God's Rescue Should Result in Separation from Selfishness and Sin...

Last week, we looked at a section of a letter in the bible called the book of Romans and discovered that we are able to be rescued when Jesus Christ is our representative. We learned that while sin exercises authority through the physical, spiritual and eternal separation from God that it produces, at the end of the day, God’s transformational activity through Jesus Christ would be ultimately what would exercise authority for all eternity. You see, the Law was never the point; Jesus has always been the point. And it is by believing, trusting, and following Jesus that all humanity has the opportunity to receive rescue and move from separation from God to the relationship with God that we were created for.

However, the idea the God’s grace would ultimately overwhelm and rule over selfishness, sin and rebellion was producing a potential response within the members of this first century church that Paul was writing to. And it is this potential response that Paul addresses in this next section of his letter. And as Paul addresses this potential response, we are able to discover a timeless truth regarding God’s rescue that is available to all humanity. So let’s begin by looking at this potential response together, beginning in Romans 6:1:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

Paul begins this section of his letter by revealing this possible response that the members of the church at Rome could have to the idea that God’s grace would ultimately overwhelm and rule over selfishness, sin and rebellion. If this question was worded in the language we use today, the question would sound something like this: “If God and God’s grace will increase at a faster rate than selfishness and sin: and if God’s grace will ultimately rule over selfishness and sin anyway; Then why don’t we continue to live our lives controlled and influenced by selfishness and rebellion? Because when we live our lives controlled by selfishness and rebellion, God’s grace and transformational activity will still increase and overcome selfishness and sin, and we will be fine at the end of the day anyway. God will look good and we still are rescued".

And this question is still asked today, isn’t it? “If I am saved by grace, then it really does not matter how I live, does it? If it is not what I do for God that makes me right with God, but what God does for me that make me right with God, then why don’t I just do whatever I want? I mean I am saved by grace, and since I am not responsible for my salvation, then I can live irresponsibly, because God is the one responsible for rescuing me.”

Now while we would never admit this, or say that publicly, how often do we, practically speaking, live our lives this way? “I am saved by grace, so I’ll rationalize my selfishness and sin? I am saved by grace, so I’ll justify my actions that hurt God and others. I’m saved by grace, so it’s no big deal if I look at online pornography or cheat on my taxes or am dishonest, because at the end of the day I’ll just ask God to forgive me and He has to because it’s by grace”. This morning, how often can we find ourselves falling into that way of thinking? How often do we find ourselves feeling comfortable with that kind of thinking? And more importantly, is Jesus o.k. with that kind of thinking by His followers? We discover how the Apostle Paul feels about that kind of thinking in the very next verse. Let’s look at it together:

May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul responds to this possible response with the strongest negative response that is possible in the language that this letter was originally written in. If we were to overhear this response in a conversation at Wal-Mart, this objection might sound like this: "No bleeping Way!!" Instead, Paul asks a rhetorical question “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” and it is in this rhetorical question that we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us a timeless truth regarding God’s rescue. And that timeless truth is that God’s rescue should result in separation from selfishness and sin.

As we discovered last week, from a Biblical perspective, the word death conveys the concept of separation. As a result of sin’s entrance into the world we experience physical death, which is the separation of our soul from our body. But not only do we experience physical death as a result of sin; we also experience spiritual death, which is the separation of us from God. And if we physically die while being spiritually dead, we experience eternal death, or eternal separation from God.

So, with this perspective of the word death in mind, what Paul is asking here is “how shall we who have been separated from the destructive and evil power of selfishness and rebellion still choose to conduct our day to day lives by embracing selfishness and rebellion?” Through this rhetorical question, Paul is revealing for us the reality that as a result of placing our confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader, we have been separated from destructive and evil power of selfishness, sin and rebellion holding sway and control over our lives. Paul is asking “So, why do you want to go ahead and embrace something that you have been separated from?”

And in the same way today, as followers of Jesus, our rescue as a result of God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world through Jesus Christ should result in a separation from selfishness and sin in our daily lives. As we live our day to day lives by faith in what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, we should see more of Christ in us and less selfishness and rebellion from us.

Now theologians, who spend their entire lives studying the Bible, refer to this as sanctification. Sanctification, simply put, is the process by which we become like Christ in character and in our conduct. This process, however, is both positional and progressive. Positionally, we are sanctified, or separated from the power of selfishness and sin at the moment we become followers of Jesus and are set apart in a new relationship with Christ. However, as we continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus, we experience the progressive nature of sanctification as we become more like Jesus in character and conduct.

God’s right rescue should result in a separation from selfishness and sin that becomes greater and greater over time. So to even think that one could respond to God’s gracious rescue by embracing the evil and destructive power of selfishness and sin provoked an amazingly strong response “no bleeping way”. And in Romans 6:1-14, we see Paul reveal for us four specific reasons why our rescue should result in separation from selfishness and sin. We see the first reason in Romans 6:3-4:

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

In these verses, we see Paul ask a question designed to reveal that the members of the church at Rome were uniformed of a very important reality. “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” And it is in this question that we see Paul reveal for us the first reason why our rescue should result in separation from selfishness and sin. That first reason is that we should be separated from selfishness and sin because we are identified with Christ.

When Paul uses the phrase “baptized into Christ” he is reminding the members of the church at Rome, and us here this morning, that baptism is an outward act that serves to publicly identify one as being a follower of Jesus. A person who is being baptized is publicly proclaiming “I am a follower of Jesus who desires to be a part of a community of believers who will encourage me and hold me accountable”. By baptism, a person is identifying themselves with Jesus, who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our selfish rebellion, and was raised back to life never to die again as a result of the transformational power of the Holy Spirit.

And in the same way, when we become followers of Jesus and follow the Lord in baptism, we are publicly proclaiming that we are identifying ourselves with Jesus as our Lord and Leader and that we are turning our back on, or dying to, selfishness, sin, and rebellion and choosing to identify and live in a life that pursues Christ and a life of grace and Christ-likeness. There should not be a desire to embrace the evil and destructive power of selfishness and sin, because our identification with Christ should result in separation from selfishness and rebellion.

So is that the case? Does your identification with Christ result in a life of Christ-likeness that is separated from selfishness and sin? Paul then continues to reveal a second reason why our rescue should result in separation from selfishness and sin. We will look at that reason tomorrow.