Romans 6 1-11
Pentecost 6
Romans 6:1-11
June 26, 2005
“You Can’t Point Your Finger at a Dead Man”
Introduction: A father walks into the living room of his house. In the middle of the floor he sees a lamp turned over on its side, its base broken and the lamp shade torn and crushed. Immediately he looks at his two children sitting not so innocently on the couch. The father says, “I want to know who did this. Then he points his finger and says, “Somebody has to be accountable for what they have done. Somebody is going to be punished.” After all there are consequences to our actions in this life.
We all know the feeling of guilt, responsibility. We have all squirmed in our chairs, knowing that we are not innocent. We all have felt the pressure of having to pay for our actions, waiting for the other shoe to drop as a consequence to what we have done. A child disobeys his parents, he anticipates the spanking. A husband treats his wife poorly; he considers the cold icy looks and the stormy silence that will follow. A teenager gets in trouble, he thinks, “There is going to be hell to pay.
What we do in life has consequences, some good and some bad. But there is nothing like the terror of having to pay the price for the things we do bad. Sometimes times the things we do in this life have terrible consequences. Take for instance a man that is convicted for killing another person and in turn is sentenced to die. If were normal, if such a thing exists, we would want to seek relief from our accountability. To live as if what we had done had never happen. But is this possible? Perhaps true relief can be had only in death itself. For instance, the man sentenced to die lives with accusing fingers being pointed at him every day. The shouts of his accusers and his own conscious rage around him every day he is alive. But at the moment of death there is no one to point at and no one to hear the shouts. There is relief because judgment has passed, hell has been paid. There is no one to be held accountable because they are dead.
There is relief in death. This is true for us as Christians. The apostle Paul characterizes the Christians life as one of death. That sounds strange, doesn’t it? But it is true. This death occurs for us through baptism. Of course we understand baptism to be a beginning of spiritual life for a Christian. This is true. But when a person is baptized he also dies. That is why St. Paul writes, “Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death.” Baptism is real because it connects us to Christ’s death. Baptism connects us to Christ’s crucifixion. As St. Paul states, “6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Just as Christ was buried after he died on the cross, through baptism we were buried with Him. For, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death…”
Your baptism was picture of your crucifixion and burial with Christ. This death gives us relief and freedom. Where is the one that is to be held accountable for the mistakes that he has made, he is dead. Who is to be held accountable for bad choices and broken relationships, he is dead. Who is to be held accountable for unfaithfulness to God and a lack of love for other people, he is dead. Who is to be held accountable for the sin and disaster that we have made with our lives, that person is dead. You are dead and you are dead to sin…now and forever. Because you died with Jesus Christ on the cross you are no longer accountable. There is no one to point his accusing finger at you. Satan can no longer shout in your ear demanding justice. , justice has been done and hell has been paid. God’s righteous judgment against you has been paid through Jesus death on the cross.
Unfortunately, I think we don’t realize the finality of this. Failure to realize this is where modern Christianity turns into a club of people that are little different from the world. Do you know that today there is a higher percentage of a divorce among Evangelical Christian in America than among atheists? What is wrong with this picture? Paul says, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Unfortunately we go on living our lives as if nothing has happened. We often don’t understand new freedom that we have and continue to live our lives as slaves to sin.
In 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed in America. The word spread from Capitol Hill through out America, and even into the plantations of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. The headlines read, ’Slavery Legally Abolished!’ However, the greater majority of slaves, in the South, went right on living as though there had been no emancipation. They went on living like they had never been set free. In fact, when one Alabama slave was asked what he thought of the Great Emancipator, he replied "I don’t know nothing about Abraham Lincoln except they say he set us free. And, I don’t know nothing about that neither." How tragic. A war was being fought. A document had been signed. Slaves were legally set free. Yet most people continued to live out their years without knowing anything about it. They had chosen to remain slaves. They kept serving the same master throughout their lives. Yet, so it is with many Christian today. They have been set free, yet they have chosen to remain slaves, to serve sin and their old master the Devil.
Today we see our slavery to sin is broken when we are baptized into Christ. Freedom results as we live as dead men in the world. What does this mean for us? Do dead men hold grudges? Do they insist on having things their way? Do they demand their rights? Do dead men live as they please? Dead men do none of these things.
But here is the problem, we don’t live as if we are dead. Our flesh embodies our sinful nature. Out of our hearts flow sinful desires. Pinch yourself and feel the corrupt body that clings to us like dead skin peeing away from the body after a scorching day in the sun. No, we are very much alive and demanding our own ways, refusing to change, to be loving and considerate because the old nature doesn’t want to give in. What did Jesus say in our gospel lesson, “and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it. These are stern words. Then Jesus gives us hope as He continues, “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. 41 Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.
Through the power of God we are able to receive the righteous man’s reward and to live life like dead men. That righteous man is Jesus Christ. Through Him we receive relief from the consequences of sin through the forgiveness of sins, by faith in Jesus Christ.
Do we then return to our old ways? God forbid! Do the children that broke the lamp set out to break another one? Does the teenager continue to do the very thing that brought punishment in the first place? Does the husband continue to treat his wife harshly choosing a house filled with arctic chill? The answer is no and so we as Christians don’t live the way the rest of the world lives. As St. Paul writes, then, “In the same way, count yourself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
In this life the battle rages within us, our flesh and blood fights the Spirit of God within us. We find comfort and relief knowing that the battle has been won and that we will emerge victorious because of what God has done through His Son Jesus Christ. This is our hope, just as we died to sin through baptism, God no longer holds us accountable. Just as some day we will lay these corrupt bodies down in the sleep of death, we will be raised with a new and incorruptible body to eternal life. As the Apostle Paul speaks to us, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. See, you are no longer a slave but freed.
Each day when you rise in the morning say, “Lord, what would you have your servant do, and how would you have me do it?” And as you go to do it, Jesus does it in you. It is no longer your strength or wisdom or love, but His very own being manifested in your mortal life.
Still, why do we struggle so much? Maybe it is because we do not consider ourselves dead to sin? Maybe it is because we allow the Devil or other people to point their fingers at us, continuing to remind us of a past that has been forgotten and forgiven? In His book, “In the Grip of Grace, author Max Lucado tells a story. It’s the story of the boy who was shooting rocks with a slingshot. He could never hit his target. As he was in his Grandma’s backyard one day, he saw her pet duck. On impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck was dead. “The boy panicked and hid the bird in the woodpile, only to look up and se his sister watching. After lunch that day, Grandma told his sister to help with the dishes. She responded, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So, Johnny did the dishes. What choice did he have? For the next several weeks he was at the sink often, sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. “Remember the duck,” Sally would whisper when he objected. So weary of the chore, he decided that any punishment would be better than washing more dishes, so he confessed to killing duck. "I know, Johnny," his Grandma said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgive you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you.” He’d been pardoned, but he thought he was guilty. Why? He had listened to the words of his accuser. (Contributed by: David Yarbrough)
In Christ, you are free! In Christ you are no longer held accountable. In him you have been given new and eternal life. Now, living as dead men in the world you are more alive than ever, because no one can point their finger at a dead man. Amen.
