Summary
I love it all of the flowers and the trees that are beginning to blossom and you can see in everyone's yards, how those green grasses are starting to come up out of the ground or the brown grasses that were dormant over winter are turning green and birds are flying and you drive by open fields where there are cattle or goats and you see the calves that have just been born or the kids, the goat babies, the kids that have just been born. And there's new life everywhere and it is such a joy to behold and it's impossible not to wonder in amazement at God's creativity and his goodness and the beauty of all creation and there's so much growth everywhere you turn. One of my favorite metaphors that comes up a lot is the metaphor of a butterfly and a butterfly or a moth, the transformation that happens in the life of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly is incredible. In our bulletin this week and I believe you'll have a picture of this on the screen, you see the transformation of that once caterpillar who had been in a Christmas that first picture was the butterfly in the Christmas and growing emerging out of that Christmas into new life and it's so often used as a metaphor for the believer in Christ Jesus that we are born into this Christmas, into this condition of darkness and our world around us is dark and then through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and through hearing that and through being baptized which we'll talk a lot about today, the new believer emerges from that world of darkness into this new life and that metaphor of the butterfly is used so often. Before we get into our text we need to back up because our text is really in the context of a greater issue that Paul is addressing to the church in Rome and we see that issue come out in chapter five specifically in verse 20 but law came in with the result that the trespass multiplied but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more and that leads us directly to our text for today and that question that Paul poses in verse one what then are we to say should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound so we read that where sin increased grace abounded all the more which leads to that question of well if grace abounds all the more when sin is present then shouldn't we be sinning more in order for grace to be greater and more and this is what leads very easily down that breathable slope into something called antinomianism. It's a teaching that we are freed by grace from sin so sin really isn't sinning we're just letting Jesus do his thing we're letting that grace be washed over even more so we're not doing anything wrong the law in any way in no way applies to us because we are free in Christ we are free from sin and so we're going to do whatever we want because whatever we want is in the freedom and we have full and more grace and we want to let Jesus do what he does so well which is offer us mercy and grace but think about this again thinking about the butterfly in the Christmas the butterfly that we see here who has emerged from this world of darkness emerged into this new life it doesn't work its way back into the Christmas it doesn't attempt to climb back into that confining and constricting darkness of the Christmas so why would the believer in that new life that he or she has been given through Christ Jesus attempt to crawl back into the constrictive and dark bondage of sin into that darkness of the sinful life we wouldn't the new believer or the any believer the new the Christian living in that new life would not work his or her way back into into walking or living in darkness and we can't assume that the person in new life through Jesus Christ would be wanting to work backwards or that we can simultaneously walk in the dark and the light it's not possible the butterfly who has emerged from the Christmas cannot fly and remain in the Christmas cannot experience flitting from one flower to the next while remaining in the dark cramped confining space of the Christmas just like we as believers cannot walk freely in the grace cannot walk freely as believers in Jesus Christ moving freely through the spirit and in the spirit doing good works by the spirit while remaining in the dark while remaining in bondage to sin we have been given new life and this is where Paul answers his own question so he asks what are we to say should we continue in sin in order that grace may may abound and he answers in verse two by no means by no means and he is so emphatic here that is a very strong exclamation sort of a point he's making no absolutely not God forbid that is what we do he continues how can we who died to sin go on living in it see death has already happened death to sin has already happened sin reigns in death sin has power in death in the curse but Christ defeated that curse Christ had victory over death so sin cannot reign over Christ or reign over anyone who is in Christ we died to sin as we became believers and this is not our own doing as as Paul continued do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death and now we're going to talk that new life that we are given in baptism in baptism we emerge through those waters we emerge from the waters as new people with a new life we hear where Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 he talks about how we must be born again we must be new we must be brought into that new life and it's done through the waters of baptism baptism connects us to the death of Jesus Christ and it's really interesting when you consider baptism and the language that we use but it's really the only language that's appropriate when considering the blessings and what we are given in baptism it's not just something were given but it's something that is applied to us in baptism the salvation that we applied to us forgiveness is applied to us all of the righteousness that Christ has lived for himself lived through his own life it is applied to us in baptism and there is this relationship that is inaugurated that is beginning which brings us into Christ Jesus it brings us into a relationship with him and into the body of Christ Jesus and we are brought then into his death and we are brought then into his victory in Christ we have no condemnation under sin in Christ we have no condemnation under the law because he has applied to us his own righteousness in baptism we are able or through and because of baptism we are able to resist sin it's out there because we are baptized because we are people of faith does not mean that the devil is not still attempting to tempt us it does not mean that the devil is not as Peter puts it prowling like a lion ready to devour the devil is seeking to snatch us but in Christ we are given and through our baptisms we are given the ability to resist sin instead of persisting in it instead of running to it instead of trying to climb back into that chrysalis we are able to fly freely as the butterfly does and one of the things that we have to remember is that the faith and the righteousness that we are given in baptism they aren't separate things they really held together we are given and we are called into faith and all of that righteousness and Holy Spirit and living by the Holy Spirit and being empowered by the Holy Spirit that is all given to us in our baptisms when when Paul writes that we have died to sin and that we live in Christ when we have died to sin it's not an everlasting thing as far as we have to do it over and over and over again it's really written as a one-time event when we are baptized we died to sin it is done sin does not cannot reign over us we have the earthly struggle but sin does not reign just as when we were baptized it is a one time event we don't have to renew ourselves we don't have to re-establish ourselves or re-establish our relationship with Christ or rejoin ourselves to Christ day after day after day it is one baptism for the forgiveness of sins in our one baptism we were joined to Christ one and done when we were baptized we died to sin one and done what we do daily in that new life being born again into new life in Christ when Martin Luther writes about when we wash our faces remember our baptisms he's not saying wash your face and recommit yourself he is saying wash your face remind yourself that you are joined to Christ that you have been washed in his righteousness and that you today will walk in the newness of that life that has been claimed for you and so are response to our baptism is that we do walk in the newness of the life that has been given to us we don't seek to find that Christmas again we don't seek to climb back into darkness into a life of sin we don't seek to give Jesus a reason to exercise his grace we live freely in the grace and the mercy that has already been given to us and applied to us sin does not have dominion over you you have new life in Jesus Christ which was applied to you in your baptism the new life that we lead here this side of heaven is really a foretaste of the eternal life which we will lead with Jesus in our fully resurrected and glorified eternally new life with him the father and the Holy Spirit in the small cataclysm Martin Luther references the washing and regeneration by the Holy Spirit in regards to our baptism and when you think about what regeneration means really it's a reformulation or it's a formulation of a new thing of a new animal so if we think again about our butterfly metaphor it started as a caterpillar and it was in a Christmas and it emerged new as a new animal it is no longer a caterpillar it is a butterfly it's a new being we are born into this world as enemies of God we are born as children with a nature of wrath we are born hating God and as we are washed in the waters of baptism as we are called into faith we emerge with this new life this new life which lives in the freedom of Christ Jesus we are new and we are given that new life out of the grace of Jesus Christ therefore Paul continues in verse 4 we have been buried with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father so we too might walk in newness of life in baptism you were claimed as God's own child you were brought into his family you were brought into himself the relationship that you have with Jesus Christ through and because of baptism is one that is more intimate than any relationship you will ever have with anyone else and it is in the new life that you are given through that relationship that you are able to resist sin that you are able to resist the darkness and the powers of this world and that you are able to walk in the new life that God has so graciously created for you so you look around during this spring and you see all this new life popping up everywhere but bring it back find pictures of your baptism find pictures of your loved ones baptism find pictures of your grandchild or your parents baptism and celebrate the new life that was created on that day for truly, truly new life began it was a life that was created in for and by Jesus Christ out of his love and mercy for you
Video citations
- "New Life" (4-11-21) — If you would please open your Bibles to the Book of Romans, the sixth chapter, the Book of Romans, the sixth chapter. I love springtime. I love it all of the flowers and the trees that are beginning…