Transformed by grace

Scripture reading from Romans chapter 6. This is the Word in verse 1. Just Romans 6.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue to 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? 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.

Do you 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 a slave to sin. The one who has died has been set free from sin. 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. For the death he died he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness for God. For sin shall have no dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace.

Let's pray. Lord, we just pray at this time that you would speak to us through the Word. The Word is life. We pray that you would grant us understanding and that we would be blessed in Jesus' name, amen.

Christianity has a branding problem. I realize that’s not the way we should start. Maybe it's just sort of a—well, maybe it's the word "Christian" that has the problem. But what we’ve seen in the data in America is that about—you know, when the surveys and pollsters like Barna or Gallup for people taking surveys in the American life—we find about six out of ten Americans check the box saying they are Christian. But researchers are not satisfied with that statistic. They try to find out what that exactly means. And so they do other sorts of surveys to find out and verify the life of those who are checking those boxes as well—the life of those who are checking that box—and what the data shows is a disparity. It shows that while six and ten check the box, when we look for verification of those points in a number of ways, we find that it's closer to about two out of ten that actually seem to have verifiable witness of the way they live or anything like that agreeing with Christian teachings.

Now, it's not a judgment of anybody going on in America, it just shows then that whatever we're defining as "Christian" and whatever that actually means and plays out in everyday life, there's a gap. There's a disparity. And what we find here is that Paul's opening question is, in some ways, very similar. In chapter five he was talking about God's grace and how God's grace is so abundant, and then he asks us a question here—I'm going to put it in my own words for you: "If God's grace is so rich and available and abundant, can we have that, but can we still live the way we want? Is that okay? Can I check the box, say the prayer, try to read my Bible time to time, but otherwise I try to be a good person, but do what I want to do with my life?"

You know, that's what Paul is going to talk to us about today. And that's something that I think is a human problem for all of us in the midst of it at times, because we can claim to be Christ's followers and yet there's always that part of us. That's why we should always be gracious to these areas of our heart, saying "I’m just going to live the way I live and you don't deserve it."

And what slowly happens, though, as we open our hearts to the influence of God's Spirit in our life, is that we can start to pull Christianity down to a box. You know, I see it as this: "salvation is pie in the sky," this thing that I get, but I can live from there on after I've said that prayer or done that thing the way that I want to. But what Paul would suggest is that salvation—salvation like this—is not just a thing that gets—it's not just a declaration. When the Bible talks about salvation, that word is just so rich. It's not just a destination, even though the ultimate end is in the Father's presence. But all of us need the understanding that our lives are fundamentally changed. We need a human life—we need something that is changed, transformed, rebooted—because probably all of us to some degree feel in this life the weight of corruption.

So let's look at Paul today. I'm going to synthesize this, as he says a lot of different things and Romans is such a rich book, but we're going to synthesize it in the readings today. All right. So the first thing that Paul says right here is he says the resurrection: Christ died and was resurrected. The first thing he says is Christ died and was resurrected. So Christ died. Now this is a verifiable fact—there's virtually no debate on this from historians and academics, whether they are Christian or non-Christian. They virtually agree that a guy named Jesus in Israel around that time died. We have very close to the time in the first century people like Tacitus and Josephus and many others referring to this historical event.

So right here he’s going to premise everything he says on the understanding that Christ died and then Christ was resurrected. Why did he die? I mean, you know, if you were brought up in church, you'd say he died for our sins, he died for truth. But why did he have to die? I mean, couldn't God just wave his hand over the sin—the problem—you know, and pronounce forgiveness? Wouldn't that be sufficient? I mean, and maybe we'd say, "Well, why doesn't God just do that?"

Because there's a cost to failure, to rebellion, to our sin. We all have made choices in this world—choices in words we said—and some of those things we cannot take back. And so if God just waves his hand like it's done, like we've done nothing, how does that cover the cost? There has to be a cost. There is a cost to rebellion always. And each individual contributes to that.

Understand: if you went to an antique store and you were walking around and you bumped a vase and it dropped—and it's an expensive vase—and it's smashed, it's worth $20,000. And the shop owner walks in and he looks, and he can say one of two things: he can say, "You've got to pay for that," right? That's a cost—that's the cost imposed. And that's how it is with sin: when we've done things, there's repercussions for those sins and that has the weight of death. But the shop owner could also say, "I'll pay for that. I'll forgive you and I will absorb the cost myself." And that’s what happened on the Holy Cross. So Christ rose up. He rose, and he rose with the power over death. This is a thing that we talk a lot about, saying Jesus rose from the dead. What does that mean and why is that powerful?

Well, one is because Jesus is the overcomer. He's accomplished the resurrection. If he dies for our sin and is resurrected to life, then as Paul says, he goes with us. Then those who are in Christ have resurrection life because Jesus defeated that death on the cross. He overcame it because it had claimed you and me. We've sinned. God is perfect; we can't be in his presence. There's guilt for our life and it means spiritual and physical death for us. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. There's a wage. Christ pays that—it means death. But if he just dies and he doesn't rise, it's kind of just like a moral sacrifice. It's like this nice thing that he did. "Oh, this sacrificial love, wasn't that good?" You know, he had to rise from the dead to conquer something. Otherwise, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 15, what hope do we have? If there is no resurrection, there is no hope. And for each of us, I know that there's a longing that death is not the end. There has to be some hope beyond this life. Otherwise, what does it teach us? One hope is if he has conquered this—he has conquered death.

Shutterstock

One of the ways that I found out some years ago—I read a book—I was reading about antibodies in the body. I don't know if you know this, but the body has antibodies floating around inside of it, and when a virus attacks your body, it essentially has a "keyhole" to it. A keyhole that's sitting there floating in your body. And the antibodies have all these millions of different combinations, and so they will try to fit that keyhole on the virus. And if it doesn't fit, another one rapidly begins trying different combinations. You see, if any of the millions of antibodies will bond to that virus, it will then destroy it. It's super fascinating. Whenever the white blood cells get it binding, all of a sudden it creates the antibody.

That's what Christ did. See, when Christ went into the grave, he paid our debt. But because he himself was sinless, he's like the—he's the antibody. He's the combination of things to bind with our debt. When he enters in there, he binds to it and destroys death from the inside out. Because legally, death has no claim because he hasn't done wrong to deserve the actual death. And because he's more powerful—because he's the cure—it dissolves in front of him.

And why? Watch this. Just like that one antibody that has that combination goes in and it produces itself—copies of itself that neutralize the virus—so it is when Christ puts his Spirit and his life and his identity into us as Christians. He puts that life in them, and they no longer enter into the grave because they bear guilt. To the one who has conquered death, death has no hold on them because their sin is paid for. So it has no legal right to them.

And so Paul demolishes this. It's a beautiful picture that Christ vanquished and conquered and beat and destroyed death. And what does Paul say to that original question that is being asked him: "Can I just live the way that I want? Can I have your grace but live the way that I want?" Paul's like, "Do you understand what God has done? Do you understand his great sacrifice? Do you understand the love that has been poured out? Do you understand the conquering that he's done? And if you do, wouldn't it change you? Wouldn't it somehow get down into your soul and produce some sort of faith?" This is what Paul is reminding us of.

The second thing Paul says as he walks through here is he says a one who believes in Christ should be baptized. And the imagery that Paul uses is this sort of "death to life" as we see with Christ. He uses baptism: even though you were buried in baptism to die, you rose to new life. So this was accomplished. And then for that matter, on that side, that's why everyone should be baptized. It's not just a sign; it’s for the imagery and the sign and seal of this beautiful thing that is occurring, taking place in the life. It's something that shows as a witness and seal what has actually happened in the life: this resurrection, death to life. It's a beautiful picture.

But Paul also slows down for a second. Here's what he says: Number one, he says you were a slave. I think we all probably have had moments in our life like Paul's addressing. You're doing certain things, and you know what—we have this innate sense of what is right in us. Yeah. Who hasn't had wine? Who hasn't been curious? The studies show it over and over again that in people's lives, there's an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame that we can carry, because when someone sins, as the Bible tells us, sin makes us a slave. "He who sins is a slave to sin," is what the scripture teaches.

And what it often boils down to is what the Bible talks about: that in some way, instead of God being God and our highest love, we love ourselves. We live for ourselves. We give our whole lives to our whole beings. We tend to want to exalt ourselves versus God. I mean, this is the sin of the garden, right? This is the very first thing: "I want to be like God." But the problem is that we are not God. We don't make for good gods. You can't find purpose and identity and affirmation and all the things that we're searching for deep down in our lives inside of ourselves. And so we naturally look to fulfill these deep desires outside of ourselves. And so we turn to fulfill those things, and there's a restlessness. St. Augustine in the fifth century AD said, "The heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee."

We find ourselves chasing from one thing to another thing, trying to find love, affirmation, identity, and purpose. So Paul tells us that what happens is that if God is supposed to draw us, we will put other things in his place. We will try to get them to give us affirmation and give us purpose. And what happens is we become slaves to those things. That's a deep unsatisfaction—that you actually take, for example, someone who loves their kids. Is a love for kids a bad thing? No, it's one of the greatest things. But it comes to ultimately an ultimate love—an ultimate goal—that is even higher than that and takes the place of God. And that's where the problem is.

Anytime you take something in life and you make it an ultimate, it takes the place of God. When you take something and make it an ultimate thing to fulfill you—so you can take this role of, say, with your children—and you can say "I need this. I need them to be certain kinds of humans and achievements and individuals and successes, and I want them to love me in return in a certain way because of all the things that I did." You see what’s happened? We raised them in a way so that they fulfill something we needed. They need to be a certain part of a parent that's accomplished something that they—whatever they didn't have—to be able to fulfill that, so that they would turn and then reciprocate that love and appreciation back to you. Or they would be a certain kind of successful individual when they grow up. And that's when a child becomes an idol and you’re enslaved.

And you go through life serving it, dictating kind of jobs and money and career and stress and decisions for making your life in order to achieve that goal, and you become a slave to that life. And what happens when that child doesn't reciprocate? They don't understand, or they get tired of that pressure, and then you’ve alienated them as adults, which has happened in a million houses. Then your idol is gone, and you’re filled with guilt.

And it can happen with thing after thing: career, sex, power. It's not even fair to put that pressure on a human to say, "In this marriage, you fulfill my deepest longings for purpose and desire." Imagine that weight! It's the size of God. I feel that’s what Paul wants us to see of sin. You were a slave to that over and over again, and you were enslaved to serve the desires of the heart. And when you came to the end of that and you bowed at the end of the Cross, he says "new job." Something about me in that moment said, "Hey, this is a glory of life." I'm laying down this old way—this old way of life.

Repentance in the Hebrew is just an understanding of it meaning "to turn around." To turn around. And in the Greek, it just means "a change of mind." It's exactly that—that in that moment when we repent, we recognize the slavery and we recognize all of the things that we were carrying, the bondages. When we come to the cross, we empty ourselves. We lay down that idol, but we also lay down the disappointment or guilt and shame. You put all that effort in to go and become right in Christ. You come here and receive something, and you now receive it. You lay down all of it. You stop trying to be your own god. You stop trying to build your own thing.

And that died years ago, because with those idols, really, one of the things in my own life when I came to Christ, I carried a lot of things that I'd done—a lot of things I was ashamed of. And that was displayed because we all have that. And it used to say to me at times, you know—I was carrying them even after I was a Christian. I used to carry it and it would haunt me and call out to me. And one day I learned what it means: I was a new creature. That old dead man was calling out to me, and I read 2 Corinthians 5:17: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation." And in that moment, the Spirit of God showed me that I didn’t have to listen to that old man anymore. And in that moment, it helped me realize that whatever it was—even if it was calling from the grave—it wasn't me anymore. I remember that old life.

It's not just turning over a new leaf. It's not just a second chance. It is something even more because the next thing that Paul says in this is that you have been raised to life—that you've been given life. Not only did you die, but as Christ was resurrected, you in that same way share in Christ's power. Your old self went into the grave, but you also rose. You rose from that life—that old life—and you put on this new life that is free of guilt and shame. You are a new creation. That is quite something.

Now, there's one tension: it is called the "now and not yet." All these things that Paul is saying—they're true now. They're certain now. God's accomplished all of these things for us. We are a new creation, a new purpose. And yet, it's not full in us in this life because there's still sin. There's still that old life that pulls at us. There's still those things that try to pull us back and say, "Can I just have the grace but live without God?" And the Bible also tells us this tension: of it being true but as we live these days, we take up the Word of God and follow. We die to self daily, to be renewed daily, to receive his mercy and his grace day after day.

So that means for everybody: it’s not to fear every time you stand at a graveside. Every time you face your mortality—it's okay. It has been finished, but it will be fully finished in the age to come. There's that tension in the times we live in. Back to Paul: if you have the grace, do you want to live the way you want to? Don't you understand what you've got? Don't you understand what he did? Don't you understand? We have all things. And if that's true, our response is in worship and love and grace, not trying to figure out what way to get out of it.

See, Christianity—and Christianity is different from every other religion—is not about works. Every other system says you do what you're supposed to do and then in the end you go to God. Whether it be another religion or these other things. Christianity says it's already done. It's already accomplished. It's available for you now here, and then it just invites us to respond. It's not like you need to get your life right first. You don't need to live a certain way. You don't need to be a good enough person. You don't need to work and achieve it. No, it says it's been done. God brings mercy down to us and offers us this grace. He offers us this mercy. He's done these things for us. He offers it for us and he just gives them freely to us. It says "receive." And the thing is, the life that we live after that—it's not the works. It's not obligation. It's not achieving. It's a response. It's a response to what God has done.

So the final thing that Paul says here is he says "now you live your life to God." And what I mean by it is that response—that response that we live in our life to God—it comes from an understanding of what we've seen. Something gets in that understanding of who he is and what he's done for us. Paul says that it should transform me in such a way that I’m not turning back to my old ways of life. You're not taking that grace and saying, "Oh, I’ll just live my life." No, you understand. And it creates this response of the heart because what God has done is transformed us. God's work should work its way down into us.

And if your heart ever grows old or you find it very hard—and we all fall back into that so easy—then let the fact of what Christ has done wash over you again. Why? Because we were all dead men. But now we're here. We are no longer slaves to sin.

You have to discover it one way or another. When a great act of mercy is shown—like Jean Valjean in understanding—this human has this realization in his life that his response matters, and he cannot remain indifferent to the grace he’s received. So on one end, the priest had done this great act of mercy, literally delivering him from jail and from bondage. And in that, John Valjean either could reject it or he could be indifferent. But he realized: I can't be indifferent to it. If I'm indifferent to it, then I've rejected it. Indifference is a rejection. Otherwise, if I don't reject it, that changes everything. Why did he do that for me? Why did he extend that thing to me? He realized his response had to be a changed life.

One of the ways to think of it: let's say that you're knocked unconscious, you know, and there you are drowning. And then it happens: the guy was standing on shore, he jumps in and he swims out and he drags you to shore and resuscitates you. And the time after that, you realize what has happened—that you were going to die and this guy pulled you up—and then you meet that guy. What's your reaction? It wouldn't be indifference. You can't remain neutral. He's been powerful in your life in a way.

If you ever watch movies, there's a very similar thing that happens. There's this sacrificial love who's poured out. Someone is sacrificing, and in the end there's life in his place. CS Lewis used to say "all myths find their root in something true." Something was once true. All myths find truth in something true. And even the stories we love today are rooted in what is true.

It's beautiful. It's life. And if you understand that, Paul says your life will be different. I have one last illustration for this. I went to go watch a movie—there was a knife fight. There's two men going out and they're fighting. At the end, one guy's got a knife, and the other guy is on the ground. The guy who was winning has the knife on the other man's neck, and the man is about to die. He turns and looks up at that guy and he says, "Let me tell you something. I am a man of my word. If you spare me, I pledge my loyalty to you. I will protect you with my life." And throughout the rest of the movie, that's exactly what that guy does. He follows him around, protecting him because he realizes he was dead without him.

The old life is gone. You realize the old life—it doesn't work. I had that realization. All of us have that level of realization, whether it's the guilt or just the restlessness of life. Whatever it is, Paul says you were a slave, but that old man has died. Remember, he died, and you were raised to a new life.

So if you knew what Christ did, you'll realize this grace—past, presence, and in the future—is the hope that has been given to you. You have the restoration. You have experienced it. And our response should be thankfulness to God. "Who’s love is this?" And then you'll begin to live out that life in all the ways the scriptures call us to live.

What does it call us to live? Well, that's a lesson for next week. Let's pray.