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NEW DIRECTION FOR NEW LIFE

Romans 5:20-6:23

Key Verse: 6:13 “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”

  Two weeks ago, my family celebrated our children’s twelfth birthdays. We went out and had a special dinner to remember God’s abundant grace upon our family through our two children. We recalled how grateful and joyful we were when God gave us our two children. Our joy was more than double because my wife and I had been waiting nine years for them since our marriage. Our children have grown up in an atmosphere of love and gratitude. For the last twelve years they have needed protection and provision. They have also needed education and supervision to formalize their characters and personalities as children of God.

In the same way those who are justified by God’s grace and start a new life with Christ Jesus are like newborn babies who need constant provision and supervision. We call the transitional period to spiritual maturity of a new beginner ‘sanctification.’ In today’s passage the Apostle Paul tells us how those who are justified by God’s grace should live a new life and what kind of attitude they should have toward God’s grace. May God grant us deep understanding about sanctification. Amen.

First, dead to sin, alive in Christ (5:20-6:10) Look at 5:20,21. “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Please pay attention to the phrase, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more…” This logic reminds us of Jesus’ teaching to Simon Peter about the relation between the amount of God’s grace and sin. In Luke 7:41-43 Jesus said, “Two men owed money to a certain money lender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly, Jesus said.” Jesus continued, “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” (Lk 7:47) What Jesus meant was that those who sinned a lot before remember God’s grace more than others and give thanks to God for his forgiving love. In the same token, those who are freely justified by God’s grace must remember God’s grace all the more so that God’s grace may reign over their lives. In other words, those who are justified by God’s grace should live a life of worthy of God’s grace.

  However, there were some who deliberately opposed Paul’s teaching about justification by God’s grace which comes through faith. What was their weird logic? Look at verse 6:1. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Their logic was that in order to receive God’s grace more, they must sin even more. They were like senseless children who become more rebellious to their parents in order to get more attention from their parents. How did Paul refute their rebellious and senseless logic? Look at verse 2. “By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Paul said that we died to sin and no longer live for sin any more. In order to illustrate this, Paul talks about baptism and Jesus’ death and resurrection. Look at verses 3,4. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father we too may live a new life.” In the baptism ceremony, people are submerged under the water and come out of the water. It symbolizes that the moment they are submerged under the water, they die to their sins and their old self dies with Christ Jesus, and that the moment they come out of the water, they live in Christ with a new self. This is the same picture as when Jesus died on the cross, our sins died with him on the cross; when he was buried, our sins were also buried with him; when Jesus rose again from the dead, we also live again with new life with Christ Jesus.

Paul continues to encourage those who are justified by God’s grace that they must not live a life of sin any more. He said in verses 5-7. “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection, For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Before we were justified, we were slave to sin. Sin had mastery over us. But, since we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ, sin no longer has mastery over us. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are children of God and our obedience belongs to Him.

People may ask, “Then, why do we keep on being tempted by our sinful desires since we died to sin? Charles Erdman says, “Our evil passions and dispositions are still active and powerful. We must, however, disown their rule.” What does the Bible say?  In Genesis 4:7 The Lord said to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Not only must we disown the rule of our sinful desire, but also we must master it.

One of the most frequent temptations for young men is watching pornography on the internet. They spend lots of time in front of their computers gratifying their sinful desires. Pornography corrupts our hearts and minds and leads us into guilt and shame. However, we must master the desire to watch immoral pictures. Galatians 5:24 says, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” Since we became Christians and our spiritual eyes were opened, we are tempted to judge others. We easily do this based on our moral standards – this is called ‘self-righteousness’. Some suffer with hatred while others suffer with jealousy. We must master this.

We know that once Christ was raised from the dead, he did not die again. He is alive now and forevermore. In the same way those who belong to Christ should not go back to their old selves. (9) The Apostle Peter compares those who go back to their sinful lives to a dog which returns to its vomit and a sow that goes back to her wallowing in the mud. (2 Pe 2:22). Proverbs 26:11 also says, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” Those who are justified by God’s grace have new directions for new life. In the past, young Augustine lived a promiscuous life. He was a slave to his sinful desires. But since he accepted Jesus as his Christ and Lord, he was no more a slave to sin. Once he met a prostitute on the street whom he had lived with. He turned around and ran away from her in order to keep his heart and mind pure for his new master Jesus. He followed a new direction for his new life. In John 8, Jesus met a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (Jn 8:11) The new life with Christ is leaving our old life of sin. Please read verse 11. “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Here the word “count” means “reckon” or “consider” or “think deeply”  

Second, offer your body to God as instruments of righteousness.(12-14) There is a saying that offense is the best defense. Ten years ago there was a European Soccer Club championship final game between Manchester United England and Bayern Munich Germany. The German team was winning the game 1 to 0 at the end of the second half. The German head coach took out all the offense players and replaced them with defenders. He thought that maintaining a one goal lead was the best strategy to win the game. However, the English coach put all the best offense players out on the field. Just before the final whistle was blown, the English offense scored a goal. Then, during overtime, the English scored another goal and beat the German team and became the European Club champions. What I want to say is that in our spiritual battle against sin and Satan, it is not enough for us just to defend ourselves passively from their spiritual attacks. Rather, we must be more offensive challenging them and become more active in doing the work of God and devoting ourselves to God. Let us read verses 12,13. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” According to these verses, Paul urges those who are justified by God’s grace become more active in doing the work of God and more offensive to the challenge of wickedness. 

We must offer the parts of our body to God as instruments of righteousness. What are the parts of our body which we can offer to God? Some may think that they are their hands. Others may think of their brain. However, most of us agree that the most useful and at the same time harmful part of our body is our tongue. Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death…”  It means that with our tongue we can save people or we can kill people. The Apostle Paul compared our tongues to harmful and deadly weapons that kill people. Romans  3:13,14 says, “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” The book of James says, “Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and it itself set on fire by hell.” (Ja 3:5, 6) How often we hurt and damage others by our untamed tongue? We must tame our tongue for the glory of God.

On the contrary, our tongue can be used to save many lives as an instrument of righteousness. In the Bible, in human history and even around and among us we have many examples of those who have saved many lives through their tongues. Jesus is the Word. Through his words Jesus taught the secret of the kingdom of God and the way to salvation. Through his words, John the Baptist led many sinners to God by preaching the baptism of repentance. We can also mention the twelve disciples of Jesus, the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, and so on….

Our tongue is like a sharp knife. When the knife is in the hand of a doctor in the operation room at the hospital, it is used to save many lives. However, if it is in the hand of a murderer, the knife is used as weapon for killing. God gave us freedom to choose. It is up to us whether to offer ourselves as instruments of righteousness or instruments of wickedness. However, the fruits which we harvest are completely opposite. When we offer ourselves as slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, we reap the fruits of shame and death (21). On the contrary when we offer ourselves to God, the benefit we reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life. (22) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us read verse 13 again. May God help us to offer all the parts of our body including our tongue as instruments of righteousness so that many lives may be saved through our Bible study and intercessory prayers. The tongue has the power of life and death. Let us use our tongue for praising God and saving many lives. Amen.

In today’s passage we learned about a new direction for new life. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people belonging to God. (1 Pe 2:9) Our identity is changed. Our allegiance is changed. In order to live a new life with Christ, we should be more active in devoting ourselves to the work of God. We must offer everything for the glory of God as instruments of righteousness. I pray that God may use Ben West as an instrument of righteousness to save many dying souls on campuses in St. Louis starting from Wash U. Amen.

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Attachment

• NEW DIRECTION FOR NEW LIFE.doc

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