"New Life" (4-11-21)
Overview
New Life in Christ
Springtime offers a vivid picture of what God has done for us in Christ. Blossoming trees, greening grass, newborn calves, and the caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly all point to something deeper: the new life given to the believer. Just as a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis cannot return to that cramped darkness, the Christian who has been raised to new life cannot reasonably crawl back into the bondage of sin.
This is precisely the issue Paul addresses in Romans 6:1-4. Having declared in Romans 5:20 that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more," Paul anticipates a dangerous misreading—one that leads to antinomianism, the heretical idea that grace makes sin irrelevant or even desirable as an occasion for more grace. Paul's response is emphatic: "By no means!" How can those who died to sin go on living in it? Sin reigns through death, but Christ defeated death; therefore sin cannot reign over anyone who is in Christ.
The decisive event for the believer is baptism. Paul writes that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, buried with Him, and raised to walk in newness of life. This echoes Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3 about being born again. Baptism is not merely symbolic; it applies to us Christ's righteousness, forgiveness, and salvation, and it inaugurates our most intimate relationship—union with Jesus Himself. It is a one-time event with daily implications. We do not need to re-baptize ourselves or rejoin Christ each morning. As Luther taught, when we wash our faces we remember our baptism—not to recommit, but to recall that we have already been washed, claimed, and joined to Christ.
The pastoral application is straightforward: walk in the new life that has been given to you. The devil still prowls like a lion 1 Peter 5:8, and temptation remains real, but in Christ you have been given the power to resist sin rather than run to it. Sin no longer has dominion over you. This week, as you notice signs of new life all around you, look also at pictures of your own baptism, or those of loved ones, and give thanks. On that day a truly new life began—a life created in, for, and by Jesus Christ, out of His love and mercy for you. The new life we live now is itself a foretaste of the eternal, glorified life we will share forever with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Transcript
If you would please open your Bibles to the Book of Romans, the sixth chapter, the Book of Romans, 4s
the sixth chapter. 12s
I love springtime. 15s
I love it all of the flowers and the trees that are beginning to blossom and you can see 17s
in everyone's yards, how those green grasses are starting to come up out of the ground 23s
or the brown grasses that were dormant over winter are turning green and birds are flying 30s
and you drive by open fields where there are cattle or goats and you see the calves that 37s
have just been born or the kids, the goat babies, the kids that have just been born. 45s
And there's new life everywhere and it is such a joy to behold and it's impossible 51s
not to wonder in amazement at God's creativity and his goodness and the beauty of 60s
all creation and there's so much growth everywhere you turn. 72s
You see, newness and new life and growth everywhere. 79s
One of my favorite metaphors that comes up a lot is the metaphor of a butterfly and a butterfly 85s
or a moth, the transformation that happens in the life of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly 94s
is incredible. 104s
In our bulletin this week and I believe you'll have a picture of this on the screen, you see 107s
the transformation of that once caterpillar who had been in a Christmas that first picture 114s
was the butterfly in the Christmas and growing emerging out of that Christmas into 123s
new life and it's so often used as a metaphor for the believer in Christ Jesus that we are born 132s
into this Christmas, into this condition of darkness and our world around us is dark and then 144s
through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and through hearing that and through being baptized 157s
which we'll talk a lot about today, the new believer emerges from that world of darkness into 163s
this new life and that metaphor of the butterfly is used so often. So we're going to come back to 172s
this metaphor a couple of times this morning. Before we get into our text we need to back up because 182s
our text is really in the context of a greater issue that Paul is addressing to the church in Rome 193s
and we see that issue come out in chapter five specifically in verse 20 but law came in with the 203s
result that the trespass multiplied but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, where sin 213s
increased, grace abounded all the more and that leads us directly to our text for today and that 223s
question that Paul poses in verse one what then are we to say should we continue in sin in order 236s
that grace may abound so we read that where sin increased grace abounded all the more which leads to 247s
that question of well if grace abounds all the more when sin is present then shouldn't we be 257s
sinning more in order for grace to be greater and more and this is what leads very easily down that 266s
breathable slope into something called antinomianism. Antinomianism is a heretical teaching. It's a 279s
teaching that we are freed by grace from sin so sin really isn't sinning we're just letting 288s
Jesus do his thing we're letting that grace be washed over even more so we're not doing anything wrong 297s
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 307s
going to do whatever we want because whatever we want is in the freedom and we have full and more 317s
grace and we want to let Jesus do what he does so well which is offer us mercy and grace 325s
but think about this again thinking about the butterfly in the Christmas the butterfly that we see here 339s
who has emerged from this world of darkness emerged into this new life it doesn't work its way back 348s
into the Christmas it doesn't attempt to climb back into that confining and constricting 361s
darkness of the Christmas so why would the believer in that new life that he or she has been given 369s
through Christ Jesus attempt to crawl back into the constrictive and dark bondage of sin into that 378s
darkness of the sinful life we wouldn't the new believer or the any believer the new the 392s
Christian living in that new life would not work his or her way back into into walking or living 401s
in darkness and we can't assume that the person in new life through Jesus Christ would be wanting 411s
to work backwards or that we can simultaneously walk in the dark and the light it's not possible 422s
the butterfly who has emerged from the Christmas cannot fly and remain in the Christmas cannot 432s
experience flitting from one flower to the next while remaining in the dark cramped confining 441s
space of the Christmas just like we as believers cannot walk freely in the grace cannot walk 449s
freely as believers in Jesus Christ moving freely through the spirit and in the spirit doing good 459s
works by the spirit while remaining in the dark while remaining in bondage to sin we have been 467s
given new life and this is where Paul answers his own question so he asks what are we to say should we 480s
continue in sin in order that grace may may abound and he answers in verse two by no means by 487s
no means and he is so emphatic here that is a very strong exclamation sort of a point he's making 496s
no absolutely not God forbid that is what we do he continues how can we who died to sin go on 508s
living in it see death has already happened death to sin has already happened sin reigns in death sin 521s
has power in death in the curse but Christ defeated that curse Christ had victory over death so sin 535s
cannot reign over Christ or reign over anyone who is in Christ we died to sin as we became 550s
believers and this is not our own doing as as Paul continued do you not know that all of us 564s
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death and now we're going to talk 573s
that new life that we are given in baptism in baptism we emerge through those waters we emerge from 584s
the waters as new people with a new life we hear where Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 he talks about 596s
how we must be born again we must be new we must be brought into that new life and it's done 609s
through the waters of baptism baptism connects us to the death of Jesus Christ and it's really 617s
interesting when you consider baptism and the language that we use but it's really the only 626s
language that's appropriate when considering the blessings and what we are given in baptism it's 633s
not just something were given but it's something that is applied to us in baptism the salvation that we 641s
applied to us forgiveness is applied to us all of the righteousness that Christ has lived for himself 663s
lived through his own life it is applied to us in baptism and there is this relationship 674s
that is inaugurated that is beginning which brings us into Christ Jesus it brings us into a relationship 684s
with him and into the body of Christ Jesus and we are brought then into his death and we are brought 696s
then into his victory in Christ we have no condemnation under sin in Christ we have no condemnation 710s
under the law because he has applied to us his own righteousness in baptism we are able or through 725s
and because of baptism we are able to resist sin it's out there because we are baptized because we are 737s
people of faith does not mean that the devil is not still attempting to tempt us it does not mean that 747s
the devil is not as Peter puts it prowling like a lion ready to devour the devil is seeking to 755s
snatch us but in Christ we are given and through our baptisms we are given the ability to resist sin instead of 765s
persisting in it instead of running to it instead of trying to climb back into that 777s
chrysalis we are able to fly freely as the butterfly does and one of the things that we have to remember 783s
is that the faith and the righteousness that we are given in baptism they aren't separate things 793s
they really held together we are given and we are called into faith and all of that righteousness and 803s
Holy Spirit and living by the Holy Spirit and being empowered by the Holy Spirit that is all given to us in our 812s
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 820s
an everlasting thing as far as we have to do it over and over and over again it's really written 839s
as a one-time event when we are baptized we died to sin it is done sin does not cannot reign 846s
over us we have the earthly struggle but sin does not reign just as when we were baptized it is a one 857s
time event we don't have to renew ourselves we don't have to re-establish ourselves or re-establish 869s
our relationship with Christ or rejoin ourselves to Christ day after day after day it is one baptism 881s
for the forgiveness of sins in our one baptism we were joined to Christ one and done when we were 891s
baptized we died to sin one and done what we do daily in that new life being born again into new life in 901s
Christ when Martin Luther writes about when we wash our faces remember our baptisms he's not saying 915s
wash your face and recommit yourself he is saying wash your face remind yourself that you are 922s
joined to Christ that you have been washed in his righteousness and that you today 930s
will walk in the newness of that life that has been claimed for you and so are response to our 939s
baptism is that we do walk in the newness of the life that has been given to us we don't seek 949s
to find that Christmas again we don't seek to climb back into darkness into a life of sin we don't 958s
seek to give Jesus a reason to exercise his grace we live freely in the grace and the mercy 969s
that has already been given to us and applied to us sin does not have dominion over you you have 979s
new life in Jesus Christ which was applied to you in your baptism the new life that we lead here 993s
this side of heaven is really a foretaste of the eternal life which we will lead with Jesus in our 1005s
fully resurrected and glorified eternally new life with him the father and the Holy Spirit 1013s
in the small cataclysm Martin Luther references the washing and regeneration by the Holy Spirit 1024s
in regards to our baptism and when you think about what regeneration means really it's a reformulation 1032s
or it's a formulation of a new thing of a new animal so if we think again about our butterfly 1042s
metaphor it started as a caterpillar and it was in a Christmas and it emerged new as a new animal 1051s
it is no longer a caterpillar it is a butterfly it's a new being we are born into this world 1062s
as enemies of God we are born as children with a nature of wrath we are born hating God 1071s
and as we are washed in the waters of baptism as we are called into faith we emerge with this new 1084s
life this new life which lives in the freedom of Christ Jesus we are new and we are given that new life 1093s
out of the grace of Jesus Christ therefore Paul continues in verse 4 we have been buried with 1107s
him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father 1117s
so we too might walk in newness of life in baptism you were claimed as God's own child 1125s
you were brought into his family you were brought into himself the relationship that you have with 1136s
Jesus Christ through and because of baptism is one that is more intimate than any relationship you will 1145s
ever have with anyone else and it is in the new life that you are given through that relationship 1154s
that you are able to resist sin that you are able to resist the darkness and the powers of this 1162s
world and that you are able to walk in the new life that God has so graciously created for you 1170s
so you look around during this spring and you see all this new life popping up everywhere 1181s
but bring it back find pictures of your baptism find pictures of your loved ones baptism find pictures 1189s
of your grandchild or your parents baptism and celebrate the new life that was created on that day 1202s
for truly, truly new life began it was a life that was created in for and by Jesus Christ 1213s
out of his love and mercy for you 1224s