Tomorrow Sunday January 11th, 2015 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine: “Under New Ownership” (Romans 6:1-14)
Christmas Eve: Wednesday, December 24th at 7:00 pm
Christmas Morning: Thursday, December 25th at 9:30 am
Location: Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine: 12500 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA 92618
Directions: Exit Sand Canyon from the 405 or 5, head East towards the hills, cross Irvine Blvd., turn right on Saint’s Way (this will put you on the campus of Crean Lutheran High School…we worship in the event center/gym)
Dear Christians,
“Under New Ownership”
(Romans 6:1-14)
Pastor Al Espinosa
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Everything in God’s Word must be believed in. That is the proper response to God’s Word is faith. But not just in the “big things” like creation, or the incarnation of the Lord – when God took on flesh – or like when Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world (and all of your sin) when He died for us on Calvary’s cross, or His resurrection from the grave, but all the “rest” of it too. And perhaps “the rest of the story” is much more important than we give it credit to be. For example what Romans 6:1-14 is all about…the absolutely crucial rest of the story! Please do not miss it!
Let me assure you that this text is indeed most appropriate for Epiphany: when Christ showed His glory so that we would know that the babe born on Christmas is actually God in the flesh. He let out glimpses of His glory – many of them — actually – so that we would know that this baby and this man was no mere human being, but true man who was also true God, the Savior of all of His brothers and sisters…all of the other true humans like you and me. That is, the bible texts during Epiphany are about Christ showing or revealing Himself to the world so that people would see that God is alive and well…and even more than alive and well, but actively and powerfully working among us and to this day rescuing people from the clutches of sin, death, and the power of the devil.
All of the bible passages of Epiphany are about this, esp. as is our Gospel today, but so is our epistle from Romans even though it seems so much about our Christian lives today…but this is what makes it so special, because it means that Christ is still “appearing” but now He is doing so through poor sinners like you and me and demonstrating that we are much more than just poor sinners.
Romans 6:1-14 is a gold mine on the Christian life. In studying this text I was reminded of why the Christian life can seem so unnecessarily frustrating. Let me start off by presenting this crucial fact about Romans 6:1-14: when God teaches about the Christian life in these verses, He does so by putting forth two crucial components to be aware of:
First: The Christian Life is described as an indicative: what you ALREADY are in Christ as a result of what Christ has ALREADY accomplished! These things are true. These things are factual. They go in the category of those objective truths of the faith which are quite simply to be believed in: God created the heavens and the earth; Jesus died and rose again to save you; Jesus is true God and man…AND You have died to sin (6:2); AND You were baptized into the death of Christ (6:3); AND You have been buried with Christ (6:4); AND You shall certainly be united in a resurrection like His (6:5); AND Your old self has been crucified with Jesus (6:6); AND You are now in the position of no longer being enslaved to sin (6:6); AND You’ve been set free from sin (6:7); AND You will also live with Christ (6:8).
Let’s soak in this first part: we have a terrible time starting our Christian lives with these Epiphany facts! They seem counter-intuitive. We know about our sin, we feel our sin, we experience our sin…God’s Word teaches about our sin and we know it’s there. We confirm it. And it’s so easy for us to do so that while it is enormously healthy and beneficial to confess our sin (1st John 1:8-9) – and if we don’t, we’re liars and the truth is not in us – on the other hand, sometimes we never get to “the rest of the story.” Christ has forgiven us our sin and this means that we have objectively and truly – actually and factually – received a new position in life; these things are true: you’ve died to sin; you have His resurrection life. And yes, part of St. Paul’s meaning here in Romans 6 is referring to the future resurrection of the body that is yet to come; his meaning, however, also includes the enduring new status that is the life of the Resurrected Lord Jesus already yours!
So what? Well, the “so what” answer is everything to the Christian and I hope you will absolutely soak in this truth Christian: the “so what” is that the domination, the mastery, the tyranny of sin has been destroyed. This is a fact. So while it may be so that because you are still in the world, you must still deal with the presence of sin, what has changed is the predominance of sin! Sin is still around, but it is no longer your master. You Christian are now under new ownership. When Christ died, and the life of God entered into the veins and arteries of death itself, death received its terminal cancer; it received its thermal nuclear warhead and it died and sin lost its mastery. This is true, this is factual; this is actual because when Christ died He died to kill sin and you benefited (this is a fact) and when Christ rose He rose to give you life unending (and this is a fact). And those who have been baptized into Christ Jesus – like you have – now have entered into this true status. Sin is no longer your master. That’s a fact!