Title: The Difference Is In the Details
Text: Romans 6:12-23
Thesis: Not every opportunity offers the same benefits… a careful reading of the details will clearly show that choosing to serve God is exceedingly more beneficial that choosing otherwise.
The Season of Pentecost is considered to be Ordinary Time. The Seasons of Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost are all so exciting and extraordinary and then comes Ordinary Time. Actually Ordinary Time is not ordinary at all. It is a quite extraordinary time in which we are conscious of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and throughout lives. Today we focus on the work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to move away from the past and into the future… to learn to live dead to our sinful pasts and alive to God’s future.
Introduction
The way things are worded is important. Details are important.
I recently read a coupon advertisement offering to professionally caulk, prep and do minor repairs and paint the exterior of a 1,600 square foot home for $899. This offer is a savings of $751 under the value price of $1,650. However, when you read the fine print there was one little glitch. Bullet point 7 stipulated that the “Coupon does not include paint.”
I like those ads usually associated with buyers of used cars that promise “everyone is pre-approved!” However in the fine print pre-approval is “subject to approval.”
Pharmaceuticals are the worst. They extol the benefits of a certain drug or medication. They show pictures of happy and healthy people whose lives have been transformed by a particular pharmaceutical. Then when at the very end of the ad there will be a low voice speaking very rapidly something to the effect that in some cases you might experience hot flashes, extreme drowsiness, discomfort, nausea, lose of hair, go blind, grow excessive ear hair or die. So if you experience these symptoms or itchiness or blotches, you should consult your physician.
We have all received one of those official looking envelopes that reek of urgency. The letter inside says that we have been positively identified as a $10 million mystery millionaire… but we need to act fast to claim our prize. Of course the fine print says that we may have already won and encourages us to purchase a subscription. While they say “no purchase is necessary” we all know that the no purchase responses go into the trash while the purchase responses go into the drawing which will greatly enhance our chances of winning..
The details are always important. In our text today there are a number of nuances and details that have rather far reaching distinctions and difference in their implications.
However, there is no fine print in the text today and there is no attempt to deceive the consumer…in fact the details are intended to clarify and explain the difference between a person whose life is given to God and to honoring and pleasing God and the life that is not.. The text poses a number of juxtapositions that cite the differences between those who are enslaved by their habits and those who are free in Christ.
Romans 6:11 sets the stage for verses 12 – 23. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The word “count” may also be rendered “consider” or “reckon.” So you might read it, “In the same way, count or consider or reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” There is a difference between life and death. And the difference is between whether you consider yourself alive to God or dead to sin.
When I was I in college I rented an apartment with a bath shared by the adjoining apartment. It was an old house and in disrepair… in fact there was a hole in the floor in the bathroom that you had to be careful to step over. Suppose one day a generous person stopped by my old ratty house and seeing the condition in which I lived, gave me the deed to a nice new home. Imagine he helped me move my things and when I was settled, gave me the key and said. “Consider this your new home.”
The next day, after completing my classes I get in my car and to go home… to which house do I go? My old ratty apartment with the hole in the bathroom floor? Or to my beautiful new home with no hole in the bathroom floor? Which do I consider to be my home?
When Paul says, “Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God” he is saying you now have a new home, a new way to live and you no longer need to return to the old dump of a way of life. At the end of the day do you consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God or do you fall back into the old pattern and consider yourself alive to sin and dead to God?
There are several ways of describing one’s life before becoming a follower of Christ. God’s Word says that as followers of Christ things have changed and the bible says that while once you once lived a sinful life, now you do not.
On way to describe the difference is the difference between darkness and light. In Ephesians 5:8 Paul describes the difference like this: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
In I Peter the transition is described in this way: “…you were called out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” I Peter 2:9-10
So the change is describes as the difference between darkness and light.
Another way to understand the same truth is to distinguish between death and life. In Ephesians 2, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient, i.e., Satan or the Devil.” Ephesians 2:1-2
In Ephesians the distinction is illustrated by the difference between being far away and near. The scripture continues, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions... Therefore, remember that formerly you were separate from Christ…. without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through Christ.” Ephesians 2:5 and 11-13
So this difference may be described as the difference between darkness and light; death and life; and being separated and far away from God and or brought near to God. And it is because of this difference or because of this transition that occurs in the life of the person who becomes a follower of Christ, that Paul emphatically states in 6:12:
“Therefore, do not let sin reign in your life.” (Do not let habits or addictions, ungodly thought patterns, attitudes and ways of speaking, or behaviors contrary to the will of God have power over you.)
I. The difference between then and now, Romans 6:12-14 (Power)
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. For sin is not your master…”
To “reign” means to have dominion, sway or influence over someone or something. It means to have power over.
In his book Everybody’s Normal Until You Get to Know Them, John Ortberg wrote of what John Wesley called “little communities.” These little communities were like church small groups or house churches. Wesley’s little communities were places where the members loved and cared for each other and worked to encourage each other in their spiritual growth. They were places where the members agreed to be accountable to each other. So whenever someone wanted to become part of a little community they were asked a series of questions to determine if they were really serious about living in an accountable community. The first question they were asked was this: “Does any sin, inward or outward, have dominion or power over you?” (John Ortberg, Everybody’s Normal Until You Get to Know Them, Zondervan, 2003)
Wesley understood that any kind of sin, inward or outward, can have dominion, hold sway over or have power over a person.
“Therefore,” he says, “do not let reign over your life so that you obey its evil desires.” He says that because though we once were under the dominion of sin, we are no longer so.
Things change. People do change. Before we became followers of Christ we could be thought of as instruments of unrighteousness.
A. Before we were instruments of unrighteousness
“…rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;” Romans 6:13
But people can and do change… there can be a before and an after.
B. Now we are instruments of righteousness
“and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin is not your master because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:13-14
When we think of the Christian life as being fear based, we think we have to keep the rules and be good or God will punish us for being bad. But when we think of the Christian life as grace based, we think that God is loving and forgiving and we want to live up to that love. Rather than being intimidated into being good out of fear, we are inspired to be good out of love and gratitude.
So when sin comes calling and attempts to coerce you to sin you can try to resist it with guilt and fear and get steam-rolled or you can resist it with grace and say, “You have no power over me any longer. I am not an instrument of wickedness in your hands any longer, I am an instrument or righteousness in God’s hands. I am no longer under the dominion of sin, I have offered my life to God.
William Barclay said, “The Christian life is no longer an intolerable burden to be borne; it is a privilege to be lived up to.” (William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, Westminster, P. 88)
In his book The Obedience Option, David Hegg illustrates what he calls “overwhelming faith.” Hegg was talking to a young man with a sex addiction… it could have been any addiction. The young man spoke of how he knew what he did was wrong and that he felt bad but he also argued that God had made him the way he was so the addictive behavior was inevitable.
Eventually Hegg interrupted the young man and said, “Suppose I caught you and your partner about to “do the inevitable.” Suppose I took out ten one hundred dollar bills and told you that they were yours if you stopped. What would you do?” The young man said, “I’d stop and take the cash.” “So,” Hegg asked, “what happened to your irresistible urge to do the inevitable?” (David Hegg, The Obedience Option, Christian Focus, 2011, pp. 27-28)
In the Christian life your thoughts, words and actions boil down to the power of your greatest passion. The most compelling passion will exercise the greatest power over any person. So is your greatest passion to sin or is your greatest passion to do the right thing? Does the power of sin compel you or does your gratitude and love for God compel you?
So we do not let sin reign in our lives because there is a difference between then or when we once did and now.
There is a second distinction or difference woven into our text and that is the difference determined by who you serve.
II. The difference between who you serve, Romans 6:15-18 (Ownership)
“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?” Romans 6:16
The first difference had to do with who or what has power over you or who compels you.
• Does the power of sin compel you? or
• Does the love of God inspire you?
This difference has to do with who you choose to serve. The difference is in who owns you… So are you:
A. Slaves of sin?
“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin…” Romans 6:17
B. Slaves of righteousness?
“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:18
Who or what has power over you is important. Who or what you serve is important. Because the results or the outcomes depends of those choices. The difference is in the results.
I think it was Leadership guru, John Maxwell who said, “You cannot continue to do the same things and expect different results.
The difference is in the outcome or the results.
III. The difference in the results, Romans 6:19-23
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 3:23
In this section it seems like the Paul, the biblical writer of this Romans, is uncomfortable with using a term like slavery in conjunction with being a Christian but he states that he is using “human terms” to help us understand the difference between being committed to God and being uncommitted to God. Being enslaved or controlled by a sin is different than being committed to God… and most certainly so in the respective outcomes.
He says that when we offer our bodies in slavery to impurity or uncleanness, or sinful or addictive behaviors, we fall into a downward spiral. He likens it to “ever-increasing unrighteousness.” Romans 6:20
The downward spiral begins with:
1. Hesitant or reluctant giving in to a sin. As they say, “sin begets sin” so the next time it is:
2. Easier. Then it becomes…
3. Effortless. And then we are…
4. Hooked and habitual.
However, when we give our lives to God as instruments to doing God’s will and to doing good, the spiral is reversed and we become increasingly Christ-like in character and behavior.
In 2006 a medical study revealed how hard it is for people to change. Around 600,000 people have heart bypasss surgery every year in America. They are told that the bypass is a temporary fix… they have to change their lifestyles. They have to change their diet, stop drinking and smoking, they must exercise and reduce stress. In other words, “Change or die.”
The options are: Change and live or do not change and die. Yet 90% of the heart patients do not change. Instead of changing for life they choose death. (Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, Simple Church (B & H Publishing Group, 2006), p. 229)
Our choices have outcomes. Some outcomes are better than others. In both physical and spiritual realms the difference is in the details.
A. One offers the benefit of death
“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!” Romans 3:21
We all have chinks in our armor. Despite however safe-guarded we are about our character and our behavior, we all, like those Medieval knights of old, have points of vulnerability where a well-placed arrow can pierce our defenses and take us down. And if not all of us, most of us have stuff in our past that is embarrassing or that we are ashamed of. And when we look back at those times in our lives, though we may have learned some things and while things may have been ironed out in the end, at the time there was no positive benefit from that time… in fact, those times are quite hurtful to others and to ourselves.
When we lived in Red Oak, IA there was a man who worked for the city of Council Bluffs when the casinos began to spring up on the Iowa side of the Missouri River. It all started out every so small but then hesitation gave way to ease and effortlessness to habitual until he had maxed out all of his credit cards, lost his house and was divorced by his wife.
So what benefit did he reap from that time in his life? He lost it all, so to speak. And what benefit does the person who succumbs to the lure of internet pornography or an extra-marital affair, or an addiction, or deception, or gossip, or greed, or bitterness, or jealousy and envy, or dishonesty, or abusive behaviors, or whatever…? Can we call debt, broken relationships, addictions, distrust, injury to oneself and others, guilt, shame and embarrassment benefits?
However, to the contrary there is the choice that results in not only a good and satisfying life… it results in eternal life.
B. One offers the benefit of eternal life
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Romans 3:22
The book The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates tells the story of two men with the same name. Both were born in Maryland. Both men grew up with single moms. Both had run-ins with the law by the time they were 11 years-old. But at this point their stories they took different paths.
One Wes Moore became a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of John Hopkins and eventually was named a Rhodes Scholar. He served as a White House Fellow under former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice. He is an Afghanistan combat veteran. He also went on to write the book The Other Wes Moore.
The other Wes Moore resides in Jessup Correctional Institute’s maximum security unit. He is serving a life sentence without parole for the shooting death of a Baltimore police officer.
Wes Moore wrote in his book, “My mother could teach me to be a good person, but she couldn’t teach me to be a good man.” He cites family members and friends and teachers who intervened in his life after his father died when he was 3 years-old.
The other Wes Moore saw his father three times in his life. On the occasion of the third time he said that his father looked up at him from a drunken stupor and asked, “Who are you?” And the rest is tragic history. ("Wes Moore: Author or Prisoner?" USA Today, 5-6-10)
Two men. Same name. Different life outcomes… likely in part because of the presence or the lack thereof, of a male role models in their lives. But ultimately each Wes Moore had to make choices and the difference in the outcome is in the details… those choices each made along the way. One man’s life led to life and the other’s to death.
Conclusion
In the Old Testament there is a story about how a man named Joshua confronted a group of people who seemed bent on self-destruction. He said to them, “If serving God seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” And the people wisely responded, “We will serve the Lord our God.” Joshua 24
The difference between being overpowered and enslaved and being free rests in one defining detail… who you choose to serve.
