When Death Lies Behind Us

Father, we give you thanks and praise that you have created us,

that you sustain us, that you are sovereign over the entire universe,

that you will bring all things to their proper end

according to your direction and your command and your good and perfect will.

We confess before you, Father, that we have a hard time remembering

and acting as if we are creatures with a creator.

We ask, Father, that you would gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit upon us

so that your word might come deeply into our lives,

that we might know that you are God, that we are your creature,

that we are redeemed and reconciled to you by Jesus,

and that we might live free and whole for your glory in Jesus.

And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please be seated.

Amen.

So some of you might be a tiny bit gobsmacked that it seems as if the Bible teaches

that if you're baptized, you go right away to heaven.

You know, it's very funny, even in, you know, there's often a bit of a misconception,

you know, maybe it's not a misconception,

but often we talk as if Baptists and Pentecostal and Brethren types really know the Bible,

and Anglican types don't know the Bible,

but it's surprising how often people are, I can remember the first time somebody who believes

that if you're baptized, you go right away to heaven,

and they showed me this verse in the Bible,

and I, like, when they told me that it was a Bible idea that if you're baptized, you go to heaven,

I didn't believe them.

And then when they showed me the verse,

I was gobsmacked, as the Irish say, or used to say, maybe they still do,

it just completely and utterly surprised me.

In fact, for many of us, it's such a surprise that we actually almost don't hear the rest of the text,

and the actual thing that most of the text is interested in,

because it just sounds like good grief,

if you get baptized, you go to heaven.

Is that what it says?

And this, by the way, is a common belief by many people.

I'm not sure if it's, somebody asked me if it was official Catholic dogma,

and I never looked it up to see if it was official Catholic dogma.

I know that in the church, the denomination I used to be part of,

that many clergy in the Anglican Church of Canada believed that if you're baptized, you go to heaven.

And, in fact, I remember I was in one meeting with other clergy,

and they were talking about this,

and they were also talking about the fact that they didn't want to just have people come to have their children baptized

who'd never been to church.

And I said to them, well, if you think that if baptism means to go to heaven,

like, why would you stop, why wouldn't you baptize every child?

And, in fact, actually, if you really believe that,

why wouldn't you at the Red Blacks game get, like, a water plane,

and as you fly over it, pour out the water on the crowd,

saying, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

because you're all going to go to heaven.

Like, why wouldn't you do that if that's true?

I don't know if they didn't really have an answer.

I thought they had some type of answer, because they're clergy,

they all have lots of degrees, and they gave me some type of an answer,

and I wasn't going to pursue it.

But let's look at the text.

Is that what the Bible says?

Does the Bible teach that if you're baptized, you go to heaven?

So the text is Romans chapter 6, and I think for a crowd like us,

Romans 6 · chapter mention

we've got to look at this text before we actually see what it is

that Romans 6 is really concerned about.

And it goes like this, Romans chapter 6, verses 1 to 4.

Romans 6:1–4

And I'll just read the first and the other verses around it,

and if you listen to it more carefully,

you'll see that at least at first glance,

that it maybe does seem to teach this.

What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means.

How can we who die to sin still live in it?

Now we get to the interesting part.

Well, it's all interesting, but now you know what I mean.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death,

in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead

by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So, Andrew, if you could put up the first point.

There we go.

There you go, my first point.

The Bible does not teach that being baptized means you go to heaven.

The Bible does not teach that being baptized means you go to heaven.

And there's two reasons for this,

and it's not just because I don't like it or I don't agree with it

or I'm an evangelical and therefore it can't be true or anything like that.

There's actually, from a literary point of view and a text point of view,

there's two reasons why that isn't what this text means.

And the first one is if you just actually read Romans 1 up until this part.

So, every week in the bulletin, I have a little, in the bulletin, I have a section.

I think I've, there it is.

And in the bulletin, there's a separate page.

And I always, on one side of the page, Shirley types out two things.

One's called Growing in Grace, and the other one's called Going Deeper.

And in Going Deeper, sometimes people ask me,

George, why don't you give lots, like some people when they preach,

you know, they're all saying, look up Malachi, look at this, look at this, look at this, look at this.

And you spend the whole sermon like racing around the Bible,

looking at like a whole pile of different texts.

Why do I not do that?

Well, I, part of the reason is I don't,

I think we need to actually sort of camp in a Bible text and try to dwell in it.

So, usually what I do is I put other background texts, interesting things,

in the part called Going Deeper.

And it's written in a way so that you could do it as a small group Bible study,

or you could just do it with another person, or you could do it by yourself.

So, there's usually a question that says, getting to know me.

Then there's a section, getting into the Bible, and then getting real.

And in the getting into the Bible, I often provide that other type of context,

some of the other verses you can look at.

And so, the way the book of Romans is written, because it's a book,

is that I think it's the first seven verses,

Paul just sort of says the sort of normal types of greetings

and gives a bit of an outline about some of the things he's going to, like who he is.

And then, I think it's verses 8 to 15.

He just goes a little bit more, you know, I'm traveling here, I'm traveling there,

hope to see you soon, have the spare guest room ready.

And then, as those of you who have been here other weeks,

in verses 16 and 17, he does something which is almost like a university abstract today.

In verses 16 and 17, he gives in an abstract, like in a tiny little compressed form,

what he's going to spend the rest of the book explaining.

And then in chapter 1, verse 18 to chapter 320,

if we were using modern business language, he sells the problem.

Right?

That's often what business people do, it's often what consultants do, they sell the problem.

And if you don't understand that there's a problem, you're not interested in solutions,

so often you have to sell the problem.

And that's what Paul does.

From 118 to 320, he sells the problem.

And then from 321, the rest of the book,

he shows how the gospel is the answer to the problem.

So if you just, a bit of a long aside, but if you follow this going deeper,

and just as an exercise, you just start reading in chapter 1, verse 1,

up until chapter 5 at the end.

And maybe if you print out the Bible text on paper,

and just underline every single time it says that you need to have faith,

or you need to believe, to receive the gospel.

And I actually, in going deeper, I was going to start to write that.

But I stopped, because it's virtually every second verse.

Like, it must be 40 or 50 times before you get to chapter 6,

that Paul says, you need to have faith to receive what God does for you in Jesus.

You need to have faith, you need to believe.

He says, it must be, I didn't count it,

it would have been too long just to keep counting it.

That's why I just ask you just to read it, and mark it every time.

And so just purely from a literary point of view,

it makes no sense from a literary point of view to think

that for five chapters, 40 or 50 times, or 30 times,

he'd say you have to have faith,

and then all of a sudden, I don't know, boom,

something happens to his head, and he just says,

no, no, you don't have to have faith, you just have to be baptized.

It makes no sense, especially if, and I didn't do this in the going deeper,

if you then immediately go and look at all the times afterwards,

and see that once again, it's like all the time,

he's saying you have to have the faith in Jesus,

faith in Jesus, faith in Jesus.

So it can't, baptism can't mean,

those two verses can't mean that if you just have somebody dunk you

or pour water over your head, that automatically you go to heaven.

It can't be what it means.

The second thing is actually, if you look at the text very carefully,

and look again at verse three.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized,

these screens are really close this week,

I'm going to fall off the stage.

Maybe people don't like me wondering.

I was in a philosophy class once,

this is a really cruel thing,

and I discovered at the end of the term

that the girls in the class had all gotten together,

it was a small class,

this is like 100 million years ago when you had classes like of 30,

and they'd all gotten together

because they'd noticed that the professor always wore the exact same sweater.

He did a lot of other things that were very irritating.

So what they did, just like as an experiment,

is that whenever he stood at one part of the room,

they'd all look up and pay attention,

and whenever he stood at another part of the room,

they'd all look like they weren't paying attention,

and by the end of the term,

they'd start to laugh at the end of the class

because he'd spent almost the entire class at the spot

where they'd pay attention,

the girls would pay attention.

And anyway, because I asked them once

why they were all laughing every time

they left from this boring philosophy class,

and that's because they were doing a psychology experiment

on the professor.

Anyway, I don't know if that's what's happening here.

I don't want George wandering anymore.

We'll just keep moving the screens

farther and farther and farther.

Anyway, sorry, I've lost my place.

Oh, yes, okay, so chapter 6, verse 3.

I don't know if you noticed it,

but look at it again carefully.

Do you not know that all of us

who have been baptized into water...

No, it doesn't say in water.

It doesn't mention water at all.

It says baptized into Christ Jesus

and baptized into his death

and baptism into death.

It doesn't talk about water.

And so there's this another meaning.

There's like, it's part of the basic fundamental meaning

of the word baptized,

which is translated as baptized,

that in other literature,

it can mean,

so, you know, it's not just a Christian word,

it's a Greek word.

And in the Greek word,

it puts the full in full immersion

because it's how you refer to some,

a ship that sunk

or a person that drowned.

And as I said,

that really puts full in full immersion.

That if you have the ship that's up on the top

and it's floating and then it sinks,

and now not only is it underneath

or in the water,

but the water is completely in it.

A person who drowns,

the water is now in their lungs

and everything like that.

The water enters into their body.

It's being immersed in water

to the point of death.

Fully immersed.

And so, Andrew,

if you could put the second point up,

here's what the Bible is saying.

When I put my faith in Jesus,

I am immersed to the point of death

in Jesus and his death.

When I put my faith in Jesus,

I am immersed to the point of death

in Jesus and his death.

That's what it's saying here.

It's a very, very,

and I'm going to explain to you in a moment

why this is such an important type of image

and why it's going to be important

to understand the question

that the text is primarily interested in.

And I'm going to say this thing.

Andrew, if you could put the A up.

I'm going to say this over and over again.

And it's going to be this week and next week

because chapter 6 is really posing us a question.

How shall we then live

when death lies behind us

and resurrection waits before us?

How shall we then live

when death lies behind us

and resurrection waits before us?

Now, some of you might say,

okay, George,

well, that's very interesting,

but you've actually made it worse

because it seems as if the Bible has,

Paul has asked a really good question.

It's a question that I have.

Is that, isn't, if, if,

George, are you saying that if,

like all these other weeks

that you've been talking,

you seem to talk as if,

God doesn't care about your good works.

Your good works don't add,

in a sense,

any value to you before God.

That we all deserve,

we are already separate from God

and we deserve to be separate from God

and have, you know,

his, you know,

his punishment upon us.

And you keep saying every week

that if you put your faith and trust in Jesus,

then you are made right with God.

And you're made right with God

because God makes you right,

not because of anything you do.

And doesn't that,

George, if that's true,

doesn't that lead to moral anarchy?

Like, if that's true,

then why do you do good at all?

Like, why don't you just do evil all the time?

I, you know, two examples of this.

This is an imaginary question.

I don't know,

maybe eight or nine or ten years ago,

I bumped into a fellow

that I had gone to,

that had gone to the same Baptist church in Ottawa

that I had gone to when I was a teenager.

And, you know, I bumped into him

and we got into a brief conversation

and I sort of asked him

if he still went to the church.

He said, no, I don't go to church,

I go to bars.

And, you know,

and then he, you know,

talked a little bit about his life

and he's having a lot of fun

and all that type of stuff.

And then he said to me,

George, you know,

the thing I really got out

of my Baptist background

is I'm just going to really live

a really, really fun life

and then I just know

that like just before I die,

I'm just going to say,

Jesus, can you be my Savior and my Lord

and I get to go to heaven?

Like, he told me this.

That's what he said

with a completely straight face.

I don't know him well enough

to know if he was joking or whatever,

but that was his completely straight face

that I learned,

I got the different lesson

from everybody else

in the Baptist church.

I think this is a spectacular thing.

I believe the Bible.

And I'm just going to say

the sinner's prayer

as close to death

as I possibly can

and then I go to heaven.

And in the meantime,

I get to go to bars.

Have lots of fun.

Sleep with different women.

You know, make lots of money.

Not have to give any of it away.

In the Anglican Church of Canada,

when I was still part of it,

I was involved in a controversy

as to whether the church

should say that God blesses

same-sex marriages.

And I'm not going to get into that topic

other than to say

that one person

in a public forum

said that people like me,

he didn't understand people like me

because he said

that according to the logic

of people like,

he didn't say George,

he used another word

for a group that I was part of.

He said,

according to their logic,

God just forgives all your sins.

So even if they view it as sinful,

like, why does it matter?

Because of grace

and you put your faith in Jesus,

you just go to heaven.

So like,

why are they worked up about it?

They should just accept it.

Move on with life

according to their logic.

So is it the case

that if you put your faith in Jesus

and God is the one

that makes you right with himself

and it's not your good works,

it's not going to church,

it's not knowing the creed,

it's not doing anything like that,

that you automatically

just go to heaven.

And if that's the case,

why bother doing anything good?

That's a real question

for some people.

And if you look again,

that's exactly the question

that the Bible asks.

Paul had raised the question

very briefly in chapter 3.

It's one of the ways

he writes the book,

but now he's actually

going to look at it

in some greater depth

because he realizes

that it's an easy thing,

especially because

we are more used to religion

and spirituality,

which basically always tells us

that the good things matter,

that it's doing good things,

whatever it is.

You know,

if you're a Roman Catholic,

maybe it's saying the rosary.

You know,

if you're an old-style

traditional Anglican

and it's using the book

of common prayer.

You know,

if it's,

you know,

it's going to church,

it's tithing,

it's,

I don't know,

singing praise songs

if you're Pentecostal.

I don't know.

You know,

and if you're a Buddhist,

it's this.

If you're a Muslim,

it's this.

But whatever it is,

if it's your own

spiritual religion,

I don't know,

like,

you know,

maybe if,

you know,

spirituality of Bridgehead,

it's voting green

and not liking Harper.

Like,

whatever it is,

if you do the right things,

you're going to end up in heaven.

And the Bible is completely

and utterly contrary to that

and so it's very natural for us

that are accustomed to religion

and spirituality

to think that the Bible

actually doesn't make any sense

and that it will lead

to people living immoral lives.

Look again at what it says

in verses 1 to 4.

What shall we say then?

He's following up on,

you know,

where grace abounded,

where sin abounded,

grace abounded even more.

Like,

he's just finished giving

a powerful explanation

about how grace leads to you

being able to be in God,

so that God makes you right.

Verse 1 of chapter 6.

What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin

that grace may abound?

Are we to sleep with as many women

as we can,

make as much money as we can,

give away as little as we can,

get drunk as much as we can,

and just say the sinner's prayer

one minute,

if you time it really well

before you lose consciousness

and then die,

and then you go to heaven?

So the quick answer is,

by no means.

If you don't get anything else,

in fact,

in the original Greek,

it's very infat.

It's like,

no way,

completely wrong,

got it wrong,

wrong.

That's the quick answer.

And then you might say,

okay,

okay,

come on,

you know,

are you just saying that

because,

in fact,

this is a regular feature

of most human beings

are better than their philosophy.

I mean,

it's one of the problems

that you have,

like if you witness to somebody

who's,

you know,

maybe taken a more Hindu

point of worldview,

like according to a more

Hindu worldview,

at the end of the day,

everything just becomes one.

And a Hindu

and a Buddhist worldview,

like the perception

of difference

is actually part of the problem.

At the end of the day,

everything becomes one.

At the end of the day,

there's ultimately

no distinction

between good and evil.

But fortunately,

Buddhists and Hindus

don't live that way.

Like in Muslim doctrine,

it's written on the baby

as they're born,

whether or not

they're going to go

to heaven or not,

regardless of what

they end up doing

with their life.

But fortunately,

most Muslims

don't live like that.

And,

you know,

we can argue

with relativists

that say that

all morality is relative

and we can try

to give them examples

of, okay,

how about raping babies

or how about Auschwitz?

And they can maybe

try to give some

convoluted answers

to why that just

only appears to be

evil to you

and it's not really evil.

But the fact

the matter is

is that many people

who are moral relativists,

you would love to have

them as your neighbors.

And so the question is,

is that what's going on

here in the Bible?

That you can't just say,

no way,

because,

you know,

the fact that

the logic of the gospel

seems to imply

that you can live

a completely and utterly

immoral life

and, George,

are you just,

you know,

basically say,

no way,

and then you give

some blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, woof, woof, woof,

and then, you know,

but really it's just

fortunately to our neighbors

we don't live as bad

as our doctrine

encourages us to live.

Is it just the same?

So in verse 2

he says,

by no way,

by no means.

And then,

in a nutshell,

he's going to give

what he's going to unfold.

How can we

who died to sin

still live in it?

How can we

who died to sin

still live in it?

Do you not know

that all of us

who have been baptized

into Christ Jesus,

when we put our faith

and trust in Jesus,

we are immersed in Jesus

almost to the point of death.

Do you not know

that all of us

who have been baptized

into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death?

We were buried,

therefore,

with him by baptism

into death.

That's this image

of immersion.

Which, by the way,

when we say

the Nicene Creed

and we say,

I believe,

in one baptism

for the remission of sins,

it's thinking

of Romans 6.3.

I've had so many

Baptist and Pentecostal types

not like that part

of the creed

because they think

it teaches

that baptism saves you.

The creed

is thinking

of Romans 6.3.

That we are to be,

when we come

to faith in Jesus,

and I'm going to explain

it more in a moment,

it's as if we're

completely and utterly

immersed in Jesus

and his death.

And it's Jesus

and his death

for us

that leads to

a remission of sins

and our salvation.

It's referring to

Romans 6.3.

That's what the creed's

referring to.

Verse 4,

we were buried,

therefore,

with him by baptism

into death

in order that just

as Christ was raised

from the dead,

by the glory

of the Father,

we too might walk

in newness of life.

Now,

here I'm going to

have to do something.

Actually, Andrew,

could you put up

the third point

for me, please?

Paul here is developing

an analogy

that he used

last week

that is just before

this in chapter 5,

and I preached

on this last week.

And if this was

a university lecture,

I'd say,

okay, students,

if you just look

at your notes

that you took

last week,

you can sort of

understand covenant

head because I

explained it last week.

This is in a university

class or a high school

class or an elementary

school class or

kindergarten class

or anything like that.

And so it's a bit

of an awkward point

here.

But here's the third

point.

When Jesus becomes

my covenant head,

I am with him

as he enters death

and dies.

That's the image

and the logic

behind this.

It's what,

just in chapter 5

before this,

it's what Paul

develops.

That how we go

from Adam being

our covenant head

to Jesus being

our covenant head.

So I'm just going

to hint at something,

but if you're

confused by this,

you can go online

and you can listen

to last week's

sermon in my

attempt to explain

this idea which

is foreign to

Canadians but is

deeply biblical.

And here he's

saying when Jesus

becomes my covenant

head,

I am with him

as he enters

death and dies.

And it's,

see one of the

things that's going

on in a lot of

this text is that

Paul understands,

he's going to try

to explain what

salvation means if

we understand what

it means that there

really is a God

that does exist,

who's really our

creator,

and that we are

actually creatures.

And if you

understand that

we're actually

creatures,

not gods,

that we're

creatures with a

creator,

then many things,

even spiritual

disciplines and

other things flow

from the fact,

the nature of what

it means to be

human.

It's funny that in

our culture we

often,

Canadian culture,

the way it views

Christianity is as if

the Christian faith is

somehow contrary to

nature.

It's an arbitrariness

against what's

nature.

nature,

but it's contrary

to the fall and

to evil,

but it's actually

rooted in a deep,

wise perception of

what it means to be

human,

what it means to be

a creature who has

a creator.

And so the idea

that was developed

last week,

that you can go and

listen to how I

explain it and maybe

argue for why it's a

reasonable and

insightful and wise

idea,

is that this idea

that when Adam

sinned by doing

what he shouldn't

do,

when he decided

that he wanted

to be like God,

and so as a way

to become like God,

he directly

disobeyed God.

And that part of

what it means to be

human is that I

and every other

human being,

in a sense,

as Adam did that

act of disobedience

and rebellion,

I was doing it

too,

and so were you.

And I explained

that as to why

that might be

reasonable and how

it might make sense.

I talked about that

last week.

But the big thing

that came out of

that is that Paul

develops this

explanation to

bring home something

very important to

Christians.

In chapter 3,

verse 21,

up until the first

half of chapter 5,

most of the images

of what,

an explanation for

what Jesus does for

us on the cross,

is our negative

images or images

of removal.

So it's that when

Jesus dies on the

cross,

the bad things that

we've done are

taken away,

they're dealt with.

That when Jesus

dies for us on the

cross,

the debt that we

owe God and the

created order is

removed.

That when God,

Jesus dies on the

cross,

in a sense,

the legal punishment

that awaits us

is removed.

When Jesus dies

on the cross,

the fact that we

are, in a sense,

slaves,

that status is

removed.

And there's a whole

range of different

images trying to

capture what Jesus

does on the cross

to remove things.

But if you think

about it for a

second, and this is

actually really,

really important to

living the Christian

life,

negative images

or removal images,

if that's all that

Jesus does for us

on the cross,

it actually creates

a sense of anxiety

within us.

Maybe not at first,

but as that solely

having images of

removal,

if that's all we

hear,

it creates anxiety.

To give you an

illustration,

maybe many of you

have watched movies

where somebody gets

out of jail,

and what often

happens in some of

them,

they have their

drunken,

drug-smoking buddy

pick them up in a

ratty old van or

car.

But apart from those

types of things,

you come out of

jail,

you've dealt with

your,

you've paid your

penalty,

and you come out

of jail,

and all you have

is the clothes on

your back,

a few bucks in

your pocket,

you have no

family,

no friends,

no job,

no money,

no prospects,

but your debt's

taken away.

Well, that's not

very helpful.

And in many movies,

that's often then

how the bad guy,

or the guy who's

going out of jail,

gets involved in

crime again,

right?

Because he wants

to have buddies,

he wants to have

some money,

and he wants to

be able to live

his life.

And so if all we

hear are images

of things being

removed,

it's a little bit

like,

get out of jail,

and then nothing.

And so our image

of the Christian

life is,

okay,

every week I've

done more bad

things,

so I come to

church and I

confess my sins

because they can

all be taken

away.

Oh, dang,

I did more bad

things than last

week.

I have to come

to church,

all my sins

are taken

away.

And Paul uses

this very powerful

image of a

covenant head

that in a sense

the way human

beings actually

are is that

there is a

connection between

human beings.

On one hand

it's at a DNA

level,

but it's more

than that,

that there's an

actual connection

between human

beings,

and that human

beings have a

covenant head.

And Adam,

when Adam

sinned,

it was as if

I sinned.

And Paul then

flips that on

its head and

says that God

provides a true

and greater

Adam.

Adam was but

a type.

Jesus is that

which the type

pointed to.

And Jesus

lived a life,

rather than

Adam desiring

to be like

God,

and in other

words to try

to exalt

himself and

to be able to

look down his

nose at other

people and

look down his

nose at God,

that Jesus

practiced the

complete opposite

trajectory.

That Jesus

left his

unending love

of the Father

and him,

and he set

aside his

glory and

divine prerogatives

and his

splendor and

his power as

God.

He left all

those things

aside,

but still

remaining God.

He took

into himself

our human

nature.

He entered

into Mary's

womb.

He was born

in a lower

working class

home of the

people who

were not the

imperial force,

but a subject

people in a

remote part of

the Roman

empire,

and he lived

and he had

to nurse.

The hands

that formed

the stars

couldn't reach

his mother's

nose.

And he takes

the path of

lowliness,

and he lives

amongst us,

and he lives

a sinless

life,

and he lives

a life that's

good,

that good

teaching,

wise teaching,

and kind,

and compassionate,

as we just saw

in the gospel

story in

John 6,

and that

he performs

miracles,

and his

descent of

lowliness

continues even

to the point

of being

willing to

enter death,

and take

upon himself

the wrath

that is due

us,

and the debt

that we can't

pay,

and the penalty

that we can't

pay,

and the punishment

that we can't

pay,

and he takes

all of that

upon himself,

and he becomes

even lower still

because you can't

be poorer than

dead.

you can't

be poorer

than dead,

and he enters

into death,

and then he rises

from the dead,

and what Paul

develops is that

the same sense

that when Adam

took the fruit

and rebelled

against God,

in a sense I

did,

when I by faith

recognize my

need for rescue

and call out

for the true

and greater Adam

to be my

covenant head,

that somehow

by the mystery

of what it

means to be

human,

and the mystery

of God's

grace,

Jesus'

obedience

is my

obedience,

and all

the way

through here

Paul is

going to

develop and

say,

Jesus'

life is

now your

life,

Jesus'

freedom

is your

freedom,

Jesus'

standing with

God

is your

standing with

God,

that the

cross is

not just

about

removal,

but it

is about

removal,

it's also

about

bestowal

of giving,

and so

Paul is

saying here,

when Jesus

becomes my

covenant

head,

I am with

him as he

enters death

and dies,

Andrew,

if you could

put up A

again,

how shall

we then

live when

death lies

behind us

and resurrection

waits before

us?

How shall

we then

live when

death lies

behind us

and resurrection

waits before

us?

Some of you

might say,

George,

doesn't this

still actually

lead to

moral anarchy?

Haven't you

actually just

made it

worse?

Haven't you

actually just

made it

worse?

if

heaven's

guaranteed?

Let's go

back to the

friend that I

bumped into

some ten

years ago.

We'll call

him Bob.

So Bob

had this

idea from

reading the

Bible that

you know,

gosh,

don't want to

do that,

don't want to

do that,

don't want to

do that,

don't want to

do that,

don't want to

do that.

This is

boring,

this is

stupid,

this is

embarrassing,

this is

uncomfortable,

but oh,

I like this

bit that if

I just,

in Romans

10,

9 and

10,

that if

I just

say the

sinner's

prayer,

I go to

heaven.

I like

that part.

Now,

here's the

thing about

this.

Has

Bob actually

understood

the gospel?

Paul would

say no.

Paul would

say that

all that

Bob has

done is

that Bob

is still

encaptured,

still in

love with

being like

God.

Only he

thinks he's

found a

loophole so

that God

will guarantee

him heaven.

And in a

sense,

in the back

of his mind,

imagine for a

second that you

want to fly

somewhere in a

year, and

then for some

weird reason,

if you book

your ticket

right now,

a year in

advance,

it's going to

cost you $100,000

for the ticket.

But somebody

like Bob

comes up

beside you

and said,

George,

if you just

buy the ticket

one minute

before the

plane takes

off, it

only costs

you $2,000,

a toonie.

Only a

Reuben a

fool pays

$100,000

when you can

buy the ticket

a minute before

the end and

get on the

plane for a

toonie.

And that's

all that

Bob thinks

he's done.

He is still

completely and

utterly wanting

to be like

Adam, wanting

to be like

God, wanting

to be able to

determine what's

right and wrong,

wanting to do

what he, like

he pleases, and

he just actually

now thinks he's

figured out a

way to have

God serve him

and gives him

what he wants.

And that's all

that Bob has

done.

But you see,

what you're going

to see here in

the rest of the

text is flowing

from this idea

that when Jesus

becomes my

covenant head,

that in a sense

I become,

Adam is my

covenant head

just by being

born.

But Jesus

becomes my

covenant head

when I ask

Jesus to become

my Savior and

my Lord.

Andrew, if you

could put up

the next point

please.

Every Christian

is a refugee.

Every Christian

is a refugee.

Every Christian

is a refugee.

refugee.

If you look at

the refugee

crisis, you're

seeing conversion.

In a sense, it's

an image of

conversion.

But this idea

of Jesus becoming

my covenant

head in

conversion, I am

taken from, I

want to be a

God land, and

don't get too

excited, you

Elvis fans, and

am brought as a

refugee to be a

citizen in God's

grace land.

First I said

grace land and I

thought that might

be too weird for

the Elvis fans in

the room.

So, in conversion,

I am taken from, I

want to be a God

land, and am

brought as a

refugee to be a

citizen in God's

grace land.

Since the Bible

says that every

human being we

meet has one of

two passports, a

passport that says

you're a citizen

of, I am, sorry,

I've lost my place,

I want to be a

God land, or a

passport that says

God's grace land.

Every human being

has one of those

two passports.

None of us are

born into God's

grace land.

We enter it when

we put our faith and

trust in Jesus, and

we enter it as a

refugee.

As a refugee.

I know it's a

switching imagery a

little bit, but if

you have any of you

who have seen World

War Z, and I hope

this isn't a spoiler

alert for those of

you who have, a

spoiler alert for

those of you who

haven't seen it,

close your ears, but

in World War Z, as

the zombie infection

spreads, how is it

that Brad Pitt and

his wife and kids,

they become like

refugees, the

helicopter plucks

them off the top

of the building,

right?

Zombies come.

In a sense, that's

an image of

conversion.

Powerless against

what's going on.

Call for help, and

you're rescued.

So if you

understand that

every single

Christian is a

refugee, that

we're a refugee

from the land

where I want to

be like God, and

we're now citizens

of God's grace

land, then the

rest of this text

makes sense.

Because, you

know, one of the

problems that people

have often when

they come to a

country as a

refugee is, I

mean, they don't

speak the language

of the new land

often.

And they don't

know the laws, and

they don't know the

customs, and it's

very easy for them

to still interpret

things from the

country that they

came from.

It might be easy if

they see a member of

our Canadian Armed

Forces coming to

them.

Well, if you're in

Syria and you see a

member of Assad's

army coming from

you, you don't, you

want to hide from

the soldier, and

it must puzzle them

that Canadians don't

run when they see a

soldier coming.

Or maybe if the

police officer is

just going to

either try to rob

you or get a

bribe from you, you

see a police

officer, you expect

that that's what's

going to happen.

You're still living

within the mindset

and the expectations

of your former land,

and you haven't

learned the culture

and the laws and

the customs of your

new land.

And so conversion

is on one hand

when you are

plucked and become

a refugee and

Christ rescues you,

and sanctification

is learning that you

live in a new land

now with a new

king, with new

best practices, and

new values, and new

longings, and new

hopes, and you're

trying to learn what

it means to live in

this new land.

And if you listen

to that from that

perspective, listen

to how the rest of

chapter 6 sounds

beginning at verse 5.

For if we have been

united with him in a

death like his, we

shall certainly be

united with him in a

resurrection like his.

Our hope isn't that

we will somehow become

like God's, but that

we will share in

Jesus' resurrection,

and that's a certain

hope for a Christian.

We know that our

old self was

crucified with him in

order that the body

of sin might be

brought to nothing,

so that we would no

longer be enslaved to

sin.

Sin here is pictured

as that.

Sin is, I want to be

God land, and that is

actually a form of

slavery.

And what happens to

Jesus isn't that Jesus

enters into death and

then returns to this

side of death only to

have to die again, so

that sin, which causes

death, and death

itself is always over us

and looming over us, is

that we believe that

when Jesus truly

historically died, he

enters death, but he

truly historically comes

out on the other side

of death, having

defeated death, not

resuscitated, but

resurrected.

And he has defeated

death, and he has

defeated that which has

caused death, which is

sin.

He stands on the far

side of death in

resurrection, and that is

the Christian's certain

hope.

hope.

That is the Christian's

certain hope.

Not because we believe

in butterflies, or we

believe in spring, and

crocuses, but because we

believe that Jesus really

died and really rose

again, and that when we

put our faith and trust

in Jesus, he becomes our

covenant head, and his

triumph over death somehow

becomes ours, and that is

what our future is in

Christ.

In body of sin, he's

just sitting in a little

idea that's going to talk

about more in the rest of

chapter 6 and chapter 7

about moral struggle, but

it doesn't mean that the

body's evil.

And then verse 7, for one

who has died has been set

free from sin.

In other words, sin, which

is viewed as a land, you're

free from it.

You're a refugee from

there.

You no longer live in

Syria.

Syria.

You've been set free from

Syria.

You've been set free from

ISIS.

Now, if we have died with

Christ, we believe that we

will also live with him.

We have a new country with a

new king.

We know that Christ, being

raised from the dead, will

never die again.

Death no longer has dominion

over him.

For the death he died, he

died to sin once for all.

But the life he lives, he

lives to God.

This is my life.

This is my death.

So you also must consider

yourselves dead to sin and

alive to God in Christ

Jesus.

Let not sin, therefore, reign

in your mortal body to make

you obey its passions.

Every Christian in conversion

is a refugee taken from I

want to be God land and

brought as a refugee to be a

citizen in God's grace land.

Andrew, if you could put up

the A.

How shall we then live when

death lies behind us and

resurrection waits before us?

How shall we then live day by

day when death lies behind us

and resurrection waits before

us?

My time is gone.

I'll just very briefly, I have

to say, the part that's really

brought, been home to me, on

my very first day of looking

at sex on Monday, I had this

instant image of verse 13 and

it's been an image which has

transformed my week.

It's an image that's

transformed my week.

And it's a second way of

understanding why it is that

when we have Jesus as our

covenant head that it doesn't

lead to moral anarchy.

And it's an image as if you

show up at a job site.

Listen to what it says in

verse 13 and 14.

It might not jump out at you

at first, but here, listen to

verse 13.

Do not present your members,

and the word members can also

be translated as weapons or

tools.

It could be said, do not present

your tools or your weapons to

sin as instruments for

unrighteousness, but present

yourselves to God as those who

have been brought from death to

life, refugees, and your tools

or weapons to God as tools or

instruments or weapons for

righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion

over you since you are not

under law, but under grace.

Andrew, if you could put up the

point, every day, every human

being shows up at a job site.

The Bible text, and I'm asking

you, is whose job site did you

show up at this morning?

Whose job site do you show up

to every day?

That's the image here behind it.

And it's, it means that whether,

you know, whether you're a

retired person, whether you're

same-sex attracted, whether you've

never had same-sex attraction

issues, whether you, whether you're

very rich, whether you're very

poor, whether you're well-educated,

whether you're, you know, Asian or

African or European or Middle

Eastern, Native American, you know,

Inuit, it doesn't matter.

Every single human being, in a

sense, they wake up and they report

to a job site.

And that's the image.

And you can just sort of picture,

I'm not very handy.

Some of you have heard before that

when I try to do something in my

house, handy-wise, the house value

of every house in the street goes

down because I'm so completely

incompetent with things like that.

But if you could just imagine, you

know, those working men or women

with the tool belts and all the

stuff, all the tools fitting around

and their basket, one hand, there's

their basket of other tools, the

other hand, there's their big

basket, their big cooler for their

lunch, and they trudge over to the

job site.

In a sense, the Bible says every day

you show up at a job site, some

job site.

You show up at a place, and that

place is the place that helps you to

understand, like, what it means to

be human and what gives worth to

you and what gives value to you and

what you want to accomplish and how

you understand your day, and every

human being shows up at a job site,

and you can actually visualize it.

And so the question is, do you show

up at a job site that is all devoted

to your ego?

Do you show up at a job site devoted to

maybe you have the idols of Eros and

Aphrodite, that what really motivates you

and gives you meaning is some involvement

with sexual fantasies.

Maybe what you do is you're actually

worshiping mammon, that it's money that

gives you your worth and your value.

Maybe it's educational attainment, the

fact that you're really, really smart, and

every day it's your smartness and your

confidence that gives you value, a sense

of worth, a sense of identity, a sense of

purpose.

Is it just that you just want to be the

best, that you want to be over everybody?

Is it your anger?

Is it your wounds?

Is it your addiction to risk?

But you show up every day when you wake up

and you get out of bed and you put on

your tool belt and you show up to work

at a job site.

And the problem for us as Christians, we

keep showing up at the wrong job site.

Jesus is my covenant head.

I have a new CEO.

I have a new foreman.

And this company has a different set of

values.

They have a different set of best

practices.

They have a different type of building

that they're trying to build.

They have a different way of understanding

how you work.

And so Jesus is saying that every day you

wake up, you go to a job site.

Realize that you now are in Jesus, that you

are now in grace land.

So take your strength and your mind and

your creativity and your educational

attainment and your musical ability and

your finances and take all that your

sexuality and put that all in a sense on

your tool belt and show up at Jesus'

job site.

For him to be your foreman and to show

how to build and how to bless the city

and how to bless the world and how to

bless where you work and how to bless

your church and how to bless your family.

Stop showing up at the wrong job site.

That's stuck with me.

That image has stuck with me all week.

I confess to you, every day now when I

wake up, I've been saying to myself,

Jesus, I want to give you the best I have.

I'm putting on my tool belt with my best

tools and I want to show up at your job

site today.

I want you to be my foreman.

I know it sounds corny.

I'm often corny in the inside of my head.

But that's what I do.

It's really helped me.

Andrew, if you could put up the A.

How shall we then live when death lies

behind us and resurrection waits before us?

Whose job site are we going to show up at?

When death lies behind us and resurrection

waits before us.

Could you all stand, please?

Andrew, could you put up Romans 1, 16 to 17?

Could you folks all read this for me?

You see, as every week, you can start now

to see why is it that Romans 1, 16 to 17,

why is it that it sort of makes sense of

the whole book?

Now you have a different sense of what it

means for the power of God and what

righteousness means and what it means to

live from faith to faith.

That our life is always by faith.

That Jesus, Paul is saying, consider these

things.

Think about these things.

Be gripped by these things.

That's what he says.

Consider.

Reckon.

Be gripped by these truths.

And as we're gripped by it, there's a power

of God that comes into us to live our lives.

Could you say this with me?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it