On March 19, 2005, when a resident at an extended care facility in British Columbia, Canada, died, the medical personnel did what they usually did. They placed a call to Fraser Health Authority, who then sent a driver to pick up the deceased woman. The driver dutifully transported an elderly woman to the hospital morgue.
Unfortunately, the driver failed to check the wristband for identification and carried off the wrong woman. The 87-year-old resident he wheeled away was simply sleeping. And even after the driver left her on a gurney in the hospital’s corridor, she was still fast asleep.
Meanwhile, an employee at the extended care facility noticed the deceased resident was still in her room, but her living roommate was gone. The employee alerted the hospital, which promptly returned the woman to the facility in an ambulance. (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/03/21/sleeping-dead0321.html; www.Preaching Today.com)
Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, which is more than just a fact of history. The resurrection of Christ means that we too can live in resurrection power. It means a new and exciting life in Christ, but some Christians, like that lady, look like they are still dead in their sins.
How then can we experience the power of the resurrection in our everyday lives? How can the resurrection of Christ become more than just a fact of history for us? How can it make a fundamental difference in the way we live our lives today?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans 6, Romans 6, where we learn what the resurrection of Christ means in our everyday experience.
Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (NIV)
If we as believers in Christ want to experience the power of the resurrection over sin in our lives, then 1st of all, we must realize that we have died to sin. We have to know that we are free from sin. We have to understand that we are separated from its power in our lives.
You say, “Phil, when did that happen? Because I sure don’t feel like I’m free from sin. In fact, I feel like sin has attached itself to me like ugly on an ape. I can’t get away from it. When did I become separated from sin? When did I die to sin?” Well, we died when Christ died.
Romans 6:3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Now, don’t misread this verse. It is not talking about being baptized in water. It is talking about being baptized into Christ and into His death.
The word, “baptize,” literally means “to dip.” The ancient Greeks used the word to describe the dyeing of a garment. When you take a white garment and dip it into red dye, you no longer have a white garment; you have a red garment.
So it is when you take a sinner and dip him or her into Christ. You no longer have a sinner. You have a CHRISTian, a Christian, i.e., one who looks and acts like Christ.
When we trusted Christ as our Savior, the Bible says we were baptized; i.e., we were dipped into Christ. That means we died when He died. We were crucified when He was crucified.
Romans 6:4-6 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 too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with (or better, rendered ineffective) so that we should no longer be slaves to sin. (NIV)
Certainly sin is still around, but sin no longer has any power over us. It is ineffective. It is powerless to control us anymore.
Romans 6:7 Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (NIV)
Nothing can bother you when you’re dead.
When we buried my father ten years ago (2000), my mother had him buried in his bathrobe and pajamas. She wanted to communicate the truth that the Christian’s body is only asleep at death, that one day his body will awake, and there will be a resurrection! The bathrobe and pajamas were a beautiful illustration of that wonderful truth.
Now, if my dad had known what my mom did, he would have rolled over in his casket. He was a “proper English gentleman,” and the thought of anyone being buried in their pajamas… Well, it just wasn’t proper.
But guess what? He did not roll over in his casket. He didn’t even twitch. He just lay there like nothing was going on. The pajamas had no effect on him. We could have kicked and screamed and yelled and still he would have lain there with his eyes closed, looking perfectly content.
When you’re dead, you’re separated from all that is going on in the world. In fact, that’s what death means in the Bible. It means separation. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. And death to sin is the separation of the soul from sin. Sin can kick and scream and yell all it wants, but if you’re dead, it doesn’t need to affect you; it doesn’t need to bother you; & it most certainly cannot master you.
Do you want victory over sin in your life? Do you want to live your life with resurrection power? Then consider yourself dead to sin. Realize that you are separated from sin, and consider yourself alive to God. Realize that you are separated from sin unto God.
You see, when we were “dipped” into Christ, we not only died when He died; we were raised when He was raised from the dead. In other words, we died to an old way of life – the life of sin, and we were raised to a new way of life – the kind of life which centers itself on loving God.
Romans 6:8-11 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Realize that you are alive. You are alive to God and to His good and perfect will for your life.
In August of 2005, Thelma and Victor Hayes struck it rich having won more than $7 million in the Canadian lottery. According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, Thelma and Victor were one of the oldest couples ever to win such a large jackpot. At the time they won, the Hayes’ had been married 63 years, and both of them were 89-years-old.
During a televised interview, Thelma and Victor were asked the typical question, “What are you going to do with the money?” The couple responded that, at this stage in life, they were unlikely to become “giddy high spenders.” In fact, they intended to remain in the retirement home where they lived.
While her husband planned on buying a Lincoln Town Car, Thelma’s personal shopping list contained only one item. She told reporters, “I’m getting a new pair of nylons.” (Jackpot Winners to Splurge on Nylons, Car, MSNBC.com, 8-6-05; www.Preaching Today.com)
We laugh because that seems so ridiculous. How could someone win a fortune and change nothing but her nylons? But that is no more ridiculous than the Christian who chooses to live in sin.
We have so much because of our relationship with Christ. We are dead to sin and alive to everything that God wants to do for and through us.
Why then do we content ourselves with mediocre living? Why do we content ourselves with just “a pair of nylons,” so to speak? Why do we content ourselves with continuing to live in defeat, with bearing so little fruit, or with achieving so little of anything that will last for eternity?
My friends, we don’t have to live that way anymore! We can live in victory! We can live in resurrection power! All we have to do is believe what God tells us here in His Word. All we have to do is realize in our hearts that we are indeed dead to sin and alive to God. In other words, if you’re done with mediocre living, all you have to do is…
CONSIDER YOURSELF A SAINT.
The word, “saint,” literally means “a holy one.” It literally means “one who has been separated from sin unto God.” And that describes everyone who has put their trust in Christ. We are saints, my friends! All we need to do is realize it and then live like it.
If you want to live in resurrection power, consider yourself a saint and then…
COMMIT YOURSELF TO GOD.
Offer yourself for His use. Present yourself as God’s instrument, for Him to use any way He wants to.
Romans 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body (a better translation would be “STOP letting sin reign in your mortal body) so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer (again a better translation would be STOP offering) the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. (NIV)
Now, that word for “instruments” literally described tools, implements, or weapons in Bible days. In a craftsman’s hand, an instrument is a saw. In a farmer’s hand, an instrument is a plow. & In a soldier’s hand, an instrument is a sword.
The point is: God wants to use the parts of your body as tools for building His Kingdom, as implements for harvesting His fields, and as weapons for fighting His enemies.
So give yourself wholly and completely to God. Let God have every part of you. Present all the parts of your body to Him. Offer each part for Him to use in any way that He wants.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (NIV)
You are not strapped down by a rigid set of rules. Instead, you are free to live for God!
Jennifer Jarrett in Massachusetts once asked her 2-year-old daughter, Catherine, “Where are my slippers?”
“Downstairs in the kitchen,” she told her mother.
“What are they doing there?” her mom asked.
“Nothing,” the daughter replied. “They can’t walk, because they don’t have feet in them right now.” (Today’s Christian Woman, 1998; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the way it is for us! We cannot walk where God wants us to walk. We cannot live the way God wants us to live. We cannot do anything unless God is doing it through us.
So if we’re done with accomplishing little or nothing for God’s glory, then let’s let Him put us on like a pair of shoes. If you want to live in resurrection power, then give yourself to God. Offer the parts of your body for Him to use as He wants. Present yourself as His instrument.
Or to use a different analogy, present yourself as His slave. Offer yourself as God’s servant to live in obedience to His Word.
Romans 6:15-20 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
You gotta serve somebody – either God or Satan, either righteousness or sin. There is no middle ground. There is no half and half. You are either all for God, or you are all for sin.
We are called “slaves” no less than six times in these six verses, and that’s exactly what we are. We are either slaves of righteousness or slaves of sin.
William Barclay, in his commentary on Romans, describes what at meant to be a slave in Bible days. He said, “When we think of a servant, in our sense of the word, we think of a man who gives a certain agreed part of his time to his master, and who receives a certain agreed wage for doing so. Within that agreed time, he is at the disposal and in the command of his master. But when that time ends, he is free to do exactly as he likes.
“But in Paul’s time, the status of the slave was quite different. Quite literally, he had no time which belonged to himself. He had no moment when he was free. Every single moment of his time belonged to his master. He was the absolutely exclusive possession of his master, and there was no one single moment of his life when he could do as he liked… It was impossible for [a slave] to serve two masters, because he was the exclusive possession of one master.”
The question is: Who or what possess you? I.e., Whose slave are you? Somebody says, “I’m nobody’s slave. I answer only to myself.” Well, my friend, I’m sorry, but that’s not an option. The Bible says you are either a slave of sin resulting in death, or you are a slave of God resulting in eternal life. You make the choice.
Romans 6:21-23 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in a Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eternal life is a free gift! We don’t work to earn it. Rather, God gives it to us when we trust His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose again.
But please, don’t get the idea that Jesus died just to save us from hell. He did not die to save us from hell. He died to save us from sin. Being saved from hell is simply the result of being saved from sin.
As believers in Christ, we are freed from sin! We are saved not only from its penalty, but also from its power over our lives. We have been set apart from sin unto God. We are dead to sin and alive to God.
Now, all we have to do is KNOW IT and LIVE IT! Consider yourself a saint, and commit yourself to God. That’s the only way to live in resurrection power. That’s the only way to be all that God wants us to be with His power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, flowing through us.
In the 19th Century, William Booth walked among the poor, the hungry, the sick and the lonely people of London, England. The people were crammed into crumbling buildings that were full of rats. They had no jobs and there was no one to help them.
Worst of all, there was no one to tell them that Jesus cared. They did not know that Jesus died to be their Savior and lives again to be their Lord.
William Booth told his wife, “I have given myself to work for God among these sick souls.” And that work, which he began more than a hundred years ago, is today known as the Salvation Army.
Years later, when someone asked General Booth the secret of his success, he said, “God has had all there was of me to have! From the day I got the poor of London on my heart, and a vision of what Jesus Christ would do for them, I made up my mind that God would have all there was of William Booth. God has had all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life.”
How about you? How about me? If we want to live in resurrection power, like William Booth did, then we must give God all there is of us. Give Him all the adoration of your heart. Give Him all the power of your will. & Give Him all the influence of your life.
Do it as we sing our closing Hymn. Offer yourself to God today and every day. Offer yourself to God as His instruments and as His slaves. Then stand back and watch Him do great things through you.
