Several years ago, (March 19, 2005), medical personnel did what they usually did when a resident at an extended care facility in British Columbia, Canada died. 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. (www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/03/21/ sleeping-dead0321.html; www.Preaching Today.com)
When I read that story, I thought of the many believers who look like they’re still dead in their sins when they are very much alive in Christ.
Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, which is more than just a fact of history. It means that those who have trusted Christ with their lives can live in resurrection power! They can operate with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. They can live a new life free from the power of sin every day!
You say, Phil, that’s what I want for me. How can I live in resurrection power? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans 6, Romans 6, where the Bible shows you how.
Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (ESV)
If you want to experience the power of the resurrection over sin in your life, then 1st of all you must consider yourself dead to sin. Realize that you are free from sin. Know that you are separated from its power in your life.
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, you died when Christ died.
Romans 6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (ESV)
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. For example, 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 you trusted Christ as our Savior, the Bible says you were baptized; i.e., you were dipped into Christ. That means you died when He died. You were crucified when He was crucified.
Romans 6:4-6 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, – or better, rendered ineffective – so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (ESV)
In some states it’s legal to buy and keep a baby lion or tiger. They are incredibly cute and fun, but what do you do when they become adult tigers, weighing several hundred pounds in just a year or two? Then they are capable of ripping to shreds—and eating—their owners. On top of that, tigers are untamable, fickle beasts, playful one moment and deadly the next. Their owners can’t control them anymore. That’s when some of them call Joe Taft, founder of the Exotic Feline Rescue Center (the EFRC) in Indiana.
Joe's sanctuary for abandoned wild animals is the second largest in the nation and provides a habitat where lions and tigers and such can live out their days peacefully. Although Joe and his team try to avoid letting the big cats reproduce, sometimes, well, accidents happen. Cats will be cats, so when there's a new cub born on the grounds at EFRC, it's hand-raised by humans until it is ready to live in the wild.
In 2002, Joe was raising one of these cubs in his own home. It was a boisterous, wild thing, growing bigger and bigger every day. Still, Joe was fully capable of controlling his tiger … until he had a heart attack and subsequently underwent quintuple bypass surgery. As you can guess, having a tiger for a roommate—even a young one—was quite dangerous for a cardiac patient.
Suddenly, Joe's own home became a very real threat to the weakened and recovering man. There was only one thing to do: Joe had a steel fence built around his couch. And Joe Taft spent the bulk of his recovery time caged in his living room, eyeing his things from behind bars while the tiger roamed freely through the rest of the house, pacing and roaring and keeping Joe a literal prisoner in his own home. (Mike Nappa, God in Slow Motion, Thomas Nelson, 2013, pp. 171-172; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the state of those who are without Christ. Sin, like a tiger, prowls around your life as if it owns you. It threatens your very existence with its mere presence, and it stares at you through the cage that imprisons you – a cage of your own making. You long for freedom beyond the bars, but you’re too weak to master sin by yourself.
Then you cried out to Jesus to save you from sin, and that’s exactly what He did. He captured that “tiger” and tied it up. He “brought it to nothing.” He rendered it ineffective, so now you can get out of your cage. Certainly, sin is still around, but sin no longer has any power over you if you have trusted Christ with your life. It is ineffective. It is powerless to control you anymore. It is tied up, so to speak.
Romans 6:7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. (ESV)
Nothing can bother you when you’re dead.
When we buried my father 19 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 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. Now, sin can growl and roar all it wants; but if you’re dead and it’s tied up, it doesn’t need to bother you, and it most certainly cannot master you anymore.
My dear friends, if you want to be free from sin’s control, 1st of all, cry out to Jesus and ask Him to save you from sin. 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 you were “dipped” into Christ, you not only died when He died; you were raised when He was raised from the dead. In other words, you died to an old way of life – the life of sin, and you 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 have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
If you want to live in resurrection power, consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God!
Several years ago (August 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.PreachingToday.com)
What!? Winning a fortune and using it to get a new pair of nylons? It doesn’t make sense, but that’s similar to what many believers do with the riches they have in Christ. They died to sin and have been raised to new life in Christ, but they choose to still remain in bondage to sin. They have resurrection power available to them, but they don’t use it to change their lives.
Please, don’t be like those believers. If you want to live in resurrection power consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. In other words…
CONSIDER YOURSELF A SAINT.
If you’re a believer, see yourself as one of God’s holy ones. Regard yourself as one who has been set apart from sin unto God. Then…
COMMIT YOURSELF TO GOD.
Offer yourself for His use. Present yourself as God’s instrument for Him to utilize in any way He chooses.
Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. (ESV)
Better: STOP letting sin reign in your mortal body.
Romans 6:13 Do not present your members to sin – better: STOP presenting your members to sin – as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. (ESV)
Paul describes the members (or parts) of the body as instruments either for good or evil. 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. And 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 will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (ESV)
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 anyone! You cannot walk where God wants you to walk. You cannot live the way God wants you to live. You cannot do anything unless God is doing it through you.
So if you’re done with accomplishing little or nothing for God’s glory, then let Him put you 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? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. (ESV)
You have to 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 seven 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 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eternal life is a free gift! You don’t work to earn it. Rather, God gives it to you when you trust His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for you and rose again.
But please. don’t get the idea that Jesus died just to save you from hell. He did not die to save you from hell. He died to save you from sin. Being saved from hell is simply the result of being saved from sin.
As a believer in Christ, you are freed from sin! You are saved not only from its penalty, but also from its power over your life. You have been set apart from sin unto God. You are dead to sin and alive to God.
Now, all you 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 you to be with His power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, flowing through you.
Just this last Monday (April 15, 2019), many of us were horrified to watch the great Cathedral of Notre Dame on fire. Its great spire toppled into the roof of the cathedral, and many feared that Paris’ most iconic landmark would be a total loss after standing for 850 years.
However, early the next morning, after 12 hours of burning, we saw a glimmer of hope. The cross was still standing above the altar, most of the building was still intact, and we later learned that most of its artifacts and relics were preserved. It will take decades and 2 billion dollars to restore the cathedral, but French business leaders and the public have already donated half that amount, and restoration is expected to begin soon. (“Money pours in to rebuild Notre Dame; fire probe focuses on renovation”, UPI World News, April 17, 2019)
That’s wonderful, but it’s only a glimpse of what Jesus is doing in the hearts and lives of so many today. Sin, like a fire, had ravaged God’s original creation and everybody in it, even you. However, when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he started the greatest restoration of all time. Now, He is at work restoring people and, one day, the entire world!
Please, let Jesus begin that restoration process in you. Just cry out to Him to save you from your sin. Then offer yourself to Him today and every day. Offer yourself to the Lord as His instrument, and watch what He does for you and through you in the days ahead.
It will take a lifetime for Him to complete the restoration process, but that process can begin today as your turn your life over to Him. Please, do it right now as we close in prayer and sing our last hymn in this service.
