Sermon for Easter Sunday 3/27/2005
Romans 6:15-23
The Last Man on Death Row adapted from Jack Hayford
Introduction:
News story on Sunday, January 12, 2003; CHICAGO, Jan. 11 -- Illinois’s outgoing Republican Gov. George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 people to life in prison today after concluding that the capital punishment system was "haunted by the demon of error."
Friends and foes of the death penalty said the step, which empties death row of 156 inmates and 11 others who had been sentenced but were awaiting hearings, was unprecedented. The action will have ramifications for the intensifying national debate on the issue and came a day after Ryan pardoned four death row inmates who he said had been tortured into false murder confessions. Three were released immediately and are already home with their families.
WBTU:
This is not intended to be a debate about capital punishment. What I want you to do is to think about those inmates who were awaiting that day when their sentence would be carried out. In their hearts they know that they were guilty. Soon they were going to receive the punishment for their crimes. However, the governor announced that they were pardoned and they were free to go. What a new lease on life! No longer did they have to face that terrible day. What a joy it must be to have their slate wiped clean (at least according to the law) and now they can go back to their friends and family and live a somewhat normal life.
Thesis: Let’s talk about the death penalty this morning.
For instances:
I. The Death Penalty overshadows all of Human Life
A. When I talk about the death penalty, I am talking about the death penalty as laid out in the Bible.
B. In Genesis 3 the penalty for eating from the forbidden tree was death. It was physical death and also spiritual death. Physical Death can be defined as separation of the body from the spirit. Spiritual death is separation of a person from God forever.
C. Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death.
D. I suppose some people think that God says these things as an idle threat, because people sin all the time and nobody seems to die. Or they think it’s some kind of a vindictive act: “You sin, and I’ll get even with you.” As if God is sneering in heaven.
E. The fact is that the death penalty for sin is not a vengeful act, but an effort to save fallen human beings. Without the death penalty, mankind would be proud and never seek God. Without the death penalty, we would be doomed to live on this sin sick planet forever and mankind would get worse and worse.
F. This is probably why the ages of human beings have decreased since the flood. We see in Genesis 5 that men lived over 900 years. After the flood, men lived at most 120 years. A few who lived longer but most lived 120 years or less. With all of the years to live before the flood, man was described as wicked all of the time; every thought of his heart was wicked all of the time. I don’t think I would want to live in such a world.
G. We are all fallen. Something in every one of us has been impacted by the entry of sin into our nature, and none of us is flawless. Fallen humanity, given enough time, would lose all sense of restraint and most would give into evil. This is increasingly happening in our world but imagine if there was no death penalty. Nothing gets the attention of people like the death penalty. It humbles us and forces us to consider our future.
H. In the Old Testament, there’s an elaboration of God’s dealing with one nation, the Jewish people. They were the ones who received the promises, the Scriptures, because God was doing something with that people. He made laws that apply to all of us, but He mainly held the Jewish people accountable. The Hebrew nation was to be a model and a message for the rest of the world.
I. First, there was a sacrificial system because man needs a substitute to rescue him from the consequences of his sin.
J. Second, there were many laws that had a penalty of death. For example, adultery, fornication, blaspheming God’s name, witchcraft, gathering wood on the Sabbath day, murder, worshipping an idol, rebelling against or mocking or cursing one’s parents, were things that deserved capital punishment.
K. The death penalty overshadowed all of human life in the Jewish legal system.
II. The Death Penalty affects all of life- draining, diminishing, damaging, and damning.
A. People say, “What kind of a God is this? Just because people get caught in an affair, He says ‘Kill them’? He’s supposed to be a God of love? Sounds to me like He’s on an ego trip.”
B. Now wait a minute, God didn’t say to all humanity, “Every time there’s adultery, kill somebody.” Instead, what he is saying is something like this, “I’m demonstrating something through my chosen people to the world.”
C. God knew that people might blaspheme Him, spit in their parent’s face, break their covenants, violate relationships, deny their sexual identity, then walk away saying, “Boy, did I have a good time,” or “I’ll say what I want about God and nothing happens!”
D. However, while that marriage or that parent or the name of God is being violated, something is dying- whether we realize it or not. A marriage gets eaten away at the foundations. Human identity disintegrates.
E. There is a real death penalty that happens when we do things that violate how God created humankind to be. Just because everything doesn’t go black overnight, the idea is “Well, I’m making it just fine.” One day it will all go black, maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but one day it will go black.
F. God is not in heaven trying to spoil our party. No, he knows that if we see the results of our sins that maybe we will turn. Many times the wages for our sins don’t come immediately, but they will come and there is a reason for this. The reason is so that we can see our deadness.
G. My uncle Wendell works with the prison systems. He is a teacher at prisons. He refuses to go to Maximum security prisons. There are some prisons across this land that house inmates that have life sentences or are on death row. He refuses to go into these. He has rarely been asked to go into these prisons. Why? Because the inmates there are desperate people. They have no regard for ethics, morality or even life. What is the law going to do, sentence them to two life terms or another death on death row? That is silly. They are desperately seeking some enjoyment, some entertainment, and some distraction from their condition. They will kill, they will torture, whatever floats their boat. Why? They know their lives are not going to get any better. There sentences will not end in release. They are desperate people.
H. Look at our society. We are full of desperate people. We have some regard for ethics, morality and life because we know that we might get thrown into a literal prison. But for the most part we are desperate people seeking some enjoyment, some entertainment, and some distraction from our condition. Whatever it takes, whether drugs, or alcohol, or sex, or material things, or popularity or fame, or whatever, we are looking for distractions from our condition. Our condition on death row.
I. I have a friend who was married to a woman for 5 years. Their relationship began with sin and because of circumstances my friend married this woman. Now, their marriage is over, it has ended in divorce. As I was talking with him, one thing stuck with me. He said, “She has never really experienced forgiveness. She does not know what it is like to forgiven by God. The only times that she was happy was when she was distracted, when we tried to escape from our lives. But guess what? You cannot escape from your condition. She tried to find happiness in me. I cannot make people happy. The only way to be happy is to know that God has forgiven you and this is something she does not know. Without forgiveness people are restless and they are desperate.” That relationship is over but now he is seeking God’s forgiveness.
III. The Death Penalty’s power has been broken, providing a new level of life now and a real hope of life forever.
A. At Easter we deal with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what has broken the death penalty’s power.
B. But how could Jesus Christ’s death make that much difference for all mankind?
C. On the cross Jesus was taking the place of every human being. He paid the price of death row. He died in our place.
D. With Christ our spiritual death, separation from God, is not necessary. God cannot convict again because Jesus has died. The penalty has been paid.
E. How could it be? Because He was the Son of God. For God so loved the world…
F. We are pardoned. (Isa 55:7 NIV) Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
G. Jesus is the last one who needs to be on death row. The last to pay the penalty for our failings.
H. In the Tale of Two Cities, a fiction novel by Charles Dickens, we are presented with a perfect description of what Christ did for us. In an early scene we are presented with two people who look like identical twins: Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. They become friends. Charles Darney is wrongly sentenced to death. Sydney Carton gains entrance into Charles’ cell as his final visitor. There he drugs Darnay, rendering him unconscious, exchanges clothes with him, and has him carried from the cell as "Sydney Carton." Carton tells the guards that his last visitor was overcome with grief and passed out so they take him out of the cell and out the front door. Carton remained in his friend Darnay’s place. Carton gave his life for Charles Darney’s. And he was unafraid of his destination. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.” Carton said. He offered up his life for his friends.
I. We were on death row, rightly accused, Christ came to visit us and he took our place on death row like Sydney Carton took the place of his friend Charles Darnay. (John 15:13 NIV) Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.
J. To know that on the Great Judgment Day, I will be pardoned. Not that I hope I will be pardoned but that I know through Christ I will be pardoned makes all of the difference.
Conclusion:
A. How? How can I be pardoned?
B. There is no pardon for physically death but the soul will go on and on and on resurrection day we will have a new body.
C. Great now how can I have this pardon?
D. Plan of salvation.
E. Romans 6:3-6
1. Baptized into his death. Burial in the water.
2. Raised into a new life.
3. One day we will be united with him in resurrection.
4. Old self was crucified with him. The old man is gone. Must be willing to put away the old man.
5. No longer be slaves to sin. We must live for God and not be slaves to sin. Christ has also broken all of the death penalty’s power to control us. Jesus not only rose to forgive us for the things we’ve done, but to come and dwell in us, and by the power of His life break the control of those things over us now and give us the promise of heaven forever.
