Under Grace

Lent 20  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  37:56
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Romans 6:1–14 NIV
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus 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 too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 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. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Go on Sinning?

Nope.
Romans 6:1–2 NIV
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Under Law

Under the law, sin is a matter of do’s and don’ts. We are often too critical of this because to quote one of my preaching students guardrails on life are never a bad thing. But our success rate at following do’s and don’ts isn’t very high as human beings. Even if we have good intentions we tend to be forgetful or distracted at times. If it depends on us, we aren’t going to be successful. The law of God is there with things like the 10 commandments and the great commandment to love God and others. It’s there to remind us to obey and remind us to repent if we fall short.
One of the most challenging things about this coronavirus epidemic is that it can feel like being under the law. Because this is a powerful disease that can disrupt life and the only way to stop it dead is to shut down its pathways to spread. So let’s do be careful to protect those who are vulnerable in our midst by washing our hands and greeting each other in fun new ways that don’t involve skin touching. Hopefully it’s just very temporary. But the consequences could be deadly. Rules work pretty well with disease when we actually follow them.
Sin is just as deadly but simply following rules doesn’t destroy it at the source in our lives like it does with germs. If we just focus on the rules with sin we hit some dead ends. Because if we are bad at keeping rules we become discouraged and can give up. If we are good at keeping rules we can get prideful which is another kind of sin and now we are messed up again.
So the old way did kind of lock us in to a lifetime of failure on this front. So some were saying to Paul, well since God forgives us anyway, shouldn’t we just go for it and sin all the more so God’s grace could be on display?
Paul says in the strongest possible language NO!!! May it never be so!, he says.

Dead to Sin

Instead, because Jesus died on the cross for our sins and we were baptized into his death, we are now dead to sin! We are cut off from this binding relationship with sin. It’s another way of saying that are set free from deep bondage. Now don’t get me wrong we can still get really good at sinning and are still capable of blowing it. But the truth is, now we don’t have to be. Now we have a much better option available in Jesus.

Alive in Christ

Paul says, Jesus coming as a human being and dying on the cross and being raised from the dead changed the math when it comes to sin.
Romans 6:5–10 NIV
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 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.

Live a new Life

Now we don’t have to focus on not sinning. We can repent. Make a clean start. And focus on living life in the Spirit.
Romans 6:11–14 NIV
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Now the law is there as a guardrail but it doesn’t have to be a harsh taskmaster if you are fully submitted and letting Christ live through you.

Under Grace

Under grace doesn’t mean living a careless and selfish life because you don’t have to be good anymore. Too many Christians do this in North America and the world just groans.
Under grace means you live without condemnation for failures of the past. It means you live in freedom in this moment to listen to God. And if you do listen to God and let God be the strength of your life you can live a while new kind of life. Because God’s grace is so much more than just forgiveness of the mistakes of the past. It is a power source that can keep you on the right path today.
Romans 5:1–2 NRSV
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
We stand in this grace. The Holy Spirit can carry us along and give us sweet victory.
It starts on our knees. If you have never confessed your sins, today is your day. Come to Jesus and admit you have done wrong. Believe that his death on the cross was suffering on your behalf that enables God the Father to forgive you. Put your trust in Jesus as the one who calls the shots now. Believe not just in his commandments today. But believe that when he commands you he also empowers you to do what he said: he said follow me and I will make your fishers of people.
Today, if you’ve been a follower of Jesus but you’ve been following at a distance, let the Spirit catch you up and bring you near and launch you forward into a whole new life that is not under law but under grace.
If you’ve already been walking closely but the climb just got a little steeper, then remember to rest in Him. It’s not all on you to figure it out. God is faithful and will empower you to get through this climb by his amazing Grace.
Let’s pray
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