Bible Talks - Family Church (9:45am)
Series: Lean On Me - Sermons From Romans
Does Sin Matter?
Sunday, 21 April 2002
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Death, Slavery, Marriage. What do these three have in common? If I was a stand up comic in front of a bunch of blokes at the Workers' Club I might try to link them together by making a highly sexist joke about the slavery of marriage being the death to a blokes freedom. But the Apostle Paul links Death, Slavery and Marriage together in a totally different way.
If you can remember back into the dim recesses of time, long, long ago, when before Easter we were looking at Paul's letter to the Romans, you may, I hope remember that Paul had been painting an idyllic picture of the people of God (that includes us). Having been justified by faith, we are standing in God's grace and rejoicing in his glory. We formerly belonged to Adam, the author of sin and death, but now we belong to Christ, the author of salvation and life. Paul showed that when God had given the Law sin had actually increased "so grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." He gives us a vision splendid of the triumph of grace in which, against the background of human guilt, grace both increases and reigns.
The trouble is that this picture of the secure status of God's people seems to jump straight from justification to glorification. It seems to leave out the reality that is common to us all, the reality of our daily struggle with sin. Paul seems to be saying "We're all sinners. We all deserve God's wrath, but Christ has set us free, free from God's wrath and free from sin, therefore sin shouldn't be a problem any more.' But that doesn't match the reality of our situation. In fact We seem to have more trouble with sin now than we did before we were Christians.
So in Chapter 6 of Romans, Paul writes about this reality in terms of Death, Slavery and Marriage.
First Death. He starts off by telling us that it is absolutely incongruous that we should ever think that we can increase or show off God's grace by deliberately sinning and then receiving his forgiveness. After all, some have argued, hasn't God promised us to forgive us our sins if we confess them and ask for his forgiveness? So, the argument goes, if god shows his grace by forgiving our sins then if we sin more God can show more grace.
Paul's reply to this is to point out that at our conversion, symbolized by the rite of baptism, we died to sin and rose to new life. Starting at verse 9 he says, "For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do 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."
You see, when we became Christians we didn't just hitch our wagon to Christ's to follow him as best we are able. Through faith we actually become one with him. In his death and in his resurrection. This is what the symbolism of baptism is about. It's not just a symbolic washing away of sin. It's going down into the water to symbolize death and rising up out of the water to symbolize new life. So when Paul talks here about these things happening at baptism he's not implying that we become Christians through full immersion baptism, but that the reality that is symbolized by baptism is this identification with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection.
Incidentally, he is, quite reasonably, making the assumption that anybody who has accepted Christ through faith, will, as a matter of normal expectation, be baptized. So being baptized and being Christian are to him synonymous terms. But to Paul, and I trust to us, it is never the symbolic rite of baptism that is at the core but the reality it represents.
So if we're dead to sin and alive to God then sin no longer rules us.
In the next section Paul uses the example of SLAVERY. He says if you're a slave then you have to obey your master. But as Christians we've changed masters. We're no longer slaves to sin, which leads to death but slaves of righteousness which leads to life. As Christians we can now exercise the choice that was not previously available to us. We can actually choose to obey God. Again he's saying it's absolutely incongruous to serve sin a little and serve god the rest of the time. In the ancient world, if you were someone's slave he owned you, lock, stock, and barrel. You couldn't be one person's slave say from 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and someone else's slave the rest of the time.
We all reject that image of the Mafia Don who during the week runs his crime syndicate, dealing in drugs, gambling, prostitution with a bit of assault, bribery, corruption and an occasional murder thrown in, but on Sunday religiously attends church. Jesus said we cannot serve two masters and Paul is saying we used to serve our master sin, but now, in Christ we serve our new master, God.
Paul reminds us of the difference this makes in the terms of its eternal consequences. In 6:23 we find one of the most famous verses in the Bible. "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
" Wages is what you deserve for what you've done. And if what you've done is sin then what you deserve is death.
Look at it this way. The last thing I want from God is fairness. Fairness ensures that I get what I deserve. And seeing that I, like you, and everyone else as Paul has pointed out, am a sinner then what I deserve is death. No I'd much rather have god's grace than his justice. The second part of the verse points out that his free gift is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is the fundamental sticking point for everyone who wants to claim their own effort as deserving some sort of recognition from God. James Kennedy, the founder of Evangelism Explosion about 30 years ago formulated what he called the two diagnostic questions.
Q1. Have you come to that place in your spiritual life where you can say you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven?
Q2. Suppose you were to die today and stand before God and he were to say to you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" what would you say?
The first question highlights the fact that if we're relying on our own efforts we're never really sure that we've done enough. "I hope so" is the most common answer to the question. Paul tells us rather bluntly in Romans that in fact we've never done enough. There is always some sin present in our lives and the wages of that is death.
The second question highlights the fact that as soon as we claim our own effort as the reason why God should let us into heaven, "I've been good" then the whole of our life is open for scrutiny and I'm sure that you're like me and your life like mine would not stand up under the sort of close scrutiny that god would give it.
But, and it's a BIG BUT, the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
The next example Paul uses is MARRIAGE. When we get married we promise to love, honour, cherish etc "till death us do part" to use the words of the 1662 Prayer book. In other words the death of our partner releases us from the obligations of marriage. The pity of it these days is that people want out before then. Paul is saying that because we have died to sin then we are no longer obligated to sin. The marriage contract between us and sin no longer applies. Sin no longer has a hold over us.
The title of this sermon is "Does Sin Matter". The answer is an unequivocal Yes. Sin does matter. But through Jesus death and resurrection sin has been dealt with. We have died to sin and are now alive to God. We have been freed from the mastery of sin and now serve Christ Jesus our Lord and we are no longer legally bound to sin, not just through divorce but through the finality of death. Because of this we are now free, free to choose to obey God instead of being bound by sin.
Next time we'll have a further look at the business of making this freedom from sin not just a theological fact but a present reality.
Let's pray.
