Hymns: 293, 407, 236, 278; Title: Dead and Alive. Rev. Tim Beck
Grace, mercy, and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
You’ve
seen Western movies where the town gathers around a poster that says, “Wanted:
Dead or Alive!” That’s how justice was served. It didn’t
matter if the criminal came in dead, he would be executed anyway. But in Romans, chapter 6, our Lord posts a
different wanted poster. This one says, “Wanted, Dead and Alive!” God wants us dead and
alive. The law’s righteousness demands the death of the old man; but grace
will create a new man, brought forth by faith very much alive.
How can this be? It is the power of
God; as the Apostle Paul said at the beginning of his letter to the Romans: For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it
is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes … (Rm 1:16) Back
to our wanted poster… isn’t it marvelous that God wanted us alive when we were
already dead? We were born dead in sin. Sin isn’t just things we do, but an
inherited nature that wars against God. We call it original sin, concupiscence,
Adam’s fall. And that sin, the nature of sin, begs for condemnation. And God’s
holy law obliges. It condemns sin and sinner. The saying, “God loves the sinner
but hates the sin” isn’t true when it comes to the law. The problem is, you
can’t separate sin and sinner because sin isn’t something outside of us. It’s a
defect in our very being. And sin in us must die; that corrupting nature.
But, God so loved the world that He
powerfully saves us sinners with the gospel, with His righteousness, apart from
any righteousness of our own. He sent
His only Son to tear down our wanted poster by dying in our place so that His
death becomes ours. God the Father in His heavenly courtroom now declares us
“Pardoned!” And pardoned, the Holy Spirit works new life within us when we hear
the good news. All who believe the pardon live, we who believe Christ’s
righteousness counted as ours. And we who believe in Christ’s death and
resurrection, we died to sin and rise to life. So Romans, chapter 6 teaches
about Holy Baptism’s benefits.
Before looking at those verses, let’s
reinforce Romans chapter 6 with some other passages about baptism: You were… unrighteous... thieves, covetous,
drunkards... but you are washed (baptism), but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Cor. 6:11) You were buried with him in baptism, where also you are risen
with him through the faith of the
operation of God, who has raised him from the dead. (Col. 2:12) Christ loved the church and gave himself up on her behalf, so that he
might sanctify her, cleansing (her) by the washing of the water by the
word, in order that he might present
to himself the church glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but so that it might be holy and unblemished. (Eph. 5: 25b, 26-27) Baptism, which corresponds to this (God’s
preservation of Noah) now saves you, not
as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ… (I Pet. 3:21) For in
Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. (Gal.
3:26, 27)
In baptism, you received grace. You,
the baptized, are “Wanted, Dead and
Alive!” And, as the Apostle says in Romans 6, sin doesn’t rule in you
anymore because in Christ you died to sin and are made alive to God. But you
say, “Given such promises, why do I still desire to sin? There’s still
concupiscence! If the old man drowned in baptism, he learned to swim!” Listen
to a more literal reading of “are we to continue in sin”: Are we to keep friendly relations to sin that grace may abound? By no
means! God wants us to live according to His verdict; according to the
verdict delivered and according to the power given. He calls us to live
sanctified lives as those who are justified. Scripture says, “How can we who died to sin still live in
it?”
The Word of God is not teasing you.
The Lord is telling you to live by grace and not for sin. For we have died to sin. How have we died to sin? Look at it this
way: Scripture uses an analogy of slavery to describe being freed from sin and
bound to Christ. We were born into
sin’s slavery to remain there until death. But the Son of God became man, died
in our place, in our stead, paying a slave’s price. When He died He broke the reign of sin and
the devil’s claim over us. We were freed from slavery, and by baptism, Christ’s
death is applied to us… we died in Him.
He died our death so that we might be freed from sin and death, not as
someone bound to the old slave master, but as a new person bound to a new
owner. This new man is united to a new master. We are now slaves of
Christ. When the old slave master leans
over the fence to entice us away, you, bound to another, don’t have to listen.
You are called to resist sin, to turn from sin by looking to Christ. Although
your old nature entices you (that nature which Christ has forgiven) the new man
desires to live. And your new master gives you strength to not act in sin,
despite unholy, sinful desires. These unholy desires are forgiven in Christ,
and the new man, to escape them, cries out to Christ; and by the power of the
Spirit you resist the evil in you. That’s called the mortification of the
flesh. And your Lord promises not to permit temptation beyond what you can
bear. In other words, sin doesn’t rule you anymore even if it is present.
So what happens if we choose to listen
to the old goat trying to butt in on the Lamb slain? If we submit to the goat,
in time we lose our freedom in Christ. If we become impenitent we have lost the
faith. Our Lord said we cannot serve two masters. If you willingly continue to
live for sin you do not live for God.
If you give yourself over to the old Adam and no longer resist sinful desires
then you abandon Christ. However, since Christ dwells in you He strengthens you
to remain faithful to Him, no matter how severe the war. And when you fall in
battle, He is there to restore you, forgiving you, lifting you up. Despite your
temptations, you have a new master, one who bought you out of slavery.
But if we are spiritually alive, why
is it so hard to serve Him faithfully? Although you were set free when you died
in Christ, the old man is not eradicated until your physical death. So we daily confess our sin and believe the
absolution, because we fall for old lies, the old desires. We return to justification.
But why does our heavenly Father allow us to be tempted? It is for a very good
reason: so that we live by faith. In
this life we live by faith as those declared righteous by the blood of Christ. We are not saved by resisting sin, or by a
godly life, or by anything we do or do not do. We are saved by grace. That
gift, the gospel, the power of God for salvation, saved us. Yet, Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith also renews and transforms our minds. He who
justified us also sanctifies us.
Faith believes this promise: 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.
Baptism joined us to Christ. He did
it. The grammar of we “have been
baptized” is passive. We didn’t baptize ourselves any more than we regenerated
ourselves. God acted to save us. Look at
what He promises: Baptism united us in Christ’s death (v 3). It buried us with
Christ (v 4). It crucified us with Christ (v 6). Since Jesus died “once for
all” (v 10), we too died in Christ. United with Jesus in his death, we are no
longer slaves of sin. But there is more
to baptism than just death to the old man. We
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 enslaved to sin. For 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 also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
We, united to Christ’s death, are also
united to His resurrection. Therefore, we too shall rise in glory. Even now we
live. How could it be otherwise, if united to Christ? Oh how marvelous the
incarnation, that God wed himself with human flesh! The Son of God became man,
died and rose that we might be so closely joined to His body and blood as to
share his death and resurrection. You have been born anew, given a new nature
that desires the things of God. And you receive them too. Through baptism into Christ, the old man dies
and the new man is alive to God. Your name is not on a poster saying, “Wanted,
dead or alive.” You have been made
dead and alive. In Christ you were freed from sin’s penalty
of death, dying to sin in Christ’s crucifixion, and being raised to new life in
His resurrection. You were justified, and daily receive the fruitful blessings
of in new life.
May the very God of peace sanctify us
wholly, and our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen (I Thess. 5:23 )
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