January 8, 2012- Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 29, Romans :1-11, Mark 1:4-11
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Apostle Paul today in Romans hit upon the bottom line understanding which we all need to know. For, instead of using moralistic, therapeutic religious speech that so often fills our lives, churches and pulpits these days, Paul goes right for the jugular in exposing the problem with us. So he says that it is not that we just aren’t good enough or that we don’t try hard enough or even that we need to realize that all we just need is to be a bit better-but that our ultimate dilemma is that we are finally nothing but dead men and women!
And less you try to believe Paul is only using hyperbole and speaking of this “death” as a state of mind or inability to rise above our situations, you are wrong. No, when Paul says that we in our sin we are dead, he means just what he says-that our sin has literally killed us as we are and in our place. That in fact, this present, physical life is like a movie preview-that what we see here today is simply a waiting game for the final shoe to drop when with our physical death will reveal to us our spiritual situation. That our actual state is such that, as we are within ourselves, we are truly in bondage to sin and thus dead to God.
And what this means then, is that there is nothing inside of yourself that actually holds any worth toward God. Now, to be sure, God’s creation is still good, as He described it in Genesis this morning. But we are no longer living in that state of perfection-ever since sin enter the equation, there is nothing, finally, that is good about us-we are evil, corrupt and fallen in our natures. And we see this working out in all of which we do. We lie, cheat and steal; we gossip, complain and backbite; we neglect, ignore and forget because we think only of ourselves and our desires. So Paul warns that the grace of God does not lead to license to sin because he knew that sinners will seek at anything to justify their actions.
And this, of course, then changes the very reason Christ Jesus was given unto this old world. That He wasn’t given to be a religious guru, offering for you to embark on the next great spiritual journey; He wasn’t given to be a new Moses, giving you some law in which for you to work out your own salvation; He wasn’t even given to be a Saturday night buddy, being the designated driver so that you can indulge the pleasures of your flesh.
No, when Christ was crucified under the letter of the law, Paul says that He was being condemned and made to be the sinner of all sinners in this world and so died to everything that defined Him, and us, as human. That He died to sin, Paul says, once and for all-that His death was a true and final death because one who dies cannot die again in this life. But in the same line then, as He was raised over death and the grave on the third day so He was raised forever over that which holds this old world in bondage: sin, death and the power of the devil. That a new existence was opened for all mankind; and no more would we be held forever in the grips of a slavery with no hope in finding release.
Which means that what your baptism did for you, wasn’t some simple, pious and sentimental event, around which we oodle and coo over the sweetness of it, but was finally your very resurrection over your death! That we actually were killed in our sin because we were baptized into Christ’s very death. That we were placed into the very hell Christ descended into for three days, because we are united to and with Him in all things. But on the other side of that, so you have also been raised over hell and the grave because Christ Jesus was raised over the same on Easter Sunday. That you have been brought back to your God because you were placed into Christ’s eternal and glorious victory.
And so now, in baptism you have been redeemed and restored to your God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For that was the entire reason surrounding Christ’s own Baptism by John in the Jordan we heard from St. Mark. Note, Jesus does not come, like the others, confessing their sins for the forgiveness of baptism-but He arrived so to fulfill all righteousness and to hallow, make holy, all water as being the place where heaven, again, is opened for all who place themselves under its flow in God’s very Name. That as He so deeply entered into our world that He took our flesh upon Himself, so His divine nature so completely has opened for us the way for forgiveness, life and salvation.
Thus it is time to realize that, that same Spirit which hovered like a dove over the creation at the beginning, which descended on Christ in the Jordan, now hovers over those who have been made anew in Christ and His baptism. That just as those heavenly beings, as David sung, are adorned with a splendor of holiness, so it is that you have been clothed with the glories of Christ’s death and resurrection at your baptism. That now, as in Christ you have been completely forgiven and restored back to the Father, so His grace is not to be a means for indulgence, but for faith-to now live a life of repentance over your sin and a life of absolute trust that only what is good, true and holy will be found in God and Him alone.
Therefore, as we find the waters of the Jordan flowing over the head of our Lord Jesus, so we find God speaking His Word over His creation once again. That now, the old is over and the rough skin of animals which once covered our sin and rebellion to God has been replaced with the soft covering of the Lamb of God which clothes you with the mercies and grace of redemption. That the food of the wilderness, the food of meagerness and scarcity, has been replaced with the bread and wine of the eternal wedding feast. That now, even the chaotic waters of sin and the grave have been finally calmed in the peace of eternal life that flows over the heads of all who are God’s own beloved. Amen.
The Apostle Paul today in Romans hit upon the bottom line understanding which we all need to know. For, instead of using moralistic, therapeutic religious speech that so often fills our lives, churches and pulpits these days, Paul goes right for the jugular in exposing the problem with us. So he says that it is not that we just aren’t good enough or that we don’t try hard enough or even that we need to realize that all we just need is to be a bit better-but that our ultimate dilemma is that we are finally nothing but dead men and women!
And less you try to believe Paul is only using hyperbole and speaking of this “death” as a state of mind or inability to rise above our situations, you are wrong. No, when Paul says that we in our sin we are dead, he means just what he says-that our sin has literally killed us as we are and in our place. That in fact, this present, physical life is like a movie preview-that what we see here today is simply a waiting game for the final shoe to drop when with our physical death will reveal to us our spiritual situation. That our actual state is such that, as we are within ourselves, we are truly in bondage to sin and thus dead to God.
And what this means then, is that there is nothing inside of yourself that actually holds any worth toward God. Now, to be sure, God’s creation is still good, as He described it in Genesis this morning. But we are no longer living in that state of perfection-ever since sin enter the equation, there is nothing, finally, that is good about us-we are evil, corrupt and fallen in our natures. And we see this working out in all of which we do. We lie, cheat and steal; we gossip, complain and backbite; we neglect, ignore and forget because we think only of ourselves and our desires. So Paul warns that the grace of God does not lead to license to sin because he knew that sinners will seek at anything to justify their actions.
And this, of course, then changes the very reason Christ Jesus was given unto this old world. That He wasn’t given to be a religious guru, offering for you to embark on the next great spiritual journey; He wasn’t given to be a new Moses, giving you some law in which for you to work out your own salvation; He wasn’t even given to be a Saturday night buddy, being the designated driver so that you can indulge the pleasures of your flesh.
No, when Christ was crucified under the letter of the law, Paul says that He was being condemned and made to be the sinner of all sinners in this world and so died to everything that defined Him, and us, as human. That He died to sin, Paul says, once and for all-that His death was a true and final death because one who dies cannot die again in this life. But in the same line then, as He was raised over death and the grave on the third day so He was raised forever over that which holds this old world in bondage: sin, death and the power of the devil. That a new existence was opened for all mankind; and no more would we be held forever in the grips of a slavery with no hope in finding release.
Which means that what your baptism did for you, wasn’t some simple, pious and sentimental event, around which we oodle and coo over the sweetness of it, but was finally your very resurrection over your death! That we actually were killed in our sin because we were baptized into Christ’s very death. That we were placed into the very hell Christ descended into for three days, because we are united to and with Him in all things. But on the other side of that, so you have also been raised over hell and the grave because Christ Jesus was raised over the same on Easter Sunday. That you have been brought back to your God because you were placed into Christ’s eternal and glorious victory.
And so now, in baptism you have been redeemed and restored to your God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For that was the entire reason surrounding Christ’s own Baptism by John in the Jordan we heard from St. Mark. Note, Jesus does not come, like the others, confessing their sins for the forgiveness of baptism-but He arrived so to fulfill all righteousness and to hallow, make holy, all water as being the place where heaven, again, is opened for all who place themselves under its flow in God’s very Name. That as He so deeply entered into our world that He took our flesh upon Himself, so His divine nature so completely has opened for us the way for forgiveness, life and salvation.
Thus it is time to realize that, that same Spirit which hovered like a dove over the creation at the beginning, which descended on Christ in the Jordan, now hovers over those who have been made anew in Christ and His baptism. That just as those heavenly beings, as David sung, are adorned with a splendor of holiness, so it is that you have been clothed with the glories of Christ’s death and resurrection at your baptism. That now, as in Christ you have been completely forgiven and restored back to the Father, so His grace is not to be a means for indulgence, but for faith-to now live a life of repentance over your sin and a life of absolute trust that only what is good, true and holy will be found in God and Him alone.
Therefore, as we find the waters of the Jordan flowing over the head of our Lord Jesus, so we find God speaking His Word over His creation once again. That now, the old is over and the rough skin of animals which once covered our sin and rebellion to God has been replaced with the soft covering of the Lamb of God which clothes you with the mercies and grace of redemption. That the food of the wilderness, the food of meagerness and scarcity, has been replaced with the bread and wine of the eternal wedding feast. That now, even the chaotic waters of sin and the grave have been finally calmed in the peace of eternal life that flows over the heads of all who are God’s own beloved. Amen.
posted by Weekly sermons at 9:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home