Sermon from February 9, 2003

I know that when I preach, I do all the talking. I know that you can protect yourself from this monologue, because you don't have to listen. My voice can become as inaudible to you as ackground noise on a CD or as irrelevant as chatter in a crowded room where two people engage in private conversation.

When you do listen, you can protect yourself further by talking back in your mind and maybe talking to me about your thoughts later. Whether you listen or not, the Holy Spirit may be at work in your deepest thoughts in ways you could not have anticipated before you came here today. The sound of my solitary voice does not begin to encompass the drama that goes on in this sanctuary in the souls of several hundred people, who extend to preachers the courtesy of collective silence.

I would like to introduce into this sanctified and random reverie the following request. Would you attempt to attend more closely than usual to the actual words you hear today? In particular, the words of the Apostle Paul deserve our close attention. They deserve it because their meaning is difficult at first to grasp. More profoundly, they deserve it because their meaning has the power to shape our experience of God.

Most of the apostle's words come from Romans. A few come from one other letter in which the apostle used similar language. To help us concentrate I will locate the apostle's words in the Bible, and I will also display them on the screens, so that we can read them together. Let's begin in Romans six.

Dead to Sin and Alive to God
In verse 2 the apostle says, We died to sin. In verse 6 he says, Our old self was crucified with him. Now, verse 8: We died with Christ. Now, let's display these three statements on the screens and read them together. We died to sin. Our old self was crucified with him. We died with Christ.

Paul also wrote the New Testament letter called Galatians. In it he used much the same language. Look first at Galatians 5:24. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Now, look down the page at verse 14. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Now let's display these two statements and read them together. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (Gal. 5:24) May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Crist, through which the world has beenc crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal. 6:14)

Why did Paul use such language? First, he used the language of death to express in the strongest way possible that Christians have made a decisive break from the force called sin. That break from sin is a kind of death. The past no longer holds us captive.

Second, he used the language of crucifixion to help us see that our break from sin is the way we tast something of what Christ experienced when He died.

Now, what is the purpose of breaking away from the force called sin? Again, Romans six expresses it several ways. Verse four says, 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. Verse six says, Our odl 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. Look at verse 18. You have been set free from sin and have become slavees to righteousness. And verse 22: You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God.

Now, let's display these two statemtns and read them together. 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. (Rom. 6:4) Our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away wth, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. (Rom. 6:6) You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Rom. 6:18) You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God. (Rom. 6:22)

Why did Paul use such language? First, he wanted to express in the strongest way possible that following Christ is not just saying, "No," to an old way of life; it also means saying "Yes," to a new way of life.

Second, he calls it a new life and calls us slaves to God to help us see that discovering this new way of life as God's slaves is the way we taste the power of Christ's resurrection.

How deeply do we experience this break from sin and discoery of a new life as God's servants? Do we experience it as a powerful way to taste something of what Christ experienced when He died and when He rose from the dead? That experience will vary from person to person.

In Galatians 2:20 the Apostle expressed just how deeply a person can experience it. I have been crucified with Chrst, he says, and I no longer live, but Chrst lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Let's put that on the screens and read it. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. That is the goal toward which each of us may aspire in our journey away from the old way of life without Christ and inot our new life of service to God.

That is the goal the apostle summons us to in Romans 6:11. Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let's put that on the screens and read it. Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6:11)

Let's learn to see ourselves as those who have made a decisive break from the force called sin. Let's learn to see ourselves as saying, "Yes," to a new way of life, and to see that new way of life as God's servant as the way we taste the power of Christ's resurrection.

You say to me, "Pastor, you don't realize how powerful some of my old, bad habits are." Oh yes, I do. I know how powerful some of my own old, bad habits are. The Apostle Paul was painfully aware of how powerful some of his old, bad habits were. He and you and I must always be aware that in spite of the change that has come over us as Christians, we can still become enslaved to sin.

Look at the realism of Romans 6:12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. And look at verse 16. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

To achieve the devotion to God that Paul expressed in Galatians calls for spiritual warfare. It calls for discipline, courage and perseverance. We must know the dangers we face and the divine resources we have for the battle. Romans seven will help us spot the principal dangers. Romans eight will identify our divine resources. For the next few minutes we should see what encouragement Romans 6:14-23 offers us in the battle.

Under Law and Under Grace
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. The meaning of those phrases under law and under grace will govern how we experience God. Let me tell you a very short story about being under law.

As long as anyone can remember, human beings have worked hard to control the dark side of human nature. Law, custom, religious taboos and nagging mothers have a long history of doing that. Their most familiar tatic is  to say, "No, you can't do that." Prohibitions put up barriers against wrong-doing. To live under law is to make religious rules against wrong-doing the primary way of controlling the dark side of human nature.

In the Jewish world of Jesus and Paul, the religious rules against wrong-doing had become detailed and sophisticated. Breaking the rules had unpleasant consequences. When it came to keeping the rules, Paul once had an unimpeachable reputation among those who were hypersensiive to the slightest deviation from the prescribed conduct.

Paul's devotion to the rules caused a short of period of terror for Christians. He presided over the killing of Stephen, an early Christian leader. He arrested and imprisoned other Christians who threatened what he thought was the true way of being a Jew. Others of unflagging devotion to the rules presided over the killing of Jesus.

But God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus, "a glorious, heavenly being, before whom the beholder could only prostrate himself in adoration and obedience," (Cranfield, Romans, 7) interrupted Paul's life. He appeared to him on the amascus Road. "It followed that Jesus had all the time been right; he had been the Messiah, and Paul, the persecutor of the Church, had been wrong," (ibid.).

Judaism (at least, the Judaism Paul represented) had been wrong about God. Paul became a devoted (and non-violent) follower of Christ, and he began to rethink his whole life. As he did that, he took another look at the religious rules against wrong-doing that had powerfully nurtured and shaped him.

Making religious rules against wrong-doing the primary way of controlling the dark side of human nature has failed dramatically to control the dark side of human nature, as the killing of Jesus and his own part in the killing of Stephen showed. Was there any other way of controlling the dark side of human nature? Paul called that alternative living under grace. Romans eight will explain.

Does Living Under Grace Mean Living in Sin?
It sounds like Paul was doing away with the rules, and that raises the questions of verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? There is a caution here I don't want us to miss. The closer we live to God, the more likely we are to be accused of being easy on sin. The accusation will be false, but something about living under grace seems not to take sin seriously enough.

Churches can be skittish about having such a reputation. Conservative churches in particular don't like it. So, they do something about it. They put in a new set of religious rules for controlling the dark side of human nature. Christians have ridiculed some of the old Jewish for piety, like limiting the distance a person could travel on the Sabbath.

I have read none sillier than the one in San Francisco church that forbade people to wear two-tone shoes to morning worship. Some of us here grew up with religious rules forbidding all kinds of behavior. Paul has a better idea in verses 16-23.

Whose Servant Are We?
Verse 16 says, Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

We are not independent creatures. We must choose a master. Which will it be, sin or obedience? Paul is saying, "When I tell you not to make religious rules against wrong-doing the primary way of controlling the dark side of human nature, I am not encouraging you to sin. That would be to turn you over to your old master, sin.

"Besides," he says in verse 17-18, "we Christians chose our new master when we became followers of Christ." But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

The form of teaching refers to the gospel, and Paul says Christians have wholeheartedly obeyed the gospel. In doing so they escaped their old master, sin, and embraced their new master, righteousness. Paul is saying "By preaching the gospel, I help people escape their old master, sin. I would never send them back there again."

We have a new master, Christ, and verse 19 says, "Live like it." Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righeousness leading to holiness.

Thinking About the Consequences
Finally, in verses 20-22 he discourages anyone from dabbling in sin by showing what sin leads to. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! Death means death of the body. It also means the death of dreams, the death of happiness, the death of peace, the death of trust, the death of integrity, the death of relationships, even the death of nations.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Eternal life means resurrection of the body and participation in the life of God hereafter. It also means here and now the return of dreams, the return of happiness, the return of peace, the rebirth of trust, the rebirth of integrity, the rebirth of relationships, even the rebuilding of nations.

Verse 23 rounds off the apostle's thought with a famous summary. Forthe wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us see ourselves as those who have made a decisive break from the force called sin, and see it as the way we taste something Christ experienced when He died. Let us see ourselves as say, "Yes," to a new way of life, and see it as the way we taste the power of Christ's resurrection. "I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life." (Deut. 30:19).