peter 1, he wrote:
13 Therefore, once you have your minds ready for action and you are thinking clearly, place your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 Don’t be conformed to your former desires, those that shaped you when you were ignorant. But, as obedient children, 15 you must be holy in every aspect of your lives, just as the one who called you is holy.
Paul says that as Christians we've been set free. Look at verses 22 and 23
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God, you have the consequence of a holy life, and the outcome is eternal life. 23 The wages that sin pays are death, but God’s gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The choice is yours. Who are you a slave to? As a Christian you've been set free from sin and have become a slave, obedient to God and the benefit of that relationship is holiness, the result of the relationship is eternal life. You are called to live in Grace.
If we choose to go back to living in sin, the wages of that arrangement is death. That's sounds pretty dire because it is. If after coming to saving faith in Jesus and you turn back to sin the result if you don't turn back is death, spiritual death, separation from God.
But, Paul says: "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Who have you chosen? Are you choosing death, slavery to sin? Or are you choosing new life in Christ, obedience to God, holiness, eternal life through Jesus? The choice is yours.
[1]Greathouse, W. M., & Lyons, G. (2008). Romans 1-8: A commentary in the Wesleyan tradition (174). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City.