July 12, 1998
Scripture: Romans 6:1-18
Sermon: No longer slaves
During the month of July we are examining four important consequences of Jesus death
for how we respond to God:
Last week: Free from the PENALTY of sin. (Romans 5)
This week: [bold]Free from the POWER of sin (Romans 6)[unbold]
What does it mean to be free from the power of sin? If we are "dead to sin", why do
we still struggle with it? Three lies keep Christians from enjoying freedom from
the power of sin:
1. Lie #1: Real Christians don't have problems with sin.
2. Lie #2: Sin is not such a big deal to a loving and gracious God.
3. Lie #3: I just can't help it.
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Intro -- passage and context.
You know the series of Norman Rockwell paintings entitled the four freedoms? They're
based on a famous address by Franklin Roosevelt in which he outlined four freedoms:
Freedom of worship, Freedom of speech, freedom from fear, freedom from want. I have
no idea how he settled on those particular four, but in any case, during the four
weeks in July we are also looking at four freedoms -- what you might think of as
the four freedoms of the believer.
Freedom from the PENALTY of sin
Freedom from the POWER of sin
Freedom from the TYRANNY of the law
and finally, Freedom to call God Father.
The first we covered last week -- freedom from the penalty of sin. We are no longer
under condemnation, we no longer need to fear God because God's wrath at our sin
has been turned away.
That was Romans 5.
Now Romans 5 left behind a problem. If there is no penalty for sin left, what's
to keep us from sinning? Paul's critics immediately jump on this problem and accuse
him of encouraging immorality. And their argument is quite compelling: If God's
grace covers our sin, and if more sin leads to more grace, then what's to prevent us from
sinning all we want. Sin turns out to be a great deal all around. We get to enjoy
sinning; God gets to show more grace. Without any penalty for sin, what incentive
is left to act morally? What possible reason could there be for avoiding sin?
Paul set out to answer this criticism in Romans 6. Let's read the first 18 verses.
Now this whole chapter is an answer to Paul's critics who say that his theology encourages
immorality. What he says, in essence is this: Christians can't go on sinning
because Jesus death set us free not JUST from the PENALTY of sin, but also from the
POWER of sin. Jesus died not just to save us from being punished, but to give us
the POWER to be righteous.
To communicate this point, he uses the illustration of death. The whole chapter
is filled with imagery of death.
vs. 2 -- We DIED to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
vs. 4 -- We were therefore BURIED with him through baptism into DEATH
vs. 6 -- we know that our old self was CRUCIFED with him.
vs. 7 -- anyone who has DIED has been set free from sin.
vs. 11 -- In the same way, count yourselves DEAD to sin.
Its kind of hard to miss the point -- there is some sense in which through Jesus death
we also died to sin.
But if this is so -- If I really am DEAD to sin, why don't I feel more like it? Why
do I still struggle with sin? Does being dead to sin have any meaning at all for
real life?
To help us out, I've asked three members of our congregation to talk with us briefly
about how they deal with the power of sin in their lives. First, a disclaimer:
The viewpoints expressed here do not represent the viewpoint of Stony Brook or,
for that matter, the viewpoint of those who will be speaking. This is an entirely fictional
exercise.
1. Lie #1 -- Real Christians don't have problems with sin.
Brian [enthusiastic]
I was really glad that Dan asked me to talk to you about sin and temptation, because
I really believe that God has given me special insight and maturity in this area.
Sin is just NOT a problem for me. I'm sure that it is hard for some of you to
relate to, but I have gained almost complete victory over sin.
You want to know my secret. Its right here in Romans 6. Look at what it says "We
died to sin." Now the thing about being dead is that you don't respond to anything.
So what that must mean is that Christians are supposed to be completely insensitive to sin. You can tell the difference between a dead dog and a sleeping dog by holding
a steak up to its nose.
So my approach to sin is simple: I just act like a corpse.
And that's just wonderfully freeing, because since I'm dead to sin I don't have to
worry much about temptation anymore. That way I don't have to get legalistic
like so many Christians.
Take movies for example. I know some Christians who are really legalistic about the
movies they watch. But I
think its really important to understand what my non-Christian at work are talking
about. And since I'm dead to sin, I don't have to worry. After all, scripture
says that to the pure everything is pure -- or something like that. So I just let
temptation wash right over me -- and I just sit there like a corpse and don't feel a thing.
Its sort of like having a vaccination against sin. Once you have the vaccination
you don't have to worry about being exposed to it because you know you won't catch
it!
So my advice to you who are struggling with sin is stop struggling
. RELAX! Don't worry, be happy. Be like a corpse.
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Brian is in serious denial. He thinks that he has a complete immunity from sin.
For him what it means to be dead to sin is for the sin nature to be dead and unresponsive.
And this is the most common misinterpretation
of Romans 6. Not many people are quite so confident about it as Brian, but alot
of people read this chapter and think that somehow it means that they are supposed
to be completely unresponsive to sin.
Perhaps you've heard this analogy: Growing in the Christian life is like having
two dogs inside you. One is a big old, ugly mongrel -- that's your old, sin nature.
The other is cute little puppy -- that's your new nature. So the secret of growing
as a Christian is to feed the little puppy and starve the old mongrel. So you feed
the puppy by reading the Bible and praying and going to church. And you starve the
mongrel by resisting old sinful habits and fleeing from temptation. Now none of
this is a bad idea.
But you know what the problem is? The problem is that the big old mongrel never
dies! In fact, the more you try to ignore him, and the more you starve him, the
louder he barks and the more he whines.
So when Brian pretends that his sin nature is dead he's fooling himself. Being dead
to sin does not mean never having to struggle with sin. So What DOES it mean to
be dead to sin?
Maybe Julie can help us.
2. Lie #2: Sin is not such a big deal to a loving and gracious God.
Julie [confident & self-righteous; rationalizing]:
When I was asked to say something about sin, I was really quite reluctant at first.
I just think we talk far TOO much about sin. It's such a NEGATIVE word.
Oh I know I'm not perfect. We all have our little weaknesses
. We make mistakes
. But I'm sure God isn't going to hold those little things
against us, so what good is it to get all worked up about them. After all, God
has to have something to forgive us for, right? If we didn't make a few mistakes
now and then, why did Jesus have to die?
I think of sins as the BIG things that we would never talk about in church. You
know what I mean. And I would never dream of even coming close to doing those kinds
of things.
But some people make such a big deal of the little things that they're always making
me feel guilty for no reason. I have this really legalistic
friend -- she really gets on my nerves sometimes. You know what she said the
other day? She accused me of gossiping! Sure I like to talk -- what else are
friends supposed to do? And sure I sometimes talk about other people and their
problems. But how am I supposed to help other people if I never find out what their problems
are? How am I supposed to pray for them? You see how easy it is to get nitpicky
about sin.
So I don't think we should get all worked up about sin -- at least the small stuff.
The important thing is that God is loving and forgiving.
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Now Julie's case is quite different from Brian's. She doesn't claim immunity from
sin. She doesn't NEED immunity from sin, because she doesn't think its a very serious
disease. For her sin is a minor illness -- and its more than taken care of by the
medicine of God's grace. In fact, maybe its good that we get sick every once in a
while so that we'll appreciate God's medicine.
And if sin isn't that serious, what need could there be to die to sin? God's grace
will cover it.
This logic sounds strangely familiar. Where have I heard it before? When we face
temptation, one of the first things we hear is a little whispering voice inside our
heads saying, "It's not such a big deal. It's not like such a major thing to get
all hung up about. God doesn't actually forbid flipping through the Victoria Secret catalogue,
does he. Maybe there's a gift for my wife somewhere in there." And so we rationalize
away lust.
Or maybe you are tempted by materialism, or by greed. You know how it begins. With
good stewardship of course. There's nothing wrong with enjoying good things is
there? Certainly God would want me to take good care of the things he's given me.
Trivializing the seriousness of sin is one of the Devil's most effective tools. If
he can get us hooked on what WE see as the "small stuff", the hard stuff will surely
follow. Sin is addictive.
So rather than dying to sin, Julie rationalizes it away. She believes the lie that
sin is just not that big a deal to a loving and gracious God. And that puts her
in a very vulnerable place. She doesn't recognize sin's power, so she has no desire
or motivation to be free from it.
So we still haven't figured outwhat it means to die to sin. Martin, can you help
us?
3. Lie #3: I just can't help it.
Martin [discouraged; despondent]
Well I appreciate be asked to say something about sin and temptation. I'm not sure
I really have much to say though. I won't be as much help as Brian or Julie.
I guess I have about as much experience with sin as anybody. I just don't know
much about getting free from it.
My experience with sin is like being alone with a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
When sin calls, I answer. I may delay the process. I may prolong the agony by
trying to resist. I promise myself that I'll only eat one. But the struggle
just delays the inevitable. In the end I don't seem to have much choice in the matter.
I sometimes even wonder if it isn't better just to eat the whole plate right off and
get it over with.
So I guess sin is like that. We can struggle with it all we want, but we're never
going to beat it. It's just the way we're wired.
[Martin, ome example might be helpful here. I'm not sure if the following one will
work for you. If you have better ideas, feel free to incorporate them]
Take anger, for example. It seems to me that getting angry when I'm frustrated
is just wired into me, and there's not much I can do about it. I can try not to
get angry; I can resolve to control my anger. But that just seems to make things
worse. It just delays the inevitable. The anger just boils around inside until it explodes.
Might as well just let it go as try to fight it.
I know that God forgives us. And I know that someday -- when we die -- we'll be really
free from sin. But for now I guess I just have to live with it and make the best
of it.
So sorry. I guess I'm not much help.
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At least Martin is not deceiving himself. He admits that the sinful nature is alive
and well. But whereas Julie sees sin as a minor infection, Martin sees it as a mortal
illness that he will never be free from and that is hardly worth fighting. Julie
trivializes the power of sin. Martin exaggerates the power of sin.
Now Martin's situation probably resonates with most of us. We'd like to be free
from sin's power, but our struggles seem fruitless. We just can't seem to escape
sinful patterns. Sin seems inevitable. Is there any point struggling?
Again, this sounds strangely familiar. The voice of temptation whispers, "listen,
you know that you can't hold out for long. All you're doing is making yourself
miserable, fighting something that you can never beat. Might as well just eat that
plate of cookies and have it done with.
So for Martin (and most of us) being dead to sin sounds nice in theory, but the reality
will just have to wait until our bodies die.
If these are the wrong ways of thinking about sin, what is the right way? What does
it mean to be dead to sin and alive to God?
Look at verses 16 to 18
Here Paul explains what it means to be dead to sin by using a different example --
the example of slavery. Before we came to Christ we are slaves to sin. By identifying
with Jesus in his death we are set free of our old master and we are bought by a
new master. We were slaves to sin, we are now slaves to righteousness. So what?
Well let's say you have this job. And while you're in it the job doesn't seem so
bad. The pay is OK. The employee parties are great. Sure you're boss is a bit
demonic at times and acts like he owns you, but what more can you expect? It's alot
better than being unemployed.
But imagine that you get a fantastic new job out of the blue. The work is perfect
for you. Your new boss is a dream. The benefits are fantastic. Some of you fantasize
about this sort of thing. So you start work and everythings going great. But
a few days into your new job, your old boss calls up. And he says "listen, we're really
swamped with work. I need you for a couple of hours this afternoon."
And you might reply, "But I'm working. I can't come over." But your old boss is
a persistent one -- "it's just a small thing. Just this once. Besides you owe
me some favors."
So you start to waver, well, it would be kind of nice to visit the old work mates.
And it will just be this once. A few hours is not such a big deal. Things
aren't too busy around here, and my new boss is a easy-going -- I'm sure he won't
mind too much.
Becoming a Christian is like getting an new boss. When you get a new job your obligations
to your old employer cease. In that sense you die to him or her.
But when you become a believer your old boss -- sin -- doesn't die. Your old boss
WILL keep on calling you up and nagging you day after day. And you can keep on going
back and working for him if you choose; you can keep on acting
like you belong to him. But you don't have to.
So being dead to sin means to your obligation
to your former master has finished and in that sense you have died to him. Your
responsibility is not to your old boss, but to your new employer. And that should
give you the freedom to hang up the phone when he calls -- to say NO I have a new
boss now, I don't work for you anymore.
And if we look ahead to Romans 8, we find that Paul says exactly this: Romans 8:12-14:
Therefore brothers, we have an obligation -- but it is not to the sinful nature, to
live acording to it. For if you live acording to the sinful nature, you will die;
but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because
those who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God.
So what keeps us going back? What keeps us under the thumb of our old boss? Lies!:
When the old boss calls and says, you still belong to me -- we believe him.
When the old boss calls and says, it's just a little thing -- we believe him
When the old boss says, listen, you'll never break free -- we believe him.
The applications of this passage are quite obvious and are spelled out for us.
verses 12 & 13: Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey
its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of
wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from
death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
I call this the discipline of offering ourselves. Being willing to say at every moment,
every day "Lord, you are my master, take all of me."