What I Would Do Differently
APPENDIX 5 SERMON SERIES
III. Our New Destiny
2. We Rose with Christ
And, good news: it is impossible to cross that road again once you have been moved.
• Your position is permanent.
• You are in Christ’s field and you are not getting out.
But here’s the challenge you experience: sin can still shout at you across the road.
Sin can still tempt you.
• And sin can still accuse you.
• And this can still cause you to stumble and fall.
And yet, your stumbling and your falling all occurs in Christ’s field!
• Which means that you can stand up again.
• And you can rejoice that your position has not changed.
• And you can learn to stay away from that road and stop listening to sin’s demands.
As we’ll see in the rest of Romans 6,
• the fight against sin,
• is all about learning to live in this new position.
But right here, in these first few verses,
• Paul primarily wants us to see what God did when he saved us.
• He wants us to see the radical nature of the transformation that has taken place.
When we became believers in Christ,
• we were united with Christ,
• and we died with Christ.
And since we have died with Christ,
• sin’s penalty is paid,
• and sin’s power over our lives is broken.
Christian, this is your conversion story. You and I died with Christ. And…
What happened to Jesus has happened to us.
And so, this verse is saying, “If you want to understand what God did at your conversion, think about the resurrection of Jesus.”
Jesus died.
• He was buried in a tomb.
• And then on the third day, he walked out alive.
• He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
The resurrection of Jesus is the epitome of a miracle.
On that first Easter Sunday a corpse began to breath,
• a heart that had stopped for 3 days began to beat again,
• eyes shut in death opened in life.
This is how powerful and glorious our God is! This is the miracle of the resurrection!
And that magnitude of miracle happened at each of our conversions!
In Christ,
• we who were once dead in sin,
• now walk in newness of life.
Again verse 4 says, as Christ was raised from the dead… we too might walk in newness of life.
• New life in Christ is not only a future hope.
• New life in Christ is a present reality.
We begin to walk in newness of life from the moment we are saved.
We see this throughout the New Testament...
Think about Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus.
In John 3:3 Jesus tells Nicodemus what is required for salvation: Jesus answered him,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is telling Nicodemus, “You don’t just need new beliefs,
• you don’t just need new behavior,
• you need new birth!”
And true for all of us.
• We need a whole new life.
• Which is exactly what God gives every one of his people in Christ.
Listen to the way Peter describes God’s saving work in 1 Peter 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Christians are people who have been born again.
• We have new life now.
• Therefore, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away 9 (died!); behold, the new has come (risen!).
Notice the tense of the verbs.
It does not say,
• “If anyone is in Christ he will be a new creation.
• The old will pass away;
• behold, the new will come.”
No, this new life,
• brought about by new birth,
• is a present reality!
We are not like eggs waiting to hatch,
• hunkered down in our little shells,
• just hanging in there until the resurrection.
We are able to walk in the newness of life that we have in Christ right now.
Sure, just like young birds who emerge from the egg, we’ve got plenty to learn!
We stumble around.
• We trip and fall.
• We do not take off flying right away.
But we really do walk in newness of life.
• Even as we still anticipate bodily resurrection in the future.
• We have spiritually risen with Christ by the glorious work of the Father.
And in the next several sections of Romans 6 we’ll learn more of what this looks like.
But today, we need to see this truth, and believe it.
Do you not know…?
Do you not know that you have been baptized into Christ?
Do you not know that you have been died with Christ?
This is your story now
What happened to Jesus has happened to you.
When God brought us to faith in Christ,
• We died with Christ,
• and we rose with Christ.
That is the miracle every Christian’s conversion.
Now, as we wrap up let me briefly suggest three implications in light of these verses.
Three Implications
Remember, Union with Christ refers to the believer’s position in Christ established at conversion.
• When we are converted
• We are united to Christ.
And…