One Life! Romans 6:1-14

Let’s start with a BIG idea: “How can we live a faithful Christian life”?

86,400 (seconds): Some of us may know what this number represents. It can also be expressed as 1,440 (min) or even 24 (hours).

86,400

1440

24

1

30

365

It goes without saying that we only have one “life” and it’s made up of these smaller increments of “time”. If I only have one life here on earth, then how I spend that resource is really important!

Have you ever experienced a situation where a system or machine is working properly? Everything is adjusted just perfectly. The systems that are supposed to work, are actually working together and things are going well? Or maybe a process you are working through on a computer creates the output that is just the way it should be?

How about a game, or a team, or even just one player, in a basketball game where everything seems to be working just right? Timing, passing, shooting, moving through plays or a defensive strategy? That’s how teams win the game, right— executing the right decisions and making the right adjustments. When we see it, we can really appreciate the time and effort that it takes to get something like this to happen, right?

How can we create those situations for our life? Is my life “working” properly? What does that even mean in today’s fast-paced, high stressed, culture? And how much control to I actually have in this? Is it really up to me to make choices and act a certain way to have life work well, or is it just all up to chance— a random, daily guess if my life “works” or not? What does that mean to you?

Let me remind you of the passage I shared a couple weeks ago— Remember this concept, that Jesus died for us— and then we are living for him?

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I actually believe we do have some control and influence here— WE do have choices. And much like these examples I’ve mentioned, I would like to submit to you today that there are three main components to living the life God intends for you. I want to use a real-life illustration that most of us can probably relate to. Living a Christ-centered life, could be a lot like training and playing basketball. I know it’s a little early for this comparison, but some of you know I do love the game, and have played it most of my life. This is definitely a basketball community, right? I predict most of us will understand the parallels! Let’s see what similarities there are with living this Christ-Centered life in Jesus— and becoming better at the game of Basketball.

Let’s turn in our bibles to the book of Romans— we’ll examine a few verses there in chapter 6. It’s a deep and thoughtful passage— so hang on tight and work to focus with me here.

Step #1: We must learn all about our new life in Christ.

Chap 6 he jumps right in with some logical points that educate us about the life we have when we accept Christ as our saviour and believe in him.

You have to thoroughly learn about your new life in Christ. Paul stressed this in these verses. A general starting point that I want to share is that we all experience this conflict between our sinful nature— the tendency to do the things we know we shouldn’t want to do— with our “more Godly” nature, or actually the Holy Spirit’s leadership and guidance for us to “do what is faithful” to our Lord and what we know holiness and faith would have us do. There is a battle there— and Paul starts in chapter 6 like this:

Romans 6:1-3 “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?”

He states that it would make sense logically, that we who have believed in Jesus— have declared Him as our Lord— would not continue in sin. That we have “joined him” in his death— and ultimately we are different. There is a different way of doing things- a different way of living life.

Basketball is kind of like that also— When you are first starting out, there are a lot of strange rules, aren’t there? You can’t walk or run with the ball— you must bounce it. And you can only bounce it with one hand at a time. And your hand has to stay basically on top of the ball. There is a pivot foot— etc. These are the very basics of the game structure, and if you don’t know these rules, its just not going to go very well for you, right? All beginners need to be reminded and they need to learn to function within these new parameters. Actually what we are taught is that their is a whole new set of rules for the way you move with the ball, right? And the more comfortable you become with these new rules, the better you will function in the game. Like we even want you to be able to look up from dribbling to see the whole floor! We have to give up on any other way of moving with the ball. That is sometimes really hard for some people to understand— and if they can’t get the rules down pat first— they really can’t progress with the game very well. I can remember being a new player— like probably 5-6th grade, and I had completely no idea what was going on most of the time in the game. There were whistles blowing, and hand motions, and people throwing the ball all over the place— I actually knew just enough to sort of play, but actually those were scary, and very intimidating times. I was cautious, didn’t want to make a mistake, so I really didn’t actually contribute very much. I needed so much more time to learn the rules and the skills.

Our Christian “Life” is a little like that too isn’t it? Remember back to the time when you first believed. You really were excited, but needed to learn so much. One of the first things Paul wants you to learn and remember here--

Our new life in Jesus starts with a death and a burial.

To set some context— Paul has just finished speaking about how Adam, the first man, brought Death to us and into the world through his disobedience (sin), and how also Jesus brings LIFE to us and the world because of his Obedience (victory over the grave).

This death is a critical part of our faith, that many of us may have either forgotten or we never considered it this way.

Lets think back to either our own baptism, or a recent baptism that we’ve observed. Remember what that meant? It was an outward representation, a picture, of what has happened to this person on the inside, right? This is a symbolic sacrament that is a public display of our belief and trust in Jesus as our savior! It’s like Paul is emphasizing the “first part” of the baptism. We are buried with Christ- Dying to our selves and being Crucified with Jesus.

Now— the point Paul is making here, is that if in fact you and I have been baptized into Christ— we actually have been baptized into his Death— with him. AND if that has actually happened inside us— why would be continue to go on willfully sinning? We actually would never do that, right, because that old sinful nature was crucified with Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve actually had that experience in my mind, and in my soul. Yes, I’ve prayed through the process of understanding that the Galatians passage states— I have been crucified with Christ. My sinful nature — my sinful past, my sinful flesh, my sinful desires, have been nailed to the cross— placed on Jesus.

That’s the first part of the baptism sacrament! There is a second part thought too— right?

Romans 6:4–7 (ESV)

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.

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.

Think about that for a moment. It reminds me of the idea of a debt that we might owe. Have you ever paid off a larger loan— like a mortgage, or other debt? When we are free from that debt— we are no longer tied to that payment, that obligation. When we are crucified with Christ— our sinful nature no longer has a hold on us. I’ve even gone as far as to reply to a sinful thought or temptation: Oh, no— I’m so sorry, that guy is dead. He may have been like that before— but He’s gone. So - I don’t know what to tell you— I’m not that guy, and I’m not doing that.

Romans 6:8–9 ESV

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.

Just like Jesus came out of the grave in resurrection power, we also come out of the water in that same resurrection power! Hallelujah!

Step #2: We must trust in our new life in Christ.

God wants us to know about our new life in the deepest part of your heart, but that is not quite enough for victory. You have to start consciously trusting your new life daily. By faith, you have to start living the new life.

Back to basketball. There is an instinct that develops in basketball players. There is a rhythm and pace to how they act during the game. Some call it the “speed of the game”. As we learn more and more about the game, the ball, the way people are moving— we can predict and develop an “instinct” to how the game will go. This comes for Basketball players with LOTS OF TIME PLAYING THE GAME> I have a great story about how I became a better basketball player. My small town didn’t have a lot of opportunities to play very often. I had spent a TON of time drilling and practicing, I could dribble, pass, shoot— but lacked playing time— real game experience! My dad had some friends in a nearby city— older fellas who played pick-up games at an urban community center on Saturday mornings. This is EXACTLY what I needed. Real game experience— with mentors and team mates who played at an extremely high level of pace and speed. These times forced me to put what I had learned into motion FASTER— and I got tremendously better quite quickly by hanging out and playing with those older men.

I needed to TRUST my training and show up each week to be the best I could be. It exposed my weaknesses, and revealed where I needed to improve my skills. Over time, weeks and months, I came to consider myself a “baller”. Because I embraced working hard and playing the game at a different level. And it showed when I went back to my high school team practices. I was playing the game at a whole new level.

Paul mentions something similar to this in verses 10-12:

Romans 6:10–11 ESV

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.

Another way of saying it: You are living at a whole new level.

The more you live and trust this new life— the better you become at living it. It’s a daily discipline.

Step #3: We must yield to our new life in Christ. (not yield to sin!)

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.

The problem is that our old slave-master, sin, is still trying to reign in our mortal bodies. The enemy also tempts us, seeking to distract us into making decisions that go against your new life!

Notice the way I’ve described what we must do in this third step— Yield to the new life. Rather than yielding to sin. Yield signs establish who has the right of way, right? If we come up to a yield sign, and it’s facing us— we know we don’t have the right of way— But I want you to know that our new life in Christ, lived by faith in Him, THAT’s what has the right of way— NOT the sin! Most of the time, I just need to wait— even stop trying to force anything in my actions— and let the Holy Spirit lead me!

This can be a most difficult battle.

Think about that from a basketball perspective. MANY players often get themselves into all kinds of trouble trying to FORCE something to happen when it’s not there— right? We get an idea in our heads that this is what is supposed to happen— WE force a pass into some place where the ball gets stolen away— we try to drive in or force up a poor shot and miss it, with the other team getting the rebound— we aren’t patient and we aren’t willing to “yield” to our team mates, or wait long enough to understand what will be our best decision.

We often panic, and try to “make something happen”. Often that doesn’t work out.

I think our enemy often baits us into thinking we need to do something— which often ends up activating our old sinful nature.

Think of Adam and Eve. The serpent baited them— “is that really what God said”? “That’s not what He meant— he just doesn’t want you to become like him”. The serpent never really suggested that Eve actually DO anything, like actually eat from the tree that God had forbid. She simply didn’t yield to what she knew God told them. She tried to force something— and it was a huge mistake.

Remember these steps the next time you are facing a temptation or if you are confronted with your old sinful nature. Often times, your best move is to not move at all— simply remember your training, trust what you’ve learned from Jesus, and yield to the Holy Spirit’s influence in your soul. Remember, trust and yield.

Look back at Verse 4— I love that phrase, the “newness of life”. Is life working for you? Are you able to say that you are walking in this newness of life? We’re all in different places. But thank the Lord that he is faithful, and his mercies are new everyday!

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Let’s close in prayer.