Death Sets You Free

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

[0:00] Thank you, Pam. And we're doing that a little out of order because actually our sermon text is from Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 14, so leading up to right where she began. And yes, the Roman series continues. At this pace, we'll be done in November or so. Maybe we'll find a way to pick it up. Last week, just remember that there were two kind of themes that were going on, Adam and Christ. It's sort of this weight between the two and that grace far outweighs our sin, which is great, and this idea of dominion, that death and sin have dominion over us until the coming of Jesus Christ, at which point then that life has dominion, and actually we have dominion in the sense that we go, in some ways, go back to that place where Adam was to have dominion over the world so that we can do productive work in the world for God.

[0:52] And the general roadmap of Romans altogether, I'm going to tell us again because each section that we're going to look at is going to be a little bit more detailed. So I'm going to kind of contribute to the final goal. And the general roadmap is this, is that Paul in Romans is laying out the problem of our sin and the solution that has something to do with the law and with Jesus and his obedience, our faith, the faithfulness of Jesus, justification and righteousness, which are the same word, and how God puts all that together to rescue both Jews and Gentiles. That's the important part, too, that Jews and Gentiles are reconciled, in this grand plan that God has to rescue both Jews and Gentiles into a new beloved community of justice and shalom, which is marked by right relationships with each other and with God.

[1:40] And, you know, if that's like, that's the God, that's where Romans is going. But as you can tell from what I just said, which is just one paragraph, that there's a lot going on in Romans, but it's all leading to one big thing. But there's a lot of, there's a lot of plates sort of spinning in the air right now. And that's fine. That's fine. We'll take them down one at a time and we'll look at each one, or at least the ones that will really keep getting us there, okay? Today, we're talking about the power of sin and of death. And this is really interesting and very important because Paul spent some time on that. And instead of doing too much introduction, I want to kind of do a legal quiz because we're going to be talking about legal things a lot today, which is interesting. And I, Wendy wasn't, didn't make it today, but she's an, she's an attorney. So I was going to ask her a legal question. I think though she's an attorney in Australia, and I'm curious about the difference between the two laws. But actually, Wendy, if you can send into the chat, if you're listening now, I'm going to ask her if they have something called abatement ab initio in, in Australian legal doctrine, abatement ab initio. And we'll get to

[2:54] that. Do you think I can learn something besides just Bible stuff today? So here's the quiz. Who remembers somebody named Ken Lay or sometimes he was called Kenneth Lay? Who remember? That name's a little familiar if you're a little older. You remember kinda? Enron. He was the chairman of Enron. Remember Enron? Enron's like the poster child of corporate fraud and greed. And they had declared bankruptcy. They had giant trucks pull up to their headquarters with paper shredders in them. And there was confetti everywhere because they were trying to hide everything that they did. And they, they, HE HE HE HE HE HE things and they were given a lot of stock and then when the company declared bankruptcy in 2001, their life savings and their retirement and their pension had just vanished in a poof. And Ken Lay wandered off with 200 million dollars, although he said by the time he went to trial that his net worth was minus $250,000. There was a court case, he was finally convicted even though he was kind of finally convicted in 2006, so the wheels of justice are really slow aren't they? I'm gonna put I'm gonna put my phone on do not disturb. That noise, that thing makes a noise when, I'm not gonna tell you more about it, but that makes a noise, I'll tell you later. Anyway, shush, shush phone.

[4:41] Oh no wait, did Wendy send it, did Wendy send something in? We got to get this. Let's see, all right, let's see if Wendy, okay. Wendy, did you chat Wendy? Let's see, chat, no, okay. All right Wendy, do you have abatement ab initio in in Australian law? Maybe she's not there, maybe it's just Jared watching at home. Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah, so the wheels of justice go slow because the bankruptcy was in two, yes?

[5:15] Ah good, okay. Well don't ruin it for us, no yeah, let us know. So the whole thing broke apart in 2001. But it wasn't until 2006 that he was convicted. Is that slow? You know, you can keep appealing, you can, if you're rich, you can really slow things down, because he knew he was going to go to prison. So if you just keep kind of throwing road blocks into the process then you get to stay out of prison longer. Well who remembers what happened next in 2006? Yes? He died of a heart attack in Aspen, Colorado. So his claims of being poor, not so sure. He said his net worth was minus two hundred fifty thousand dollars when it all came down to it. because he said he lost a lot of money. But here he was in Aspen, which is not a place for poor people. So after he was convicted, but before he was, this is the important part. So this is not just some detail here. He was convicted, and then there was a three-month delay before his sentencing. And in that three-month window, he died of a heart attack in Aspen, Colorado. And his lawyers went to the judge and said, we want you to vacate his conviction because he's dead. You can't sentence a dead person. Not only that, but you can, since they haven't been sentenced yet, we can have you vacate his conviction in the first place.

[6:37] So as if he never was, as if he was never, well, at least his conviction was vacated, right? Now, this is a very important point. This is actually important for what's going to come up later, okay? Let me see if I can read. A vacated judgment, also known as vacatur relief, makes a previous legal judgment legally void. A vacated judgment is usually the result of the judgment of an appellate court, which overturns, reverses, or sets aside the judgment of a lower court. Or an appellate court may also vacate its own decisions. And abatement ab initio, which is Latin for from the beginning, is a common law, so maybe they do have it in Australia, is a common law legal doctrine that states that the death of a defendant who is appealing a criminal conviction extinguishes all criminal proceedings initiated against that defendant from indictment through conviction. So if you die before you're sentenced, you can have an abatement ab initio or a vacating of your conviction. Okay.

[7:47] And some Supreme Court cases have upheld this, so it's definitely settled law in the United States. Now, did you know that you'd get a little legal primer here at the church? It's so fun, you know? So with that introduction to legal terms, let's go to our reading from Romans. Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 14. Paul writes this. And remember, one of the questions in chapter 5 at the very end, or one of the things that Paul said was, when you sin, sin more, grace increases all the more, right? And so that you all know what the next question is. And so Paul anticipates the question. And here's the question. Paul writes this, verse 1. What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means, he says. How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized? Into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed.

[9:14] And we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. I'm going to read that part again. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Christ, with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lived, 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. Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no end.

[10:16] For sin will not founder in the HE shifting from death to life. So death has dominion, but later life has dominion, and also then we have dominion. And that grace abounds more or weighs much more than our sin, which begs the question, well, what if we sin more? Then won't there be more grace? And that sounds like a good idea, like there's a lever that you could pull and you could get more candy out of a jar or something like that. But Paul says, no, you're thinking about this the wrong way. Should we go on sinning so that grace may abound? Absolutely not. But actually what he says is, how can we? It's not actually not quite possible because he says, you have actually died. And if you've actually died, you can't be under the ultimate power of sin and death. And that was that example that Pam gave us when she was reading that, because Paul kind of backs it up with that story, that if a woman is married to a man and she then goes and lives with another man, she'd be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, now she's a widow. His death has freed her from that law. It's an example, it's a legal example. And thus, if she does then go and marry another man, she won't be a polyandrist, right? Or an adulteress. She'll just be a widow who got remarried. And all of that is

[12:00] completely legal. So death frees us from sin, much like Ken Lay's death freed him and partly his estate and some other things. Freed him from legal responsibility. Now, it's not great comfort. You know, the dead don't really care if they've been exonerated, but the living care, the living people who live after them care. And you could, you know, you can go down in history and say, Ken Lay was convicted, but his conviction was vacated. So that's always going to be a little footnote in the legal record of Ken Lay. Just by the accident, I guess, of him dying in that short window between his conviction and sentencing. Anyway.

[12:39] Then we get to this section where he says, do you not know, verse 2, it's up there on the screen. Do you not know that, and what does it say? That all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. And I'll be honest with you that this passage, that verse alone, always used to confuse me. And I'm finally beginning to understand it, praise God. And it's a little bit about baptism, but it's really a little bit more about what happens when we identify with Jesus Christ. Now, I want to say something about this, because he says, do you not know? It's kind of like, it could be a rhetorical question, like, don't you know, but I'm going to tell you. So it's like, you don't know, but I'm going to tell you. That's one possibility.

[13:27] Or don't you know this, because I've taught it to you somehow, even though this seems to be the first letter of them, but maybe. Paul has taught this in other, we don't have a record of it in any other letters that we have, but there are other letters that maybe were lost to us. So there could be some of Paul's teaching out there, that those of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death.

[13:50] Or, you know this because it's common Christian knowledge of the time. Everybody who was a Christian knew that if you've been baptized into Christ Jesus, you've been baptized into his death. And I think the third is most likely, right? Because actually Paul mentions other common teachings, common hymns, and common prayers elsewhere in all of his other letters. And they don't seem to be unique or original to him. They seem to be things that the whole Christian church, as it's budding and growing, everybody understood this, or everybody at least had been taught this or told this by somebody. Maybe by the disciples, maybe by somebody else who had come through and preached. But they were, all these churches were communicating. They were all communicating with each other. All these, you know, there was sort of a, it took time. There wasn't internet, but they took time and they were, but they were all communicating with each other. And that, it strikes me though, that we could say this to us. Do you not know that those of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

[14:54] Do we say that to each other? Like, all of you are like, oh yeah, we talk about that every week. We hear that all the time. Who here feels like they've heard it for the first time ever? first time. Seriously, like you've heard that for the, or not the first time. Okay, nobody. You guys are smart. That's good. But it's a strange thing. And since it's strange, a little strange, we don't talk about it a lot. We're like, we're not sure what that means. It sounds interesting, but I'm not sure what it means. Do we know that those of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? And is this something that we say to each other often? I don't think it is. So what does it mean? This is important. This is kind of the core of it all, right? For one thing, it means it's the answer to why we can't sin more in the hopes that grace, which always outweighs sin, will abound all the more. That's because we've died with Christ. And if we've died with Christ, sin doesn't have dominion over us. And if sin doesn't have dominion over us, we wouldn't even be asking questions like that. And even if we did ask the question, the answer would be, of course, by no means, because we don't live there anymore. We don't belong to sin anymore. Sin is not our master anymore. And thus,

[16:06] we would never sin more in the hope that grace would abound. So that's one way that it means something. But for the other, it's this legal doctrine that Paul makes an example of in chapter seven. You know, if your husband dies, you're free. You're free to go marry somebody else. And it means, that baptism is where the old self dies, in a way. It's put to death on the cross with Christ. And so, this gets challenging maybe a little bit when we baptize infants, but we have to think through, kind of think through the symbolism. But definitely for adults, when you're baptized, especially if you're baptized by immersion, think about what happens. The pastor takes you, or the baptizer takes you, and they kind of make you hold your nose, right? Because you're going to go backwards on the way. And so, you're going to go backwards on the way. And so, you're going to go under the water, right? And you go under, right? And what does that represent? Going down into the grave with Jesus. And they hold you down there for the count of 60 and see what happens. No, I'm kidding. But then, just very briefly, but also your nose is being held. They pull you back up again, and that's you rising again with Christ. Do you see how that baptism, the way we do it in

[17:20] some cases, really is the symbolism of dying and rising with Christ? So, you're back up again, and then, when you're in baptism, is to die with Christ, is to be baptized into Christ's death. This is important. So, in a sense, spiritually, you die when you're baptized. This is an important doctrine, right? But we don't think, we just think of baptism as like, oh, let's get baptized, and there's going to be a cake afterwards. And we think it's a public profession of faith, which it absolutely is. On the outside, that's what it is. But for the inner part of the believer, it's to die, or for part of you to die. die and to be raised with Christ. Now, what part dies? Verse 5 says, the old self. The old King James Version, do you know what it says? The old man, which is a little sexist, but you get the idea. But that's, some people will resonate with that language. The old man is put to death, which sounds like you're going to go find some old person and kill them, but that's not, you're talking, it's talking about your old self. The old self before grace, the old self that's bent towards sin, the old self that's under the dominion of sin, the old self that asks questions like, shouldn't we sin more to get more grace? That person, that person, when you're baptized,

[18:35] is put to death, is nailed to the cross with Christ and dies. And then the new life comes when Christ is raised from the dead, when you come up out of the water. So, baptism is deeply symbolic and powerful and effective, not just as a public profession, but as an inner conversion. Now, when we do it with infants, it's a little more, challenging, and we've agreed that we can't fight over this in the covenant church. But even if you sprinkle water on somebody, there's still some, you know, it's, you just have to think through the symbolism a little bit more, but it's still there. And so, for a child who's baptized, we have to find another place like confirmation or something like that, where we kind of ask that question, are you ready to let go of the old life and enter into the new? And emphasize that something in you dies when you believe in Jesus, and something new comes to life when you believe in Jesus. And so, that's the first step. And then the second step is to believe in Jesus. So, baptism has all this power in it, but Paul is saying that when you've come under grace, you're not living under the power of death anymore. And the way to get out of the power of sin, the power of the law, is actually to die, just like Kenneth Lay did, right? And so, death

[19:49] is freedom from sin and the law. Do you get that, right? You can't, you can't convict a dead person, right? You can't try them again. You can't, and the law doesn't have any power over a dead person, because they're not actively breaking any laws, and there's nothing to do. So, the law has no power over a dead person. So, here's where it gets a little, I want you to think on two levels, okay? On one level, you're still alive, breathing, but you've given your life to Christ. And so, the old man has died, but the new man has died. And so, the old man has died, new man is alive, and that's living in you. You still sin, there's no doubt about that, but you're not under the dominion of sin. You're not under the power of law, but under the power of grace. It's an important distinction. And so, part of you has died and been raised again. You still struggle with sin, because you're tempted, and you're not perfect. At the end of your life, you actually do die a physical death, right? And when you die a physical death, you really are crucified with Christ. You really are, you identify, you identify with Christ. You identify with Christ. You identify even more so with Christ, because you die a complete human death, and you're raised again.

[20:59] And in that state, you have absolute freedom from sin and from the law, right? Does that make sense? So, this is sort of the path to our salvation, is through death. Both the spiritual death at the beginning of our spiritual journey, and the spiritual new life that begins then, and then the physical death, which is not the end of our journey, but it's maybe the midpoint, of our journey, where we die a physical death, and we're raised in a new physical body to be with Jesus forever. And in that new physical body, in that new physical life, sin and death and the devil have no power, and the law have no power over us whatsoever. Okay, and we talked last week about Christ and Adam, and this idea that when you come under the dominion of grace, and you also come into the dominion, back into the dominion that Adam had, so that you can do meaningful work in the world, and do it for God's glory, then you're kind of reversing what happened at the fall, you know, in Genesis chapter 3. But you've noticed that when you became a Christian, you weren't transported to a garden, right? And you had all your clothes on, which we're all happy for. This is a good thing, right? You know, you weren't running around the garden with Adam and Eve. So, it's not a complete reversal,

[22:21] because one thing, if we were to, be sent back to the garden, I think we'd all just tumble down, on down again. I think we'd all, like we look at Adam and Eve and say, oh, if we had been there, we wouldn't, we wouldn't have fallen for that. You know, we, that wouldn't have been us. It would have been you. All humans, I think, were going to fall in that situation. And so, the difference is, it's not a reversal all the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden. It's back to the state where we have dominion over the world, where God wants us to do meaningful work, but that death, is still present, but death has been dealt with by our own death. And so, death is part of the equation as we go forward. Now, I'm going to skip ahead. So, I'm going to wrap up here, because I'm going to skip a little bit of what I have, but I want to wrap up the whole, all these ideas in together. And it goes like this. If we die, or since we die with Christ, when we come to faith and we're baptized, our old self with its sinful desires is also put to death. That doesn't mean we're instantly perfect, but it means that we've come under the dominion, not of sin and death, but under the dominion of grace. So, since we have died, we are

[23:39] freed from the demand of the law and the condemnation that it brings. Our state is not a state of condemnation because of our sin. Our state is a state of our conviction being vacated. Do you get that? Our conviction is a state of our conviction being vacated. And so, we're not going to be convicted of anything. Our conviction is vacated when we come to believe in Jesus, because our old self dies. And if our old self dies, it can't be convicted of anything. It can't be sentenced, okay? We are freed for good works led by the Spirit, and we're going to see more about the Spirit's work in the future. And we find that sin no longer has dominion over us, and death is not something to be feared. In fact, it is a movement into freedom and identification even more with Jesus. I'll tell you, we mourn people who have died. Every day when I drive here, every day when I drive here, I drive past, I drive on Portland Avenue, and the cross street is conquered. And I know right at the end of that street and a little bit over is where Ruth Magnuson used to live. And I can't help it, but every time I drive that stretch, and it's every day, twice a day, I think of Ruth and I miss her. And I think why, you know, she actually lived a whole lot longer than most people did. And,

[24:52] you know, so praise God. Thank God for that. But we're sad that people have died. We're sad that people have gone on before us. I'm an orphan. I've lost both my parents. I miss them. I had a dream about my mom last night. That happens, you know? You dream about people being alive. But, and so we mourn people who have died, and we're not ready to die ourselves. But Jesus offers us hope through his own death on the cross that death is the pathway to new life. And even those whom we mourn and who are not ready to die, whom we miss, are in a better place, a place of freedom from the law and sin. And they live under grace, and so do we. And so this is really good news coming from Paul in Romans, is that death is not to be feared. But death, a spiritual death at the beginning of our spiritual journey, and a physical death at the end of our physical life, but only midway through our entire life, is not a blessing by any stretch, but it's not something to be feared because it's a gateway to new freedom and new life. New joy and new bliss. This is good news. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have put death to death. Thank you that our dying with Christ vacates our conviction. Thank you that you have

[26:07] given us these great gifts, and we pray that you would bless us as we keep reading through Romans in the next weeks. Amen.