Life and Death in the life of the Believer 4
Zoomerang: Returning to the Value of Life • Sermon • Submitted
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56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Death—Sin (disobedience)—Law—Death
We got a death problem
Sin carried death
And the point of contact between sin and man was: the law
Life—Righteousness (obedience)—Grace though faith—Life
Now we have life
That life was brought by righteousness (obedience)
And the point of contact between man and righteousness is Grace through faith in Christ
Because it was his righteousness that brought us life by faith in him
Obedience to God’s law
Both morally and sacrificially so it would apply to us
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, I will ask the same question that Francis Schaeffer asks in his book, How Should We Then Live?
I was raised being sent to church on a bus
And it was a fundamentalist quasi-arminian church
I was taught about Jesus and his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins
But how that applied to me, and the life that should be lived after was not taught well
I was told to say the sinner’s prayer and that God has to save me (a magical spell) (Arminian)
And the calvinism came in when they taught that no matter what I cannot lose that salvation I got for reciting a magical spell
MEANING, how I lived my life after did not speak much to my profession of faith
Of course they would argue that that I should live a conservative life but the emphasis was placed on the sinner’s prayer, not the life lived after
So what happened to me (and I think many others) is I continue to live a life of death, even as I claimed to be right with God because of the magical prayer
But remember what we learned, life is obedience to God
So any salvation that does not produce this in the person is no salvation at all
So since what happened to me did not change my heart and cause me to live a different life, it was just another deception from Satan
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
So how should we then live, in light of the work of life Jesus has done by his death and resurrection?
Romans 6.
What’s the role of death now in the New Covenant
Instead of death to God in our sin
We are dead to sin in Jesus’ righteousness
What’s the role of life now in the New Covenant?
Instead of being alive to sin in our death
We are alive to righteousness in the life of Jesus
What’s the role of the law in the New Covenant
Instead of it being something we do for life
It is something that is done because of life
We should live as if a death has occured…not just to Jesus 2 thousand years ago
But through that death a death has occured in you spiritually
This death is a death of your old self that lived enslaved to the sin that brings death
So sin has no dominance over you because of this death
But the Bible is not just about taking off, but putting on
And so not only do we identify with Jesus’ death but also with his resurrected life
The life we now have is one in which we have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching (the gospel)
The life of obedience Jesus lives to God even now is now my life of obedience to God
And so, my disobedient desires and passions have been put to death by Jesus’ death
And what has been put in its stead is a desire from the heart to obey God compelled by his love for me in Jesus
And so now—the life offered to me is not do and live (Adam)
But now is live and do
How does this truth help someone who is tempted with sin?
Lust
Although this passion and desire is strong…I am no longer enslaved to it
My life is found no longer in the death of that desire being met
But my life is hid with Christ in which that sin only hinders
So i will look away, not on the basis of what feels good in my flesh, but of the love God has for me in Jesus
After this becomes more of a habit, all of a sudden that sin that used to be tempting and alluring
No longer has that deceptive glow in your eyes
Instead you see what’s behind the curtain
The death that it actually is
This is the process of being driven by grace…turning away because of Jesus while he transforms your desires and thinking to desire the things of his righteous character
You grow in your deadness to sin, and aliveness to righteousness
So the Christian who claims Christ yet still lives in death does not exist
Because the nature of the life that Christ has won is that it drives you away from sin and death
What’s the major theme of Jarassic Park? Life always finds a way
When Jesus’ death becomes your death, and Jesus’ life becomes your life, life finds a way to overcome your whole life over time