St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 6 – June 27^th and 30^th, 2002

Romans 6:1-11
¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We 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.

Let me ask you a question and see if you can help me answer it. I’m not real good at English grammar so you let me know what is the correct way to say this phrase. Is it correct to say, "The yolk of the egg is white or the yolk of the egg are white?" As you listen to those two phrases you soon come to realize that it is a trick question since the yolk of the egg is yellow and not white. The answer was right there in front of us but some of us might have missed it at first glance. It is the same way as people look at God’s Word. There are many people who just don’t get it when it comes to God’s Word and others are led by the Holy Spirit to understand. Today’s text is much like that. Some people try to rationalize and figure out God’s grace and forgiveness and it never seems to make sense.

Listen to what some people might say about God’s grace and love. God has promised us that our sins are forgiven, right! God has told us that by his grace everything we have done wrong is wiped away, right! So doesn't it make sense that if we keep on sinning at a regular pace, God's grace will also increase? The more there is sin, the more of God's grace we need. So the more we sin, the more God's grace is poured out on us. And the more of God's grace that is given to us the better off we are. Sounds good, doesn't it? But is it correct according to God's Word? Is it according to God's will to live in sin so that his grace may also increase? What is wrong with this type of thinking? Why would anyone say anything like this? This morning we will see what God thinks of this terrible line of thinking. This morning we will see what God tells us as his children concerning how we live, and God will also tell us why we are to live apart from sin. Let this serve as our theme for this morning:

Good question, isn't it? Why don't we live in sin? The answer is simple, or is it? Some might say that we don't live in sin, because God doesn't want us to live in sin. Or we don't live in sin, because God has told us it is wrong. Or we don't live in sin, because our parents have told us it is wrong. There are many different answer to the question of why we don't live in sin, but are these the correct answers? There is only one right reason. It all boils down to Christ. Our text for this morning is from Paul's letter to the Romans. As we may remember from sermons in the past weeks from Romans, Paul deals at great length with the central teaching of Christianity, JUSTIFICATION. Remember what Justification is? It is the teaching that by the death of Christ on the cross for our sins, God has declared us innocent or not guilty of all of our sins. Nothing on our part affected this verdict. It was given to us completely out of God's love and grace. The first five chapters of Romans deal almost exclusively with this teaching of our salvation. Without this teaching, our Christian lives mean nothing. We would be lost and condemned sinners without this verdict of not guilty. But our text for this morning switches to the next part of a Christian’s life. But what does follow God’s declaration that we are declared not guilty? The answer is the big long word, SANCTIFICATION or CHRISTIAN LIVING. Was that the answer you were all thinking of?

Our text for this morning shows us why live as Christians. Our text for this morning talks about what we do as a result of our being saved. Our text for this morning is going to answer that question WHY DON'T WE LIVE IN SIN? The first thing we need to make clear and understand is that our Christian living is not separated one bit from the fact that we are saved by Christ. Yes, they are talking about the two parts of a Christian’s life, but in the same respect justification and sanctification are intertwined so closely that we can not separate them. The only thing we need to remember is keep the two teachings straight. We are first justified or saved by God’s grace and then we live lives of sanctification to thank and serve our God of grace. Sanctification or our Christian living has nothing to do with our being saved. Sanctification is only our response for being saved.

That leads us to the first point for this morning. WHY DON'T WE LIVE IN SIN? Earlier we gave some answers that people might give to this question. We don't live in sin, because it is wrong. We don't live in sin, because God said so. We don't live in sin, because we might get punished, and maybe you can think of some other answers that you would give to this question. But the only true answer lies in these four words, "We died to sin." Now what does Paul mean with these words? These words by themselves might be a little confusing. What does it mean that we died to sin. Oddly enough the answer is found in someone else death. The death we are talking about is the death of Christ on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

Paul goes on to expand this thought about our spiritual death. "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." We see the word death mentioned a few times in these verses. How were we made dead? We were buried with Christ in death at our baptism. The key words here are death and Christ Jesus. It is a spiritual death. As you can see we were made dead when Christ died for our sins, and Christ came into our hearts at our baptism or when the Holy Spirit came to us through his Word. If there is any doubt as to whether we have died with Christ, Paul tells us to look back to our baptism. What a wonderful thought this is for us. Our baptism is what has made us dead. Our baptism is what has buried us. Our baptism is our assurance as far as knowing what God has done for us. Our baptism is what tells us why we are not to live in sin. Our baptism is what we can look to every day of our lives to assure us that we have died. Is that what you think of when you think of your baptism. Do you think and believe that your baptism has made you dead to sin? Do you believe that our baptism saves us and keeps us in the faith. It does! It is not just a ceremony or a symbol of what Christ has done for us. It is our spiritual death in Christ's death. What a blessing baptism really is.

Our baptism shows us and assures us that we have died, and what a wonderful use of words this is. We have died and have been buried concerning our sins. Our sins have dead. Our Old Self also called our Old Adam whom we have from birth, our inherited sin that we have from Adam and Eve HAS BEEN PUT TO DEATH! Paul tells us, "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." When Christ died, we died with him. When Christ was crucified on the cross for our sins, our old self was crucified with him. Just think what it means to die. We don't have to worry what is around us. We don't have to worry about what might happen to us. Our sins are dead. We are no longer living in sin. The guilt of sin has been made dead, but also the result of sin is dead, namely eternal death in hell. Our Old Adam has been put to death. At our baptism we use the beautiful picture that our Old Adam is drowned by daily contrition and repentance. We are no longer slaves to sin. We have been untied with Christ in his death. This may not sound very pleasing to us, but these are the most wonderful words that we could ever hear.

Why are these words so pleasing for us? These words are just the beginning when we look at our Christian lives. We died with Christ, but did Christ remain in the grave? If he would have we would have no hope or assurance. We know that he didn't, but instead he rose and conquered death and has risen in all his glory to be with his Father in heaven. Listen what Christ's resurrection means for us, "If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection." "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we also live with him." And finally, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead....we too may have a new life." The new life is what is the answer to the question WHY DON'T WE LIVE IN SIN? The answer is that we have been made alive. The answer rests on the assurance that we have of knowing that we were spiritually raised with Christ from the dead. The only reason we don't sin is found in the new life that Christ has won for us. As Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." WE LIVE AS WE DO BECAUSE CHRIST IS IN US, and our faith tells us that Christ has died for us, and we know through faith that our sins also died with Christ on the cross.

This new life is what we call the New Self. The Holy Spirit at our Baptism or when we came to faith entered into our hearts. He has created a new creation is us. This New Self is at work in us daily. The New Self in us thinks, speaks, loves and desires only what is God's will. The new Self is completely in stride with God's will. The New Self through faith is at work in us leading us to do God's will. The New Self which is at work in us is the answer to our question of why don't we live in sin? The reason that we don't live in sin is because Christ lives in us. It is nothing on our part. It has nothing whatsoever with what we think is right or wrong. It has to do 100% with what it means to have died with Christ and to be made alive through Christ's death. It is the New Self, which tells us it is wrong to break God's commands from the "littlest sin" to the "greatest sin". It is the New Self which tell us that our lives are lives of love and thanks for what God has done for us. It is Christ living us that gives us the power to overcome sin.

Just think what this means for us as children of God who have been made alive in baptism and in our faith. We have died to sin. The question we need to ask ourselves as Christians is, CAN WE LIVE IN SIN ANY LONGER? As Paul puts it, "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" How can we live in sin any longer? We don't live good lives to please God. We don't come to church to please God. We don't give of our time, talents and treasures to please God. We don't live as we do, because we are such good Christians. We live as do because of what is in us through Christ. We come to church, because Christ is working in us. We give our time, talents and treasures, because God is in us. Our lives of lives of love and thanks for the act that Christ has died for us. But this doesn't give us a license to go and sin, using the excuse that it is God's fault because he guides all that I do. We are no longer slaves to sin, but this doesn't mean that sin is completely gone. It is not clear sailing, because we are no longer slaves to sin.

Our Old Adam is still in us. Our Old Adam needs to daily be drowned by daily contrition and repentance. Our baptism may have happened a number of years ago, but we can still see how our baptism still is effective today. In our baptism we died with Christ. In our baptism we also were raised to a new life in Christ. And it is not just baptism that saves us, but it is the Holy Spirit working through the Means of Grace the Word and Sacraments. Our Old Adam may win a few battles. We can see that when we gossip or become lax in church attendance or our giving or any time we fall short of God's goal of perfection, but this is not a good thing. With God's promise of forgiveness we can once again seek God and his forgiveness as we are reminded of our death with Jesus Christ.

Death sounds bad, but our death in Christ is wonderful. This death is eternal life for you and me. This death assures us that we did not remain dead in the grave, but that we are raised with Christ and will one day be with him in heaven. WHY DO WE NOT LIVE IN SIN? Because of what Christ has won for us on the cross. He conquered Satan, death and our Old Adam to give us eternal life and a New Self. Praise to him for giving us all the strength we need to continue on to our final goal of eternal life in heaven. Amen.