Dead to Sin, Alive to God - Vienna Presbyterian Church The Rev. Dr. Peter G. James Romans 6:1-14 February 16, 2020

Dead to Sin,
Alive to God
 Vienna Presbyterian Church
 The Rev. Dr. Peter G. James
      Romans 6:1-14

     February 16, 2020

It has become fashionable in our day for Christians to
affirm that God accepts us as we are. The statement is true
as far as it goes. God’s grace accepts us as we are. We do
not need to clean up our act before we come to Christ. God
accepts us as we are for what we are. Yet God does not
intend to leave us where we are. God wants to transform us.
What God desires for people is nothing less than a total
makeover.

                                We are now five chapters
                             into Paul’s letter to the
                             Romans. I would summarize
                             the first five chapters this way:
                             we are saved by grace through
                             faith. The order is important
here. We are saved by grace which we receive in faith.

  First, grace. Grace is God’s undeserved mercy and
unconditional favor for sinners like us. We do not earn
God’s love. We cannot possibly earn it. In C.S. Lewis’
words, “God loves us not because we are loveable but
because God is love.”

  Second, faith. Faith receives God’s gift of grace. God
invites us to accept this gift of grace through faith in Jesus
Christ.

  So far, so good. Yet, here’s the problem as I see it. We
can presume on God’s grace. What advantage is there in
being good if in the end God forgives us? I might as well go
on presuming on God’s grace and ask God’s forgiveness
later.

 The 20th century poet W. H. Auden wrote a poem titled,
For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio. In the poem,
King Herod is told the news of the Messiah’s birth. When

Herod learns that this Messiah brings forgiveness and grace
to people, he argues, “Every crook will argue, ‘I like
committing crimes. God likes forgiving them. Really, the
world is admirably arranged.’”

  I get Herod’s point. If everything results from grace, then
I get to do what I like to do, which is sin, and God gets to do
what God likes to do, which is to forgive. We must guard
against the tendency to treat God’s grace as a happy gumball
machine dispensing endless forgiveness candy.

   Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrase “cheap grace” to
describe the tendency to conceive of grace as cheap because
it is given freely to us. What cost God the life of His Son
cannot become cheap for us. As Bonhoeffer contends in the
opening line in his book The Cost of Discipleship, “We are
fighting today for costly grace.”

                                      In Romans 6, Paul
                                    anticipates the confusion
                                    associated with grace in
                                    today’s Scripture reading.
                                    Paul begins the chapter
                                    with a question, “What
                                    shall we then say? Shall
we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?” Paul deploys
an ancient rhetorical device called a diatribe to prove his
point. A diatribe imagines questions from an imaginary
opponent that challenge his core beliefs. Paul then answers
his own question. “By no means” or alternatively, “You’ve
got to be kidding.”

  In verse 2, Paul asks a rhetorical question: “We are those
who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
Since we have died to sin, why would we want to become
enslaved to sin again?

In verses 3-10, Paul enumerates what he means by dead to
sin and live to God. We are buried with Christ in baptism so
we may live a new life (6:3-4). We are united in death with
Christ, just as we are raised in union with him (6:5). We
have crucified our old self with Christ, thereby eliminating
our bondage to sin (6:6). We have been set free from sin by
dying with Christ (6:7). We are free to live for Christ, now
that we have died to sin (6:8). What this means for us is that
sin no longer has mastery over us” (6:9). We are now free to
live for Christ (6:10).

                                         There is a change of
                                        ownership in these
                                        verses. When we
                                        become followers of
                                        Jesus, we change
                                        masters. We are no
                                        longer live as slaves
                                        to sin and evil. We
now belong to a new master. Jesus has become our Lord.
He gives us the power and ability to defeat sin. Sin no
longer has mastery over us. We do not need to give into it
any longer.

  Every verse in verses 3-10 is written in the indicative
mood, meaning that each verse communicates a factual
statement. The mood shifts to the imperative in verses 11-
13, meaning all verbs are expressed as commands. While
the subject is not identified, it is implied. He’s taking about
us, his readers. Paul is commanding Christians living in
Rome and suburban DC to actually do something in response
to all these factual statements.

   First imperative: “Count yourselves dead to sin and alive
to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). Count is an accounting word.
It means to credit something to our account. Paul uses the

same word earlier in Romans, “Abraham believed God and it
was credited [or counted] to him as righteousness” (4:3).
We can count as true that we are dead to sin and alive to God
because of what God in Jesus Christ has done for us on the
cross.

  Second imperative: “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your
mortal body so that you obey its evil desires” (6:12). Reign
means to rule or have dominion over. It is taken from the
world of kings, who exercised mastery over their loyal
subjects. We cannot allow sin to reign or dominate our life.

                                        Third imperative: “Do
                                    not offer any part of
                                    yourself to sin as an
                                    instrument of wickedness,
                                    but rather offer yourselves
                                    to God as those who have
                                    been brought from death to
life and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument
of righteousness” (6:13). There are actually two imperatives
contained in this single verse. “Do not offer yourself to sin,”
which is the negative imperative but “offer yourself to God,”
which is the positive directive. Offer is a Greek word that
literally translates, “stand beside.” Do not stand beside sin.
Go and stand near to God.

  So what does this sermon have to do with my life? Let me
apply each of Paul’s imperatives to our lives as believers.

  First: Count yourself dead to sin and alive to God. True
confession. It doesn’t always seem like sin is dead in me.
There are times when I feel as though I am dead to God and
alive to sin. I struggle with nagging, persistent sins. So does
Paul, for that matter. Come back next Sunday and I’ll tell

you more about the struggles Paul has with deeply besetting
sins in his own life.

  The bottom line: it really doesn’t matter what we feel. We
may not feel dead to sin, but in Christ we are dead to sin and
alive to God. So, start thinking this way.

  Where does sin originate? It begins in the mind. Sin
germinates as an idle, alluring thought. Later, we act on it.
Counting yourself dead to sin and alive to God is adopting a
mindset that in Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God.
Trust this promise and begin living as though it is true. The
truest thing is not what we feel about ourselves. The truest
thing is what God declares is true about us.

  We do not need to live in self-imposed exile. Through
Jesus Christ, God counts us dead to sin and alive to God. If
we are released from prison, we do not need to go on living
in a jail cell.

                                                 Second: Do not
                                             let sin reign in you.
                                             This second imper-
                                             ative seems to
                                             contradict the first
                                             imperative. In an
                                             ultimate, objective
                                             sense, Christ
makes us dead to sin and alive to God. Yet practically
speaking, sin still exerts influence over us. The good news is
that Christ gives us power to resist sin. It’s not a matter of
sheer will power. Christ helps us defeat sin. Our job is to do
everything possible to resist temptation. Martin Luther once
said, “Don’t sit near the fire if your head is made of butter.”
Temptation always becomes hotter the closer we sit in
proximity to it.

Whenever you face temptation, apply the Joseph principle.
When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, he did not hang
around. He cut to the chase and ran away. When temptation
comes knocking, the best strategy is to run. Run as fast as
your little legs can carry you.

  In 1941, when the Nazis were bombing London on a daily
basis, Winston Churchill spoke to high school students in a
commencement speech: “Never give in. Never give
in─never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small,
large or petty, never give in…never yield to force, never
yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

 What Churchill said about this mortal foe also applies to
what Paul said about sin. Never give in. Never. Never.
Never. When you fail, pick yourself up and try again.

                                    Third: Offer yourself to
                                 God. Don’t stand near
                                 evil. Stand near God.
                                 Stand on His Word; stand
                                 with His people. God said
                                 through Moses, “I have set
                                 before you death and life,
blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you may live”
(Deuteronomy 30:19). We have a choice in the matter.
Choose what makes for life, not death.

  The goal of this sermon series on Romans is nothing less
than transformation. Our church is united around a single,
compelling mission, “Becoming like Christ Together for the
World.”

  Becoming like Christ is our lifelong pursuit. We are
learning all our lives what it means to follow Christ. I will
be 70 years old later this year. I’ve been following Christ for

50 years. I am 50 years into following Jesus and am still
learning what it means to follow Christ with my life. We
never stop learning what it means to follow Christ.

   Becoming like Christ is something we do together. None
of us can successfully go it alone. We grow best in company
with fellow believers. If you are struggling with sin in a
particular area of your life, tell someone about it. Share it
with a pastor, teacher, elder or fellow Christian. As long as
sin has you all to itself, it will easily gain mastery over you.
The devil would like nothing better than to be alone with
you. Don’t struggle with sin alone. Invite trusted spiritual
friends walk with you.

  Becoming like Christ together is for the world Christ came
to save. It’s what I say every Sunday in the benediction.
Love the Lord and love the people. Serve the Lord and serve
the people.