It's All About New Life - Romans 6

We are fortunate in this country; especially here in the greatest state, Arkansas, to have special caring people who have dedicated their life’s work to programs designed to help people in despair find New Life. The Sheriff’s Ranch at Batesville works with young people that might otherwise be in reform school or prison. Southern Baptist support homes for orphans and otherwise neglected children. There are now two homes in Heber that caters to battered women and unwed mothers. A few years ago Bro. Lloyd Blanton, of Heber Springs, dedicated his life to a work with offenders who are serving time for crime and drug abuse, and First Baptist Church, Heber, furnishes them a building to use as their headquarters for work, counseling and worship services. These programs and many more are in many ways about obtaining a NEW earthly LIFE, the title of our lesson for today deals with one obtaining a NEW SPIRITUAL LIFE. It is ironical but a New Spiritual Life is the best assurance one can have of a NEW earthly LIFE.

In each case referred to above there will always be specific circumstances that differ, but generally speaking these unfortunate citizens at one time lived a human life style that was at least not life-threatening; however, every one of us are born into a flawed life style that mandated us to live under the threat of sin. It is sad but sins such as lust, greed, pride, and abuse of drugs; and finally lying, stealing, spouse abuse and even neglect of children crept in creating an unacceptable life style that has only one remedy—each one must create a NEW LIFE. The new life will only be productive or even acceptable when the individual or family commit themselves to following the Roman Road, as recorded in the gospel of Romans. Please read Romans.

Each one of us was borne of man, and inherited the characteristics of our parents. The first man, Adam, was created perfect, but God chose to give him his choice of choosing good or evil, life or death, heaven or hell, and the Genesis story tells us that man chose to disobey God, and he fell from grace. Sin interred the human race at the Garden of Eden on that day. I contend that was the saddest day in human history for because of it all posterity has been born in sin. By one man, Adam, sin entered the world; and then God provided one Man [Jesus] to pay our sin debt and thereby provided us a way for us to obtain a NEW SPIRITUAL LIFE that, if personally accepted, will redeem, save, convert us and make it as though we had never sinned.

I also contend that the happiest day in all history for mortal beings, as horrible as it had to be, was the day our Lord was crucified. His death gave all men the right of choice to choose to continue in the old and original life of sin and death, or a NEW LIFE of righteousness and glory. This life on earth is like a vapor, here for a moment and then it vanishes away. For many, it is relative plesant, enjoyable and acceptable; for others it is often harsh, negative and hard to accept. However for all it provides the opportunity to make the right choice regarding where we will spend eternity…forever…world without end. Therefore, it is ALL ABOUT LIFE. If you have lived to the age of accountability here on earth—“Choose you this day whom you will serve.”

In order for you to understand why we are talking about the old life, and the new life in this lesson you must study the content in chapter six. The people had just been told that sin was increasing, but that grace abounded and always remained sufficient to cover the sins of man. The first admonition in the sixth chapter is that people must not think that they can continue in sin simply because God’s grace will increase when they do. Yes, God forgives sin, but that does not make sin any less serious. God does love man, and Gave His Son to die on the Cross to forgive our sin; Our Savior enjoys our acceptance of his gift, but he still hates the sin that caused his death. There is no doubt; the availability of God’s mercy must not become an excuse for careless living and moral laxness.

Paul used the picture of baptism to explain what it means to have a NEW LIFE in Christ. In that day, immersion was the usual form of baptism—that is, new Christians were completely ‘buried’ in water. Even in the baptism of Jesus, the bible says that he went down into the water and came up out of the water…He was buried in water. People understood that this form of baptism symbolized the death to an old life and a resurrection up and into a New Life—and it is a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the ‘coming up out of the water’ symbolizes Christ ‘coming up out of the grave’—He was dead, but he arose to New Life.

We must think of our old life [life before being saved] as being dead and buried and as a Christian, we must now have a powerful motive to resist any further sin, and there must now be a deep desire to sin no more. A born-again-believer can enjoy a New Life in Christ because we are united with him in his death and resurrection. Our bondage to sin must now be gone, because our evil desires and love for sin died with Christ. Now, by grace, through our faith, we have an unbreakable fellowship with Jesus Christ, our Savior. We may sin, but we do not desire to sin—and if we do sin, his grace is always sufficient to forgive us of our sin when we repent and ask for forgiveness. Dear friends, this chapter in Romans has a powerful message—please take time to read all 23 verses. This chapter conveys the reason why I believe that if anyone still enjoys sin, they need to re-examine their salvation experience—and ask the question: Am I really saved??? Learn more by reading Ephesians 4:21-24 and Colossians 3: 3-15.

Verse six tells us that the power and penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross. When any person accepts Christ their Old Self or sinful desire dies once and for all, so we are now free from its power. The ‘body of sin’ mentioned here is not the human physical body—but it is our rebellious sin-loving nature that we inherited from Adam as recorded in Genesis. We should not think of our body as being sinful even though it sometimes cooperates with our sinful nature. It is not our body that is wrong but the sinful nature in us leads us to do wrong. Verses 8-10 should make the fear of death mute in our earthly life, for we know that Christ died and now lives and will forever, and Christians are alive in Christ and they too will never die.

Since we are saved for sure and forever can we continue to sin at will? Verse 15 says that “By no means”! You can not! When you accept Christ, you become his helper, his hands and feet…He becomes your Master and you become His slave. While you remain in sin, sin is your master and you are a slave to sin. You can not serve two masters? No. You can either serve God and holiness with the end result being eternal life; or, you can serve sin and evil and earn wages for it, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Have you made your choice? Please remember that life, even four-score and ten years, is so short; it is like a vapor or cloud—here now, and momentarily gone. A cloud appears and then with one small shift in the wind it disappears from our view and is gone forever.