A New Life
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
My favorite fiction story is The Count of Monte Cristo. If you’ve seen the movie with Jim Caviezel, it does not do the book justice. Rarely do movies ever do the book justice. In fact, the movie is hardly anything like the book at all! Part of why I love the book so much is the way that Alexander Dumas interwove the entire story. But if you’re not familiar with the plot, a man by the name of Edmond Dantes is unjustly put into the Chateau d’if, a horrible and inescapable French prison, much like Alcatraz. While there, he lost everything. His father died of heartbreak. His fiance married his supposed friend who was behind his imprisonment. The boss that he loved, lost his fleet of ships and went into massive debt, losing his business and nearly his own life. But Edmond, having learned multiple languages, etiquette, and how to read from a fellow prisoner, escaped the island. When the guards realized he was gone, they searched for him, but believed him to have drowned. No one would be able to swim the 2 miles in the weak condition a prisoner would be in. No one ever sought Edmond Dantes after his escape. Word got around to his fiance, boss, and friends that he had died. From that point on, Edmond Dantes took on a new identity. He found a hidden treasure, which for all intents and purposes made him the wealthiest man in all of Europe. He took on the title, Count of Monte Cristo. And that is just the beginning of the story.
In Romans 6, Paul continuously brings up that we have died. Died to sin. In the first 14 verses of Romans 6, Paul mentions the word death or dead 11 times. If you count crucified, it is even more than that. Which tells us that this idea of being dead to sin is critical in Paul’s mind as it pertains to the Christian life, and therefore, we should see it to be a vital point to living a victorious life as a believer in Christ. As Paul details the importance of being dead to sin, we see him make three assertions about a believer’s new life. The first assertion is that the believer is not to use grace to excuse his sin but to comfort his soul. The second assertion is that the believer is dead to sin. Finally, Paul asserts that the believer is risen to a new life, a new identity in Christ.
Grace to comfort
Dead to sin
Risen to new life
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?
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.
Grace is to Comfort
Grace is to Comfort
It is imperative for the believer to understand the magnitude of God’s grace. For the last three weeks, I have been touting the grace of God. In fact, I can imagine that some have become a bit uncomfortable about my making so much of God’s grace. Chris seems to be turning into one of those “God is love” preachers that says sin is okay because God loves them anyway and his grace washes all of it away. I would never say that sin is okay. But I most certainly would say that God is love and his love and grace certainly washes all of our sins away. Looking at chapter 5, as we have over the last three weeks, all I can see is Paul making much of God’s grace and love. In a fear of sounding like those preachers who excuse sin under the guise of God is love, I think many (if not most) Christians have swung the pendulum so far away from it, that we have lost the power and beauty and joy of God’s grace.
Going back through chapter 5, we see that we have been justified by faith in Jesus and therefore have peace with God, access to righteous-declaring grace, and rejoice in hope of God’s glory, which does not put to shame. Why? Because God poured out his love into us when he gave us his Spirit. He stands shoulder to shoulder with his love by having Jesus die while we were still sinners and turned enemies into friends who no longer have to worry about wrath, but can rejoice in the hope of glory. And how did it all happen? Jesus came to earth as a better Adam, and so a better representative for us. Being under Jesus’s headship was a work of grace, in which grace proved itself stronger than sin. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. In essence, we need not worry about sin getting the upper hand. Grace always wins! Every part of Romans 5 is shouting God’s grace from the mountain tops.
Those are words of comfort. They are meant to comfort the weary saint who sees only his or her sin. That man who stayed up late on his computer and hates himself this morning. That mom who lost her temper again because the dishes were left on the table again and wonders what’s wrong with her. The teen who went out with his friends doing who knows what now is kicking himself. The young lady who promised she wouldn’t spread gossip any more, but just had to pass on such juicy news and is now feels the failure. Grace! Grace overcomes every sin! Take comfort in grace! Understand that it is grace that makes 1 John 1:9 possible.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confession of sin leads to Jesus’s faithfulness to forgive sin. No need to doubt. He is trustworthy. His promise is credible. Why? Grace. He is just to forgive. He is right and good to forgive. Why? Grace makes it right! God is both the Just and the Justifier. Why? Because of his grace.
But because Paul made such a huge deal about grace and gaining comfort in grace, he wanted to be sure to give it a caveat. Don’t use grace as an excuse.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
After all that we’ve seen about grace; after all that grace has done and is doing for us; after all that comfort we gain from grace; after all that, what shall we say? Do we continue in sin for the purpose of grace abounding? The answer is in verse 2. By no means! May it never be! Shall Edmond Dantes stay imprisoned on the Chateau d’If so that he abound in his studies of languages, etiquette, and reading? Are you kidding!? Absolutely not! That’s just silly!
Anyone who thinks that has a low view of grace. Don’t get me wrong, what we saw in chapter 5 was grace bringing comfort in spite of our sins. Paul was correct when he said that where sin increases, grace abounds all the more. Grace does so much for us when we sin. But grace’s job does not include only comfort and forgiveness when we sin. Grace has so much more power than forgiveness. Therefore, we must not use grace as an excuse to stay in sin.
You see, Edmond Dantes was being taught by a fellow prisoner, a priest, not just to pass the time away as they rotted in the dungeon. The priest had a plan of escape. When they escaped, he wanted Edmond to use all the knowledge gave to him to make himself into a new man. He never expected Edmond to stay in the Chateau d’If. Nor does God expect us to stay in sin. He has given all this grace to us because he is making us into a new man, a new woman, a new child.
Dead to Sin
Dead to Sin
Which leads us to the second assertion that Paul made. The first assertion was that grace was a comfort for when we sin, but it is not an excuse to sin. The second assertion is the reason behind the first assertion; we are dead to sin.
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
People often make the mistake of reading Romans 6:2 in a way that Paul wasn’t intending. They reverse the order of what he wrote. Instead of “we who died to sin” they read, “sin which died to us.” If we do this, we’ve made a fatal mistake. There is a monumental difference between saying we died to sin and sin died to us. To say that we died to sin is like saying that the guards at the Chateau d’If believed Edmond to be dead. He was dead to them. But to say that sin died to us, would be equivalent to saying that the Chateau d’If died to Edmond, as if he was no longer affected by the prison; he no longer was haunted by it.
Yet because Edmond was declared dead by those in the Chateau d’If, he was no longer in prison. He no longer ate there. He no longer slept there. He was no longer tortured there. Yet the Chateau d’If never died to Edmond. His wounds from the whips were real. The nightmares were real. But even with these buried deep in the heart and mind of Dantes, he never once went back to the Chateau d’If to live in it. Never did the guards make there rounds and discover, “Hey! Edmond’s back! I guess he wasn’t dead after all!” He did not remain there. He was free because he was dead to his prison.
Paul wrote to those in Rome and to us, we are dead to sin. And then he explains how that happened. The believer is baptized into Christ Jesus. He is not referring to water baptism here. He is referring to spiritual baptism. But that spiritual baptism is symbolized by water baptism. But it is important that we don’t mistake the spiritual baptism that Paul is referring to here with water baptism, lest we think that without water baptism we cannot over come sin or have a new life.
Now as Baptists, I hope that we all know the meaning of baptism. It means immersion. It doesn’t actually mean to dunk or to dip. It means to immerse. We are immersed in water, and in this case we are immersed in Christ Jesus. When we think of the word baptized, we think of this baptismal pool and putting a person into it by helping them kneel backwards. But baptism was a common word in first century life. It often was not used in a religious sense. It was often used as a way of speaking of drowning, or being shipwrecked and being plunged into the sea. Jesus asked the disciples in Mark 10 if they were willing to be baptized with the baptism he would have, and in Luke 12 reemphasized that there was a certain baptism he’d experience alluding to his death. Here Paul wrote that we were baptized with him in his death. Buried, verse 4 says, with him through baptism. As water envelops the body, so Jesus envelops the soul, which means that whatever happened to Jesus, happened to us. That’s why Paul wrote that when we were baptized, plunged, immersed, enwrapped into Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death. Thus when Jesus died for sin, we died to sin. In Romans 4:25 tells us that Jesus died for our sin. Now in Romans 6:2, we see that we died to sin.
A few days before Edmond and the priest were to attempt their escape, the priest died. While the guards were gone, Edmond wrapped himself in the body bag of the priest thinking they’d bury him and he’d dig his way out; he put the priest in his cell instead. When the guards returned, they threw him over the walls and into the sea with a canon ball chained to the bag. Like Edmond wrapped in that body bag and plunged into the water freed from the Chateau d’If, so we are enwrapped in Christ and baptized into his death. We have immediately been freed from the imprisonment of sin.
You see, the emphasis is that at that moment our address changed. The moment that we believed, being buried into Christ Jesus’s death, we received a change of address. We were in Adam and thus in sin and death reigned in us. But when we transferred to be in Christ, we died. It is as if sin got cheated out of its subjects. It would hold onto us as subjects or prisoners until we died. But when we put our trust in Jesus, we died! The only way to escape from the rule of sin/death is if we died, so God in grace put us to death in Christ.
Raised to New Life
Raised to New Life
But this leads us to the third assertion that Paul made. The first is that grace is to be used as a comfort and not as an excuse. The second is that we are dead to sin (but it is not the other way around). The third assertion is that we are raised to new life. Just as Jesus did not stay dead, neither did we. Because we are in Christ. What happens to him, happens to us.
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.
Why did we die? It wasn’t just to die. It wasn’t just to escape the Chateau d’If, the prison of sin. We were buried with Christ (and here is the purpose!), in order that, so that, for the purpose of walking in newness of life.
You see, grace put us to death. If we only see grace as a means of forgiveness and comfort, we only get a small picture of the power of grace (as great as that power already looks!). God, in his grace, joined us with Christ (as our federal head) so that when he died, by grace we died to sin. But when he rose from the dead, by grace we rose too. But the purpose is to walk in newness of life. When Jesus died for our sin, we died to sin. When Jesus rose for our righteousness, we rose to new life. Paul wrote something similar to the Ephesians.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We were created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good works. Thus, we should walk in them. Those good works cannot be done until we are made new. And so, we were created anew in Christ Jesus. To put it another way,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
This is grace! This is God’s radical gospel that changes everything! Edmond Dantes died, but the Count of Monte Cristo lived. You, beloved, you who have put your trust in Jesus, died to who you were in sin and in Adam. But you were also raised to a new life, a new identity in Christ Jesus. Your spiritual resurrection is just as much a fact as the resurrection of Jesus’s body. Stop and think about who you could be. Think of the power of grace to conquer sin and live free. Sadly, most of us react with the same reaction of Dantes who, when the priest told him of the two-million gold roman crowns, some $13,000,000 and jewels on top hidden in a crevice of Monte Cristo, replied, “Impossible!” We cannot imagine it to be possible. It’s too grand a thought, but Paul says its true!
The purpose of dying and rising again was so that we might walk in newness of life. The “might” there is what we call the subjunctive mood. It’s used when a purpose is brought up. It’s not so much that God may give us new life but may not. The might isn’t on God’s end, but on our own. God gives the new life but will we walk in it? The treasure is given; will we live by it?
But what does it mean to walk in a new life. Perhaps I can explain using the Count of Monte Cristo again. When Edmond found the treasure, everything changed. He blessed many with his riches. He didn’t keep it for himself alone. He paid all the debts of his former boss who had lost everything. He built a new boat for him that came to harbor with goods from India that would put him back on his feet forever.
But he also caused the financial ruin of those who were behind his imprisonment. His friend who lusted after his fiance. His coworker who envied that he was made the youngest captain in the fleet. The deputy public prosecutor who desired power. Now one may say, “Chris, we are not to seek vengeance on those who wrong us.” And that is true, but if we see these men not as men, but as the evil that imprisoned Edmond sentencing him to death in the Chateau d’If, then it shows us that we have been given grace to fight against the evil that imprisoned us for so long. We fight a war with sin through grace! Edmond Dantes had no way to fight against his enemies, but the Count had an immeasurable treasure to do so. Imprisoned me has no way to fight, but dead and risen to new life me, has all the treasures of grace to help fight sin. It is not a matter of it being at my disposal; it is. It is only a matter of using it as I walk in newness of life and use the treasure to make war against the enemy which imprisoned me for so long.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish with Romans 6:1-4, I hope we’ve come to see that grace is more than just a comfort for when we sin. In these four verses Paul asserted first that grace never gives an excuse to sin or remain living in sin. Second, that grace has set us free by joining each believer to Jesus so that when Jesus died, we died. And third, when Jesus rose, we rose. Just as Jesus walked in a new body, we walk in a new life. Do you see why it is imperative to believe that we have died to sin. Even more imperative to understand what it means to walk in the newness of life.
You who have put your hope and trust in Jesus, you have this grace in you. You have treasure upon treasure, grace upon grace, with which you can bless those around you and fight sin within you. No, sin has not yet died to you, but you have died to it. You, in God’s grace, have the power to attack, ruin, and destroy that which imprisoned you for so long.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
That bitterness that lingers can be overcome by God’s treasury of grace. That lust that remains from years of pornography can be defeated by God’s treasury of grace. That gossip-slandering tongue that sets the forests on fire can be extinguished with the treasure of God’s grace. Whatever that besetting sin is in your life can be overcome by the treasury of God grace and if or when you trip over it, that same grace reminds you of Jesus’s faithful and just forgiveness.
But if you have never put your hope in Jesus, you are powerless on your own. You are still imprisoned in your own sin and are waiting to die in those four walls. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Jesus lived as a man on this earth, perfectly obeying God every moment of every day. He died for your trespasses, and if you will trust him, you die to your sin. He rose against three days later for your righteousness, and if you put your hope and trust in him, you are raised to walk in newness of life. I would love to talk with you about this today.