4 - A New Life In Christ Series

This week, I read about a man who was selling an old warehouse. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Gangs had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and thrown trash everywhere. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. The buyer smiled and said “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.

As I read this story, I thought about this week’s text and the message which God has for us. Why? Because too often we tend to think when we trust Jesus and restore our broken relationship with God, that He just kind of puts His stamp of approval on “who we are.” Sometimes we think God is getting a pretty good deal when in point of fact, God doesn’t care about the life we have built, the plans we have made, or what assets we have. He doesn’t want the OLD BUILDING we have created with our hands, rather, He wants our LIVES (the site, as it were) to build something entirely new upon. He intended to give us a NEW WAY OF LIFE. Let me sadden some of you just a little, “God is not into the OLD, God is “into” the new.” But the good news is this; He intends to make our life NEW in Jesus.

• Turn with me to Romans 6:1-14 and let’s continue our study. (Read V4) Paul is teaching us about “new life.” Watch how:

1. PAUL EXPOSES – The word expose is a strong word. It is a word that is used both positively and negatively. It is used in health as in “my child was exposed to measles.” It is used in education, “In college or church, I was exposed to his or her teachings.” You can even expose a crime, mistake, failure, fault, sin or even an attitude (This can be painful). Here Paul is exposing possible attitude which may come out of the doctrine he has just written.

a. Paul begins with a question which seems to indicate that everyone doesn’t “get it.” They don’t understand what having a new life means, so possibly, they are making it up as they go.

b. Paul has just said, “Where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more” and seems to have a hint of know how his Romans readers are going to respond. So he asks the question, “So what shall we say?” or “What is our conclusion?” or even “What do we think?” Possibly, “What is the story that WE should be telling?” Let’s get our stories straight and understand the truth.

c. If it is true that “Where sin is multiplying, even more so is grace abounding” the human mind logically says, “So let’s go and have a party with our sin so as to give God an opportunity to extend more grace” which segues into the next question, “should we sin, so grace may multiply? WRONG! This almost sounds like it was born in the 21st century. Like much of what is believed today, this is a silly, crazy, even asinine thought. Truth is, the author of this brand of thinking is the “Father of lies.”

d. Paul follows with a question which should separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats. He asks, “How can we to die to sin still live in it?” It takes no “Rocket Scientist” to see this question for what it is. It is a rhetorical question which, by definition, requires no answer BECAUSE it leads to one inescapable conclusion, “WE CAN’T.” In a fast paced questioning the master communicator, which we know Paul to be, is communicating the futility, flaw, and fallacy, of this thinking.

e. In case we are feeling really good about ourselves and thinking that Paul is doing “good to straighten out those immature and unspiritual Romans,” I’ll submit that Paul’s words can expose much in us. It is common to “say” we are Christian and then live contrary to the commands, claims, and character of Christ.

• Paul courageously speaks words of confrontation and exposure only to help them carry them forward, then;

2. PAUL ENLIGHTENS – in verse 4 by beginning with “are you unaware?” More to the point, he asks, “Have you not learned?” or “do you not know?” The KJV translates this, “Know ye not?” In reading this, it seems that Paul is attempting to teach his readers an elementary issue which he feels they should know. And he begins by centering on baptism.

a. He speaks of the symbolism of Baptism. For clarification, baptism is the outward expression of an inward transition.