Dan Herold | Romans 6:1-11 | 7/9/2017
Black and white; up and down; east and west; morning and night; wet and dry; right and wrong; dead and alive. Each of those are opposites. You could be one, but not the other at the same time. You can’t go both east and west at the same time, you can’t be standing up and sitting down at the same time, and something can’t be both wet and dry at the same time—it’s either one or the other. And once something is dry it isn’t wet anymore. And once you are heading east, then you aren’t heading west anymore. In most cases it is impossible to be two opposite things at the same time—it just doesn’t work.
Paul talks about opposites in our reading this morning from Romans 6. In fact he talks about two sets of opposites. He talks about being slaves and being free; and being alive and being dead. But behind it all Paul is really talking to us about something much more significant than knowing how to match up groups of opposites. He’s talking to us about baptism, and in order to paint a vivid picture of what baptism means for Christians he uses a strong image—he uses the imagery of life and death to tell us that our sinful nature has been BURIED.
In verse 4 Paul 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.”
And that’s what Paul is going to talk about now—living a new life in Christ. For the past four weeks we looked at Romans 1-5 and in those chapters Paul laid down a foundation, one word at a time. Jesus has made full atonement for our sins by his perfect life, death and resurrection. Jesus gave us the gift of his righteousness and it it ours simply by trusting his promise. God has reconciled us to himself and treats us as his own dearly loved children. That foundation has been laid down and now we are going to start building on it.
The foundation that Paul laid down is the foundation for a Christian life. In chapter 6 Paul starts talking about what a Christian life will look like when it is built on that foundation. The first point Paul makes about a Christian life or lifestyle is that it has nothing to do with sin. It’s an opposite just like light and dark—our sinful nature is dead, but in Christ we are alive! That begins when our sinful nature is buried through baptism.
Paul uses the same image three times in these eleven verses to show us that we are no longer slaves to sin, but we have been set free. The first time Paul uses the image of sin being dead is in verse 4, but also in that verse Paul reminds us of why sin has no power over us—because we have been baptized into Christ.
By our baptism through the water and the Word we are joined together with Christ. That means we are brothers and sisters with him—joined together and intimately connected (we hear more about that point in Romans 8). Paul tells us here, also, that baptism joins us with Christ in his death and resurrection—so, we have been united with Christ in his victory over sin!
But, when Paul says at the end of verse 4
“…that we too may live a new life just like Christ who was raised from the dead,”
it doesn’t mean that we need to wait until we get to heaven for any of that to be a reality. Since our sinful nature has been buried—has been drowned by the waters of Baptism—we can live a new life today.
These verses are a warning not to sell Jesus short. Don’t doubt how powerful your Savior is to forgive and how powerful he is to conquer sin. And then on top of that don’t doubt how powerful your God is to change lives no matter how old you are, no matter what type of life you have led in the past—our God is the God who created the universe with nothing but his voice, he is most certainly capable of affecting lives right here and now. Most importantly, perhaps, don’t underestimate your need for the gifts which God gives in baptism even if you’re only a few hours old. From the time we are conceived we have a deep need for God’s grace and forgiveness because from that very moment we are sinful.
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But, there are some that misunderstand that gift and abuse it. There are some people who would say, “Well if I know that I am going to be forgiven, then I might as well keep on sinning—what difference does it make?” Well, Paul has something to say about that attitude. If you pay close attention, Paul actually uses a pretty graphic image to describe what you are doing if you say, “I know Jesus is my Savior and forgives my sins, so, I am going to keep on sinning.” Paul says that if that’s your attitude it is essentially the same as digging up a corpse and calling it your best friend. If you call yourself a Christian and intentionally keep on sinning, every time you go back to that sin it’s like pulling a dead body out of a grave to keep you company.
For the second time Paul tells us that without any doubt our sinful nature is dead and buried in verse 6. He says,
“For we know that our old 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.”
Our sinful nature was so corrupt that there was no way to fix it. It simply could not be repaired—it had to be destroyed. And it was destroyed! It was crucified with Christ and buried through baptism. So now, as God’s baptized children, sin has no power over us. If we willingly choose to go back to our sinful ways, it’s the same as going back to something that is dead.
And for a third time Paul drives home the point that the sinful nature is dead and Christ has power over it. Paul tells us in verses 9 and 10,
“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.”
What it all boils down to is this—sin is dead, Christ is alive. What is dead is powerless, what is alive is active and effective to change lives. The temptation to think that God can’t help or he won’t help is great, but more often than not, we don’t have because we don’t ask!
God wants to forgive, he wants to help us resist temptation, and he gives us his word as a weapon in the battle against sin. As long as we live in this world we will hear Satan’s temptations. We will hear him tell us that we don’t need God, but those are the lies of a defeated dead man. The only play Satan has is to lie because he has no real power—he has been buried.
That doesn’t mean to take the threat lightly or to put yourself in situations where you might be tempted more easily. It means that you don’t need to fear him—because you possess the weapon that has defeated him. Your sins have been atoned for, you have the righteousness of Christ, you have been reconciled to God, and your sins have been buried.
And that’s the best news of all! Read these verses again when you get home, and again throughout the week. Paul isn’t scolding us for sinning again and again. Paul is building us up. He is building on the foundation that he laid—the foundation of atonement, righteousness, and reconciliation through faith in Christ. And as he talks to us about how our lives ought to be free from sin he takes us to our baptism. He reminds of of the unique bond we have with our Savior through baptism and that through the water and the Word our sinful nature has been buried.
It’s no secret that the words of Scripture were written for sinful people. Ancient Rome wasn’t known as a morally upstanding place. It was the Sin City of its day. Undoubtedly Christians to whom Paul wrote were guilty of going back to that dead sinful nature from time to time just as you and I are guilty, but Paul built them back up. He reminds us of the truths of Scripture that sin is dead and Christ is alive. He takes us back to the foundation of faith—to Christ—and to our relationship with him. All that leads up to Paul’s statement in verse 11. This is the first time in the whole book of Romans that Paul actually tells us to do something. Up until this point he has only been talking about what Christ has done for us. In verse 11 he says,
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Count yourself alive in Christ! Consider your sinful nature destroyed and buried through Baptism. Count yourself a forgiven and redeemed child of God who stands on the sure foundation that salvation is yours through faith in your one and only Savior Jesus Christ who loves you, lives for you, and is always ready to help you.
Amen.