God's New Life

He is risen. He is risen indeed. Let's make sure we're confident. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Christ died for our sins. He rose again so that we can be confident. Confidence that we are forgiven in Christ. We're freed from the power of sin in Christ. We're alive in Christ. We're beloved by God in Christ. Today we have much to celebrate, just like every Sunday morning. We've already sung of Christ and his death and his resurrection. We've prayed in the name of Christ with an assurance that when we pray to the Father in his name, we are heard as his children. We'll hear of his death and his resurrection. We'll have two baptisms, two testimonies, and then that great ordinance of declaration, dead in Christ and then alive again in his resurrected life. And then we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper. Christ died for us. Christ rose for us. We have much to celebrate and that's why in scripture we continue to see the command, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. We're also going to recognize the Reformation this morning, as Chris has alluded to, and Ron has prayed through. Today marks the anniversary, and Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg. And what we're actually remembering here is that the Reformation remembered something. They didn't discover anything. New. They went back to what Scripture said, and they realized We've been missing something. One of the things the Reformation reminded us of, what it rediscovered, and what we hear about in our passage, what we actually celebrate in our ordinances, is the kind of confidence we're supposed to have in our relationship with God. That is one of the key central themes of the Reformation, in that I don't walk around worrying, have I pleased God? We don't walk around wondering, have I done enough? We don't walk around wondering, is God angry with me today or is He happy with me today? No, we know we haven't pleased God. We have absolute confidence that there's nothing we have done that could possibly ever please God. And we have absolute confidence in Christ that what He has done has pleased God. And we put our faith in Him. We're united with him in his death and his resurrection and we have confidence in Christ. The Reformation is about confidence in our relationship with God because we see that our relationship with God is tied to who Christ is and what he's done. So I come this morning and I ask you, are you confident? Are you confident? Oftentimes we confuse two things. We confuse confidence and arrogance. Confidence is not arrogance. You see, confidence says I'm going to boast in God and demand of myself. Arrogance says I boast of myself and make demands of God. Arrogance boasts of me and makes demands. Confidence boasts in Christ and says, I have been given commandments. I will now live in the freedom of Christ. See, one of the great truths that Luther rediscovered that's so clear in scripture were sinners who've been declared saints. were sinners who have been declared righteous. Yes. Yes, I am a wretched sinner. I am a wretched sinner. We are all wretched sinners, and if we believe in Jesus Christ, we've received amazing grace. You see, we have to affirm two things with great confidence. Our sin is real. and is offensive to God. Christ's death and his resurrection has removed the penalty of our sin and what we should suffer from it. So this morning, Christian, we're thinking about our identity. We're thinking about our confidence. And Christians, we too often focus on, well, ourselves. And there's two typical ways we do this. We either think too little of ourselves or too much of ourselves. We either beat ourselves up because we continue to see ourselves without the lenses of scripture. We forget we're made in the image of God. We forget that Christ has purchased us and declared us sons. We think too little of ourselves. We think too much of our sin and we beat ourselves up. Or we see the gifts God's given us. We see the amazing things he's been able to make us to do as only human beings but as Christians and we boast of ourselves. Both of these are misunderstanding what God has said about us, which is what should define who we are. So this morning, this is our very simple message. Believers in Christ are forgiven, free from the power of sin, and free to live a new life. Believers in Christ are forgiven, free from the power of sin, and free to live a new life. We're in Romans chapter six. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one in front of you. If not, just keep tapping shoulders till you get one. You need this because as you will hear, this is the word of life. Question everything else but the words you see here before you in scripture. This is the only thing that will not ever lie to you. This is the true word of God that we must hear. I see a lot of new faces, so I want to walk back, and I want us to remember where we've been. For this message this morning, we really go back to Romans 1. Romans 1 makes it very clear, we are worshipers. We're worshipers. That's how God designed us, because God designed us to worship Him. Now here's the problem. We rejected God, and so now we worship everything but Him. Primarily ourselves. So think about your life. You're always worshiping someone or something. We're all in a longing for awe, for splendor, for love, for affection. It's because God designed us to long for these things because he designed us to have those things satisfied in him. That's why we're so restless. We were designed in such a way that we would find our all, our affection, our desires, all fulfilled when we see God as he is and we have a right relationship with him. Our hearts are restless until they find rest in him. We're all worshiping all the time and God, he sent his son, he sent the light into our darkness so that we would once again truly worship the one who's truly worthy of worship. Now here's the interesting thing about Christianity, and it's too easy to get this confused, and I understand why we get it so confused. We get so many things from God, it's really easy to get confused and think, it's all about me. In Christ, we're redeemed, we're declared righteous, we're adopted, we're forgiven, we're set free, In Christ we receive every possible blessing we could ever desire, but here's the thing, it's actually not about us. We're given all of those things so that we could once again worship. It's about God's glory, not ours. We receive all those things from Christ so that we can once again have our hearts turned towards God and worship. God gives us new life. so that we could once again worship. Let's look quickly back at chapter five. There are two heads, two different humanities. If we're in Adam, we're dead as sinners. If we're in Christ, we're alive by grace. By nature, we're all united with Adam in his death and his sin. By grace, we're united to Christ to live. If you are in Adam, if you have not believed in Jesus Christ, You're a sinner. That sin remains upon you. God's judgment is still upon you. Death will lead to condemnation. But here is the good news that we are celebrating. If you're not a Christian, this is it. This is all you need to hear this morning. If you're not a Christian, your sin and your death and your condemnation are still present and powerful. It is your end. See, as Christians, we're sinners and we deserve death and we deserve condemnation, but we look to Christ and we see that Christ, he died a sinner's death when he was not a sinner. He died as if a sinner, he suffered the consequences of sin so that whoever believes in him, our sin is counted to him, he suffers for our sin, he satisfies the wrath of God, and now we're declared righteous. See, unless we believe in Christ, our sin is counted towards us. No one else can pay that penalty. Only Christ can pay the penalty for our sin. You must believe in Jesus Christ to receive life. Paul ends Romans 5 with a profound, and what is obviously also a profound declaration. He declares where grace abounds, sin abounds. This is profound and it's also provocative. Where sin abounds, grace abounds. Now, he then goes to chapter six, and look with me, chapter six, verse one. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. The chapter five was all about the abounding grace, the how much more the grace. Chapter six, he goes back into this diatribe, right? He's thinking about his audience and he's asking the questions they might ask and then answering them. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? If grace abounds or sin abounds, let's abound in sin so grace will abound all the more. That's the objection he's answering. And really this objection could be two different kinds of people. The legalist could be saying, if you say that grace always abounds where sin abounds, won't that lead to more sin? The legalist is afraid of grace because he's afraid people are gonna go crazy with sin. Other people's sin, not their own. The licentious, they wanna say, oh, really? You mean I can sin more and I'll receive more grace? Oh, you really, that desire I have to sin, grace will abound? No. By no means, Paul says. You're missing the point. Grace doesn't abound, so sin can abound, where our sin is so very abundant. Grace abounds. The whole point here is that we're supposed to see how dangerous and destructive and powerful sin is. How dark it is. And that Christ has brought us into a new light. To live a new life. That's for our joy. Central to our passage this morning is one of the most important truths you can get as a Christian. It's the union with Christ. It's your union with Christ. As I said at the very beginning, us being united with Christ, it changes who we are. And I want you to see this throughout the text. I'm gonna read the text twice so that you see this language. We see it in verse five most clearly. For if we have been united with him, that is Jesus Christ, in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in his resurrection like his. You see, when we're united with Christ, everything's ours. Forgiveness, freedom, adoption, justification, redemption, deliverance. Everything's ours when we're united with Christ by faith. But I want you to see some other phrases. We're gonna hear into Christ, with Christ, united with Christ, and then in Christ. Listen for these phrases as I read Romans 6, verses one through 14. What shall we say then? Are we continuing 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 his death, like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him. in order that the body of sin may 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. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. Christian, we hear this declaration that we were deserving of wrath, we were declared righteous, we were dead in our sin, we made alive in Christ, and we have to see it's grace. And where our sin abounds, where our sin overwhelms us with a feeling of guilt, the grace abounds. Where our sin abounded in overpowering us, we have to know grace abounds in freedom. And it's all because by grace we are united with Christ. So if I were to ask you, who are you, what would you say? A Christian's first answer has to be, I'm in Christ. That has to be our first declaration. I'm in Christ. We should be thinking about how we are in Christ all the time Otherwise, we're forgetting. We're living as if we're in sin. We're under the law, outside of grace. Here's actually the real question. Who do you let inform you of who you are? Who speaks the kinds of things in your life that you let say, okay, that's who I am. Here's the most frightening thing we all have to realize. The biggest liar you know is the inner man. The one who lies to you more than everybody else. It's actually that old sin nature. It's that old man. He's constantly telling you, you're not good enough. He's constantly telling you, you should boast of this. The Word of God is the one source of truth that we must say what God says is true no matter what. It gets to correct and change every lie that I'm told from outside and from inside. So how do we do this? Well, Paul makes it very clear with three very distinct imperatives. I hope you heard it. You can see in the outline on your bulletin, know, consider, present. Know, consider, present. Look at verse three. Do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus? Verse six, we know that our old self was crucified. Verse nine, we know that Christ being raised from the dead. What we must know above everything else is what this word says, what Christ says about us, what Christ has done for us. This must be what you know with absolute confidence. Then verse 11, it takes it another notch. It's not just knowing, consider yourself dead in Christ and consider yourself alive in Christ. That's another step from knowing, because it's actually reflection. It's self-reflection and self-redefining. And then you see there in verse 13, do not present yourself for instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves as instruments for righteousness. That's where we see our outline. Know you can enjoy a new life in Christ, verses one through 10. Consider yourself alive in Christ, verse 11. Present yourself to pursue this new life in Christ. Verse 12. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and we thank you for your word. But it says these things we must hear. Because apart from your word, we are left dead. Apart from your word, we are left alone without knowing who we really are and who you are and what you've done for us. Help us, Lord, to trust you. Help us, Lord, to not only hear what you say, but to believe it, and to let it be what defines us as we think about ourselves, as we live our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. First, know you can enjoy a new life in Christ. Now, we start with what we need to know, because, well, if we did what we really wanna do, and go straight to what we need to do, we're just gonna end up in moralism. We have to know the truth of the gospel. We have to believe it and apply it to ourselves, and then we live out those lives. So the first thing we need to realize is we need to know all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus, we're dead to sin. We're alive to a new life. Look at verse three. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized in his death? His death was for us. 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. It's interesting, he's referring to baptism in verse three, and he's referring to the union with Christ in verse five, and they're not that different. Baptism is just that outward ordinance that we observe that recognizes that union that's happened by the power of God. Now, he asks the question, do you not know that when you were baptized? Notice he actually is working on assumed knowledge. We have to remember that when Paul's writing, he's writing to the church at Rome. He's eager to preach the gospel to Christians who are in Rome. That's who he's writing to, and so he's assuming he's writing to people who've been baptized. Do you not know that when you were baptized, he's working from assumed knowledge. He's assuming those basic truths that if you're a believer, you've been baptized. What that means is important. See, baptism is that great metaphor. You, in your union with Christ, being identified with Christ, you've gone down to the water like you've been buried with him. His death is for you. His death is for your death. Your death is conquered by Christ in his death. Your sin nature has been destroyed. Your guilt has been washed away. So that's the beautiful thing about baptism is we go down to these filthy sinners, corrupt and condemned. We come back up with that beautiful picture that now we're cleansed, called a new life. If you have baptism, it represents an identity change. That old self is dead. That old self that sought its own glory and how you worshiped your own desires, it's dead. That guilt you had, it's dead. And in Christ, when you come back up, you're new. Baptism was actually not a uniquely Christian word at this time. It simply means dip. So you take a white cloth and you have purple dye and you put the white cloth in and it comes out and it has a new identity. It's not a white cloth, it's a purple cloth. You see, when you go in, you're a human being, made in the image of God, but you're a sinner condemned. Before you are in Christ, you're a human being, a sinner condemned. When you are identified with Christ, you have a new identity, you're a human being, alive by grace, justified. This is why we celebrate baptism, because it reminds us of who we are. So Josh and Matt, they're gonna come and share their testimony. They're gonna tell you what God has done to them and for them and in them. And as we observe their baptism, yes, this is their declaration of I'm coming out of the world, I'm coming out of my sin, I'm coming in a new life, I'm coming into the church. Church. You're not just mere observers here. We're participating because it's one baptism. This is why it's good for us to go to weddings. It reminds us of the vows we made. But even more, we're participating because when I say we baptize you, church, it's us. We're hearing that profession of faith and we're saying, yes, we affirm the work we see God doing in you. We are participating because we're reminded the death, that healed them, forgave them. The resurrection that gave them new life, it's ours, the same. We're united in this baptism. We're united in this ceremony because we're all united in Christ. So we need to know we've been baptized, know we've been baptized into Christ and his death. Look at verse six and seven. These are bold declarations that we don't, fully understand, we don't fully grasp, I think. When I say we, I mean we. We know that our old self was crucified with him, right? That old guy who loved sin and loved to sin and loved to brag about sin, that old guy is dead. Crucified with him. In order that the body of sin might be brought to what? Nothing. That old self and those old sinful ways, they're supposed to be brought to nothing. We don't get to carry like a little bag of sin into heaven with us. There's nothing in your pockets when you're getting baptized. I'm gonna hold on to this. You don't get to hold your wallet up as you're getting baptized. Nope, not this one. It's all of you. It's all dead. It all dies. All of us. So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Now, let's think about that for a moment. It says you were enslaved to sin. Did you ever recognize that you were enslaved to sin? Do you recognize the power of sin to enslave you? As Jesus says, when we choose sin, it is our master. See, we like to take sin and think, ah, this looks like fun for a little while, and I'm gonna go this far with it, and then I'll be able to stop. Sin makes you think you're in control. You're never in control. It is more powerful than us. We're never in control of sin. We don't get to tell it when it stops. When we choose sin, it becomes our enslaver. And in Adam, we don't have a choice. In Adam, slaves barked orders and we said yes. Okay, you had free choice. You got to choose how you sinned. But you only had the choice. Yes, I'll sin. Here's the beauty of the gospel. Christ is greater than our sin. He died to break the chains of sin so that we are no longer enslaved to it. Sin no longer commands you. It's present. You're still tempted, but it doesn't have the power to force you to sin. You can say no. You can say no, not just simply saying, I'm not gonna do that today, no. Whenever you're tempted, you say Christ died on the cross, I do not have to listen. I have a new life. Here's the great sad reality we have to realize, the powerful truth, not the great truth, the powerful truth. Sin is very deceptive. It wants us to think it still has a power of us. It wants us to think It can still rule us. Here's the reality that's sad for Christians. When we choose sin, we're self-imposing slavery on ourselves again. To sin. When we choose to sin, Christian, we're self-imposing that again as our master. You're free. Look at verse seven. For one who has died, has been set free from sin. Whoever the Son has set free is free indeed. When sin tempts, you have to look at it and say, I don't have to listen. I'm free. I'm not free to do whatever I want any old time. No, I'm free to do what Christ says. I'm free to hear the word of God. I'm free to obey. Christian, are you enjoying freedom or sin? Are you enjoying freedom to pursue the things of God, or are you still thinking, how am I gonna fit little ways of enjoying sin in my life? Christ set you free. Finally, I want us to look at verse four. Know we benefit from his resurrection. Verse four, as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. We don't fear death. We know we have eternal life. We stop walking in the destruction of the darkness. We seek to live a new life in Christ. And we only do this when we're confident in what he's died for, our sin, what he's died for to set us free, what he's died for to keep us away from guilt, and he's risen again. We must know that our sin debt is nothing because Christ has paid it. We must know that the power of sin is broken because Christ has destroyed it. We must know that a new life, we have a new life now to enjoy in Christ. Now to the hard part. Those are the things we need to know. We're, we've died to our sin and our guilt. We're alive in Christ, now verse 11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the hard part. Because most of us as Christians, I saw most of us nodding. Even heard some amens. Yes, we know this is true. Considering yourself in light of these truths. This is the hard part. Now, this isn't a pep talk. Considering yourself, it's not looking in the mirror and saying, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me. It's not making yourself feel better about yourself. It's seeing yourself under the word of God according to what he says about us. See, our problem is that we beat ourselves up When we see ourselves outside of the word of God, we boast too much of ourselves when we see ourselves outside of God. And here's again, the backdrop of all this from Romans one through three, our hearts are sick. They're twisted, they're corrupt. Sick hearts lead to sick eyes. When we actually try to look at ourselves apart from the word of God, it's always warped and corrupted. We're always seeing ourselves as either less than what God says or more than what God says. It's always warped, twisted, and corrupted. We don't know how to see ourselves by ourselves. This is why the word of God is so important. God has spoken. He tells us who we are. He tells us what he's done for us. He tells us what he expects of us. For this is why Scripture is so important and we as a church must be grounded upon it. It must be over us constantly. The one true source that will not lie to you. We must know ourselves according to God's word. And on Reformation Day, this is a poem from Luther. Feelings come and feelings go. And feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God, not else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel condemned for want of some sweet token, there is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging word till soul and body sever. For though all things shall pass away, his word shall stand forever. We have to learn to think about ourselves differently. There's really nothing harder than relearning a subject. The brain needs rewiring. And it all comes from looking at this word and saying what it says is true and what I believe was a lie. Looking at this word and seeing sin that we had not seen before and saying it must be true, God give me the grace to repent. I think GPSs are one of the great new technologies of our day, because I'm really bad with directions. And I often miss turns, and I can't stand that GPS when it says recalculating. It's like it's throwing them a face. You miss the turn, you're not going the right way. You know, and those foreign languages are cute until they say recalculating. Then they just sound snarky. So I get the GPS and it says recalculating, it's telling me I missed the turn, I'm going the wrong way, I need to turn around. The Christian life is one where we're always recalculating. That's literally the word. The word here is an accounting, to reconsider yourself, to take an account of who you are regularly in Christ, and therefore, we as Christians, we're supposed to always be recalculating. And this is why. We're supposed to always be learning more of God, and the more we learn of God, the more we have to recalculate. We're supposed to always, as we see more of God, see more of our sin, and that requires repenting, which is? Recalculating. Christian life is about repentance because we believe that what God's word says is true. But we're supposed to always be taking into account, recalculating, I am a child of God. I'm dead to that sin, I don't have to obey it. Every time we're faced with temptation, that pornography, no, I'm recalculating, I don't have Don't look at that today. Every time I'm desiring to do gossip, no, I'm recalculating. My mouth is sealed because my lips have been purified with the Holy Spirit. Every time we're tempted to despair, to worry, to temptation, we're recalculating. We must consider ourselves constantly forgiven, free, loved, And here's the hardest one. We must always consider ourselves mastered. When we say free, we say free from sin, but we as independent Americans want to say, oh, I'm free. You're free from sin. You're free to now serve the one master who loves you and intends good for you. You're free now to serve the one and true holy God. which is why we jump down to verses 12 to 14. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Because of all these things you've known and what you've considered, you're dead to sin, you're alive to God in Christ Jesus. Verse 13, it makes it so clear. 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 for your righteousness. Verse 11 and 13 are definitely worth memorizing. As you can see here, there are two ways to live. We are living in either one of these two ways at all times. We are either presenting ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness, or we are presenting ourselves as instruments of righteousness. The difference is when we believe and know and consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ. We're gonna talk about this all next week in the next section of Romans 6, but I wanna ask just a few questions. Are you an instrument of righteousness? Are you an instrument of God that helps build up the body in confessing sin and forgiving sin? You see, an instrument of righteousness isn't one who always wants to make sure everybody else is righteous. It's a legalist. An instrument of righteousness is one that's always seeking to apply the gospel. We're sinners in need of grace. Grace abounds. So I wanna know if you're an instrument of righteousness, how much does grace abound in your life over sin, and how much does your grace to others abound in their sin? That's what it means to be an instrument of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to abound in grace to others. Another question we can ask about the presenting your members as instruments, It's interesting, as we think about the different categories of life, we can think about, do I give this to God, or do I hold it back? Do I give this to God, or do I hold it back? And if you don't ask that, you're holding everything back. We do this. We wanna say, no, God can have all this, but not that. Everything we have has been given to us to be used for the glory of God. Everything we have is meant to be used so that we can boast in God and we ask, everything I've got, Lord, you've given it to me, what are you demanding from me? What can I give you? You see, arrogance says, I'm going to boast to myself and use everything for me. Confidence in Christ says, everything I have is yours. Everything I have is because I am united with Christ. Let me be an instrument of your glory. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and we thank you that you are the one God who loves us, the one God who has spoken, the one God who changes us. We thank you for Jesus Christ and that we can be united in him, in his death, in his resurrection. Help us, Lord, to be free from the guilt that plagues us, to know that we're forgiven from the sin and we're free from its power, to know we're alive now, to live for a glory. It's greater than anything we could seek to attain in this life. Help us, Lord, to remember what you've done for us as we celebrate baptism and the Lord's Supper. Help us to know who we are in Christ. In His name we pray, amen.