Video Transcript: Dead to Sin, Alive to God
I'm David Feddes. And this message is about being dead to sin, and alive to God. This is a very important subject because whenever the real gospel is preached, it's bound to be misunderstood by some people, they take it to mean that if you're saved completely by God's gift in Jesus Christ, then you can be as bad as you want to be. And it makes no difference. If you're never understood to be saying that you can just go on sinning so that God can go on forgiving more and more, you're probably not preaching the real Gospel, because that's the way the real gospel tends to sound to a certain kind of person. The apostle Paul came across people, when he preached who had that misunderstanding, the apostle says, where sin increased Grace increased all the more. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means? So Paul addresses this misunderstanding in the passage we're going to look at. Sometimes people who take the grace of God as an excuse to go on sinning, simply have not come to know the Lord at all, and do not have His Spirit living in them. Jude says they are godless men who changed the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and deny Jesus Christ our only sovereign and Lord. If Jesus is sovereign and Lord of your life, you do not have a license for immorality, He forgives you freely. But that does not mean he did so. So that you could wallow more and more in your sin. Well, let's look at what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter six, the first 11 verses, what shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means we died to sin? How can we live in it any longer, or don't you know, that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death. 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. If we have been united with Him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. 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, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 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. Salvation is sometimes compared to a barcode. When you're buying things in a store, each item has a barcode on it that a scanner reads. If the barcode is correct, the scanner reads what the item is and charges you the correct amount of money for that item. The scanner only knows what the barcode shows. So if you put the barcode for one item on a totally different item, the scanner counts the item as whatever the barcode says. For example, if you were going through the checkout line at the garden store with a bag of manure, but that bag of manure had the barcode for roses on it. Then when the scanner was pointed at the bag of manure, the scanner would read roses. Now that's what salvation is like. According to some people. They say salvation is like a barcode. God takes the barcode for Jesus and puts it on you. Then when God points his scanner at you, it reads, Jesus, and God counts you as having the goodness and complete perfection of Jesus. Even though you really aren't like Jesus at all. You may be as filthy and stinky as a bag of manure because of your sin. But you're considered by God to be as lovely and sweet smelling as a rose because God counts and Jesus righteousness as yours. There's an important truth in this. But it's not the whole truth. Yes, God justifies wicked people who put their faith in Jesus. Counting Jesus goodness, as their's. Justification by faith alone is a wonderful truth. but it's not the whole truth. Initially when you come to God by faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what's wrong with you, no matter how messed up you are, no matter how many wrong things you have done, God reads you with his scanner in Christ, and you are considered righteous before him. So there's some truth in that barcode picture when it comes to being justified by faith alone, apart from anything you've done, the wicked are justified through faith in Christ. But Paul also says just a number of times in this passage, don't you know, don't you know? Don't you know? Don't you know that there's more to salvation than being justified, okay, to be declared right with God is the beginning of things. It's not the end of things. And so, to think that salvation is only getting a different code stamped on you. And now even though you're just as rotten as ever, you get to make it into heaven. Because of one act of righteousness by the one man. Yeah, we're justified because of that one act of righteousness of the one man. But the Bible also speaks of conversion, and repentance of turning from sin to God. It speaks of union with Christ, of being joined to Him in His death, and resurrection, the Bible speaks of regeneration, or rebirth or being born again, where a new life comes in you, you don't stay the same old sack of manure. Okay? A new life is placed in you not just a new barcode, the new barcode innocence does mean that you're right with God forever. But God doesn't stop there. And as the Apostle Paul says, We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death. So something happened to us besides getting the new barcode, something happens besides being justified. In fact, this is kind of a turning point to a new section, the book of Romans, he's been talking about how we're made right with God. But then in chapters six and following, he starts talking about the difference that God makes in your life. And the difference that union with Jesus Christ makes in the way you actually live. And so he doesn't take the strategy that some recommend and say, Well, you know, people, if they find out that they're saved by God's grace alone, and Jesus Christ alone, through faith alone, they're just gonna go out and be as bad as they can and as rotten as they want to be. Because there's really no incentive to be any different. And the Apostle says, well, Christ died for you. But you also are joined to his death, through baptism and joined to His resurrection. In baptism, you're baptized into his death were 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. Something has happened, not just what Jesus did for us on the cross. But what we did with Jesus, we died with him, we rose with him, there is a connection where where baptism is a funeral. Baptism is the burying of an old self, and an old life that dies with Jesus. And coming out of the waters of baptism is a resurrection and a new life. And I know that some people say yeah, baptism is just kind of an act of obedience on my part, because Jesus told us to get baptized. Well, yeah, it is that he told us to get baptized. So yeah, go ahead and get baptized. But it's not just an act of obedience. It's an act of incorporation of union with Christ. Baptism identifies you with Jesus Christ, and identifies you with him so closely, that his death can be said to be your death. And his resurrection can be said to be your resurrection, and through the glory of the Father, we are to live a new life. The apostle Paul speaks this way in many of his letters, I'll just give a few examples from Colossians having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins, God made you alive with Christ. Something happened when Jesus died and rose again, that affects all who are his own were baptized into him, or who are united with Him by faith and by repentance. Baptism, the water itself doesn't have magical properties. But that act of baptism is the sign not just to the washing away of sins, that's what water does, but also of the going under and the rising again. Remember the story of Moses, where they rescued where he led the people out of Egypt because God's power delivered them. They got To the Red Sea. The New Testament even speaks of the Red Sea in terms of baptism at one point, but they went into that Red Sea. And when they came out what happened? They were out of Egypt. And the Egyptian army was dead. They were dead to Egypt. And they were headed in a new direction. And when you're baptized into Christ, you leave behind and old Egypt and old world and old self, and you emerge into a new life and a new self. That's what baptism is. And it is that whether or not we even take it to be that it just is that the Apostle Paul says, Don't you know, you know, he says, you were baptized. But don't you understand what was going on with that? Because if you understood you never say, Well, why don't we just go on saying that grace may abound, you'd know that you were delivered from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the Son, whom He loves from darkness to light from sin to God, you'd know that You died with him, and that you rose again with him. And you just wouldn't talk that way. So behind all of that, is this reality of union with Jesus Christ, of being united with Him? The Bible speaks of Christ in us the hope of glory. It says, that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. It speaks many times of Christ in us. But it speaks even more often of us in Christ, of being in Christ union with Christ. And this is something that we as Christians need to understand, we need to know that we're not just let off the hook for our sins, and that will go to heaven someday, but that Christ lives in us. And even more importantly than that we are in Christ and all that he has done applies to us. And there's two dimensions, at least that I want to highlight of this union with Christ. One is that legal union, I mentioned some of that last week in connection with Adam and Christ, Adam was our legal representative our head. And when he blew it, he blew it for everybody. Just as if the President gets you into a war. You're all in a war, because the one who represents your is your head, took an action that involved everybody else. So Jesus represents us, he's our legal head, he acts on our behalf. And his death and resurrection are counted as ours, His perfect life of obedience is counted as ours. And we put our faith in Him, His atoning death is counted as ours, and all our debts are considered paid by God. And so legal union with Jesus is a wonderful thing, to have a new legal standing with God, that you are right with him that you're justified, you're in the clear. But that is not the only aspect of union with Christ. There's not just the legal union, there is the living union where Jesus lives in us. And we live in him through a living connection, and the one who brings that about is the Holy Spirit of God. And we'll hear a lot more about the Holy Spirit as Romans unfolds. But for now, it's just enough to say that Christ lives in us. And we live in Christ through a living connection. Sometimes the body speaks of the church as the body of Christ, and Jesus as the head. And a head is connected to its body and it directs what's going on in the body. And the various actions of the body are shaped by the head. So his actions affect us, they direct our experience, and His death and His resurrection and his reign aren't just things that happened long ago and far away. But these things, through union with Christ, flow into our lives in a living way. And baptism is to be a sign, not only to wash away of sins, but of union with Jesus Christ and all that he is. And in all that he does, it is one of the most vital teachings of the apostle Paul, one of the most vital teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He spoke, Jesus used a little different language than you read about in the book of John, but with much the same meaning that you abide in me as he's like a vine, and we're like branches, and the life flows from him into us, when we're abiding in him or connected to him, or in union with Him union with Christ is really the Christian life. A great book that I love written centuries ago is titled, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, The Life of God, in the Soul of Man, where does that life come from? It comes from Jesus, and it comes through this union, this connection with Jesus, it's not just then that new status or that legal union, but it is this life, this power, this love, this connection that happens when Christ is in you, and you're in Christ. And this means that we are complete in Christ, and sometimes in evangelical teaching and preaching, and rightly so. We emphasize that salvation equals Jesus Christ plus nothing. You cannot add to what Jesus did to make his accomplishments better or to make yourself more deserving with God. Nothing you do can make you deserving of God's favor. But what Jesus did, puts God's favor on you. So, as Paul put it, the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. If you want to be right with God, you look to that one act of Jesus on the cross, that one act of righteousness is the only source of right standing with God justification for anybody. So salvation is Jesus plus nothing Praise God. And salvation equals Jesus, minus nothing too and we need to understand that because that's what Paul is going on to emphasize, having shown in great detail that salvation is Jesus plus nothing. Salvation is Jesus minus nothing, you don't get to chop off chunks of Jesus. You don't get to chop off chunks of you either and say, Well, Jesus, I'd like you to save this part or this phase, you know, after I die, I'd like to be saved. But while I'm alive, I'd like to do my own thing. Salvation is Jesus minus nothing. So all that Jesus is all that Jesus does and has done. It involves me. So when he dies, it involves me. When he rises, it involves me when he rains in heaven, it involves me the Bible says Christ seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. So the whole me is in union with the whole Christ, and I can't divide Jesus, the Savior from Jesus, the ruler. I'll take a little example of what happens to Jesus happens to us. I've got a bulletin up here. And I've got a book that happens to be the Bible. Now. Where is this? It's in this left hand, I put it, I put it in the Bible. There you have it. Now, where's that chunk of paper? Well, it's sitting there, isn't it? Now, look over here? Where's that chunk of paper? Well, now it's sitting over here. And why is it over here? I didn't grab that chunk of paper. But the book got moved. And whatever happens to the book happens to what's in the book. And that word, that phrase in Christ is saying, Whatever happened to Jesus, wherever he goes, whatever he does, if you're in him, that's happened to you. And it's a difficult and mysterious teaching, that I don't understand fully. But I'll just say this, that if Paul says, We died with him, we died with him. If the Bible says, We rose with him, well, we rose with him. If it says that we're seated with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, then what happened to him happens to us. And we need to understand that and live it out. So all that Jesus is, and does involves me, the whole me. I don't get to take what I do on Friday nights, and say, That's my own territory. And what I do on Sundays yeah of course, I'd like I like to give God Sundays. You know, he claims all of me and all that I am. And he gives me all of himself. And again, there's been a teaching fairly common in some circles, that says, you can accept Jesus as Savior, and not as Lord. Who sent out that memo. You know, I mean, enrollments read later on, it says, If you confess, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart, that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. You don't get to chop Jesus in half and say, Father, I'd like to take that Savior chunk, you know, I'd like the the Savior chunk that gets me off the hook, but that Lord thing where he runs my life, where he takes over where his life becomes my life, I think I'll, I'll take a raincheck on that, you know, maybe later, but I do want that Savior part. That's not how it works. Sorry. You don't get to chop Jesus in half and take the saving part, and not the ruling part. When you accept Christ, you accept the whole Christ. And that means that salvation is also Jesus minus nothing you take to the whole Christ. And again, you see how the apostle works, he doesn't ever say now let's get a little more law back into this equation. And here's a few more rituals you could go through to make it right with God. And there's a few more actions that would get you back in God's good graces. He says, you're right with God. And when you have the whole Christ, you're not going to want to sin, you're going to realize that you died, and that you rose that He rose again, in Christ, there may be an old self, and he's gonna talk about that a little bit later too that you need to keep nailing that you need to keep killing, that you need to keep fighting. But you need to keep thinking of yourself as just dead to all that because Jesus died to all that. If we'd been united with Him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. 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, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. So he's saying there's been a death to that slavery and to an old self. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 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. With Jesus death, sin no longer had any connection to him whatsoever. Now, if you know your Bible, you know that Jesus never did sin. He was without sin. He was like us in every way, says the Bible except for sin. But he could be tempted, He lived in this world, and temptation came to him in many different forms. And not only could he be tempted by sin, but he was vulnerable to death, because he made himself vulnerable to death. But having died sin couldn't tempt him anymore. And having risen, death has no hold on him. And the Bible says that it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. So once he triumphed over sin and death, he won a decisive victory once for all, and that victory is won on behalf of all his people, he died to sin once for all the life He lives, He lives to God. And because you're in union with Him, then the upshot is now you also must count yourselves, dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And here's where the apostle takes what he's been telling us and starts applying it to us. It's the first command that you find in the book of Romans. That's kind of telling isn't it? He can talk for six chapters, without once telling you to do something. He just keeps telling you, what your pickle is, what your problem is, and what God has done. And then finally, when he does get around to telling you something, what he's telling you, first of all to do is to count yourselves in with Jesus, dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus. And throughout the passage before even he says, count yourselves, he keeps saying, don't you know or we know? Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ, were baptized into his death, we know that our old self was crucified, we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, you need to talk to yourself. One of the most important aspects of living the Christian life is talking to yourself. And give yourself a lecture if need be. Don't you know, do you realize who you are? And when he says, Count yourself, he's not saying now pretend. Let's pretend that something happened. No, he says, You reckon it this way, you count it this way. Because it is this way, you have to recognize reality. This is important in many aspects of our life, I'll just take a real simple example. If you were a little awkward. To put it nicely as a teenager, if you kind of looked awkward, you had crooked teeth, you had braces, you had, you know, if you were a girl, you had scraggly hair, and not much of a figure and ah, you know, you just weren't that great to look at. And you get to be a little older, your age 22, the acne has cleared up, the braces are gone, you're looking great. And sometimes you're still thinking like you're 13 or 15. And, like, you were awkward, and you don't know that you are now beautiful. Sometimes you do. And I'm not saying the 15 and the 13 year olds aren't, I'm just saying that there are times when you can go through kind of an awkward phase in your life. And when you leave that phase, you are still stuck in it in your own mind. Because that new truth hasn't sunk in, it just won't sink in. And sometimes you need to tell yourself, that's behind me. The Acne is gone, you know, I'm not gonna have acne for the next 50 to 60 years of my life. It's gone. So, you know, that we can get stuck in ruts of, and habits of thinking and the way we identify ourselves long after the reality has changed. If you're a person who is in prison, being released can actually be kind of a difficult thing. If you've been in prison a long time, and now you've served your sentence and it's over. You need to count yourself dead to prison and alive to real life and freedom on the outside. You need to get out of the old habits of expecting all food to taste like prison food. You need to get out of the old habits of being treated in a certain way by your fellow prisoners, or by bullying guards who are really mean. Let's say you're set free from prison, and you're in a restaurant one day, and one of the guards who was really mean to you in prison comes in, and he starts barking at you, and telling you what to do, and telling you how worthless you are. Is it your job to say, yes, sir, I'll do whatever you say I am worthless. And I'll I'll just go do whatever you want. You say, you don't have any control over me anymore. I am free. I'm not in prison anymore. You are not guarding me, and you have no right to tell me what to do. This is what we must do as Christians, when you have been trapped in a certain pattern or in a certain prison for a while you develop habits of mind and behavior, where you may act like you would, if you were still in prison, you might be very dishonest or sneaking around or trying to get away with stuff. You may be intimidated by bullies and mean people. But you've got to leave that behind, and say I'm free. Now I can get a job. Now I can live a life of productive life. Because I'm a new person, I have a new situation. And when you are in Christ Jesus, you're not in Adam anymore. You're in a new situation. And you need to know that. And you need to think of yourself that way. And you need to live that way. Or take another picture. Let's say you grew up in a very grim and ugly situation as a little child, your parents were addicted to drugs, they mistreated you badly, you often were neglected and went hungry, didn't have enough to eat, didn't have a decent place to sleep, you resorted to street crime and other stuff when you were old enough to kind of look out for yourself, and you lived that way. And then somehow you made it out of the foster care system and you were adopted as an older child by some loving parents. That's still not going to mean that from day that day on all is going to feel perfect. And so sometimes you've got to talk to yourself. And if you've been adopted into a loving family, you've got to instead of saying, Oh, I wonder if I'm gonna have any food to eat tomorrow, you say my parents have a refrigerator and cupboards full of food. Instead of saying, my parents are probably going to beat on me again tomorrow. You say I've got new parents, and they love me. And they look out for me, and they want my best interests. Instead of saying, Boy, I had it terrible and that was just boy life was against me. You say, but it's not anymore. I've got a new situation, I've got new parents, I have a new way of life. And I need to rejoice in that, and start living like that. And that's how it is for us Christians. We've been adopted by a loving father, rescued from the domain of the devil. And we need to understand that this is true when we count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. We're not telling ourselves lies. We're telling ourselves the truth. So when I say talk to yourself, I'm not saying try to talk yourself into thinking something that isn't true. I'm saying keep on telling yourself the truth until it sinks in until you start realizing there is realities and living out these realities. Another picture, when you're a new you, and you've been baptized into Christ, the Bible speaks of dying and rising with Christ. It also speaks of putting on Christ, as many of you, as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ Galatians three, verse 27. And Romans 13. Later it will command us put on the Lord Jesus Christ Colossians three have put off the old self or literally the old man with its practices. And you put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge. After the image of its Creator, you put off some old clothes, and you put on a new suit because you're a new person, and you need a new uniform that goes along with the new you. Picture I've used before is let's say you were a member of the Hell's Angels, and the Hell's Angels. As a member of that you were dedicated to a life of crime and troublemaking. And then you decided that you were going to turn over a new leaf and become a new person? Well, when you do that, you decided you're going to leave behind your Hell's Angels uniform. And you're going to put on the uniform of a policeman because, you know, even when you're made new, there's creative things about you that don't change. You still like motorcycles. Okay, so and that's true too. When you're saved in the Christian life, it doesn't change everything about your personality, and once it changes everything, and renews it, but you're still You. So let's say you're the Hell's Angel. But now you want to do a little different thing with your love of motorcycles and you become a motorcycle cop. Well, you're going to put on a new uniform. And that's what the Bible says, now you have taken off that old identity, you've put on the new one, instead of the uniform of those who go around, doing the work of hell, you have put on a new uniform, and you want to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are a lot of different pictures the Bible uses for that change from the old to the new. But this much is clear, there is more to salvation than changing the barcode. not less. It is wonderful that always that new status is given freely, without anything we do. But salvation not only is Jesus Christ plus nothing, but it's Jesus minus nothing, we get the whole Christ. And so he gets the whole us. And there is this progressive transformation from glory to glory. We may not look too glorious, right away, that kid that's adopted into a new family, the first day isn't going to feel a whole lot different, perhaps than he did it before until he learns to really trust. And until that experience starts to sink in. That first day after you took off the Hell's Angel uniform, you know, old habits aren't going to go gone instantly in most cases, but a new life and a new season has begun for you've died to one thing, you've risen to another. And this is what happens in your baptism. This is what happens when you're identified with Jesus Christ, dying with him rising with him, reigning with him, you're united to him right now. Eventually, we will reign over the angels. We will judge the world the Bible says all of these glorious things that lie in the future. But even now through union with Christ, we start doing his work. We start living in the knowledge that we're new people, and that we're dead and risen with him. Well, St. Patrick's Day is coming up. There is more to St. Patrick's than green beer. Okay, so I'll just close with St. Patrick. When you're talking about union with Christ, St. Patrick was a slave. And he escaped. He came to know God, just praying on his own. He was a kid who had grown up in a Christian home. And that was captured by pirates, and was carried off to Ireland where he was a slave. And there though he had not wanted anything to do with the Christianity of his parents, while he was with them when he was off being a slave. He started praying to God, and God worked in his life in a wonderful way. And after he escaped slavery, then later on, he decided to go back to Ireland as a missionary, and his life was in danger many times, but he made a tremendous difference and led that island to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. At any rate, he had something called St. Patrick's breastplate. And I told you, we need to talk to ourselves. St. Patrick had a way of talking to himself. Every day, he would speak to himself of God, and a being in Christ and Christ in him. I rise today with the power of God to pilot me God's strength to sustain me God's wisdom, to guide me God's eye to look out for to look ahead for me, God's ears to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to protect me, Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ to the right of me, Christ, to the left of me, Christ in my lying down Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising, he was a man in Christ. And every day he told himself, I am a man in Christ. When you get up in the morning, remind yourself, I am baptized into Christ, I am a man in Christ, or I am a woman in Christ, I am a new creation, I died with him, I rise with him, I reign with Him. And today is another day of doing that. We do thank you, Lord, for the great work you have done and completed fully and accomplished in doing that great act of righteousness that brings justification to all who believe in you. And we thank you too, for your blessed Holy Spirit for the reality of union with you for your life in us and our life in you. We pray, Father, that whatever is hard to understand you will make give us greater understanding, but not just that, that we may truly know in our life and experience that we are a new creation in Christ, that the old is dead, and we have died to it. And so Lord, more and more, may we be able to leave behind that old self and crucify it and realize that it's already been crucified with you. And that that new life more and more taking over who we are and how we think and what we do. We thank you for your glorious resurrection, and that if we endure we will also reign with you. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.