How Do We Get The Power To Change? Series

So the real question when it comes to this miracle of life change, this morphing, this holy transformation is, "How do you deal with the problem of sin?" Now, could we agree that that really is a pretty big problem? It is mine. Can I ask you before we go on -- go ahead. Go ahead. Open your notes. I can tell some of you are longing to get there. Jump in. Is that not really where the rubber meets the road? When’s the last time you had a honest conversation or where you heard talked about just right up front, "You know what? We are Christians, and we have been forgiven, and we have the power over death. We have the power over sin. We have the power for a new life, but we have this problem in this body, in this world. We keep sinning."

And, see, if you do not understand how to deal with that, you will go through the -- what? Try hard, do good, fail. Try hard, do good, fail, and then after a while, you’re real smart, so you’ll try hard, do good, and start faking it, and what we have is a church that by and large seems to be faking it. And so what I want to do is I want to talk to you about what God teaches in His word about how to deal with the problem of sin, and where we’re gonna go, it’s gonna be a bit unusual. I mean, this is gonna be -- are you ready? Of all the things we’re gonna cover, this is one of those "do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do" passages, all right? Ephesians 4:7-10. It’s the next four verses. The Apostle Paul is going to address this whole issue of sin.

Now, what you need to understand is that there is a spiritual principle about life change, and the spiritual principle about life change is that whatever happened to Christ happened to you. You still have Romans open? Now, go back a little bit, because you notice the young man’s question was out of verse 17 and 18. The lady’s question was out of verse 22. Go all the way back to Romans chapter 6, and after talking about this amazing thing that Christ has done in His grace, picking it up at verse 2, because, you know, the argument was, well, if the more you sin, the more grace you get, the argument was, well, maybe we ought to sin a lot so God can give a lot of grace.

And Romans 6:1 opens and says, "Heaven forbid, never." But now listen carefully to verses 2 through 4. "By no means, then, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer, or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized or identified with Christ through faith 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 may too walk in newness of life." You might underline that in your Bible.

Here’s what you need to understand. The Christian life isn’t about trying hard, going to church, doing programs, reading your Bible, praying more, giving a little bit money, and saying, "Oh, God, I want to be moral." The Christian life is about a relationship, and what the scripture is gonna teach about life change all the time is that there is a co-crucifixion, there is a co-resurrection, and that whatever happened to Jesus on the cross and whatever happened to Him in His resurrection, when you by faith invite Him into your life, you are united with Christ and that the word "baptism," there’s not -- there’s no water in Romans 6, okay? It’s not that it’s a bad thing. Baptism, the root word means to dip. Primarily through in the New Testament it means to be identified or united with, and when it’s used of water, it’s the picture of what’s happening, dying with Christ, coming up to a brand new life.