By Rev. Brian Wilkie Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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Broadcast Notes: (Re-posted from May 3rd, 2015)
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'We have been crucified with Christ and raised with Christ’
Welcome to
Good News In the Morning a program of words and music bringing a Christian
message of hope and encouragement to those who are looking for intelligent
meaningful and spirited approach to faith and to life.
Today’s
program is sponsored an anonymous listener, and by Good News Christian
Ministries our address at Good News Christian Ministries is 96 Pheasant Run Drive, Ottawa, ON K2J 2R5, Canada, (new address). We are truly grateful for the listener support that
enables us to continue to broadcast this Good News! I'm your host today, Brian Wilkie of St.
Andrew's Christian church in Rockland.
Being Crucified with Christ and Raised with Christ.
I’d now like
to turn to the topic for today from Scripture, Being Crucified with Christ and Raised with Christ.
I am going to
read to you from Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 6 verses 1-14
Scripture:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may
increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any
longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore
buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new
life.
5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will
certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know
that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done
away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because
anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die
again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died,
he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that
you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to
sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those
who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to
him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your
master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:1-14 (NIV)
Now this text
from Paul’s letter to the Romans is a great insight into how the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ work into our lives.
We will get a
look at what it means in a few moments, but first I'd like you to hear this celebration
of the resurrection, a song, Jesus Christ
is Risen Today, sung by a wonderful choir in the collection Celebration of Hymns - Golden Songs of Praise
Would you
listen to it with me?
In the season
of Easter, and in fact every Sunday, every day of our lives, as Christians we
celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The promise of eternal life which
is embedded in that, the recognition that in being raised from the dead, God
confirms that we have been justified, that we have been set right, that our
sins have been forgiven. We understand that we share in the resurrection of
Christ. We love to that Good News. But we also have to hear the other side of
that story. Not that it is bad news, in fact it is very good news; but we need
to recognize that we are called to be crucified with Christ, not just to be
raised with him.
In fact the
pairing of the crucifixion and the resurrection is absolutely necessary. Apart
from joining Christ in the crucifixion, the idea of joining him in his
resurrection is something that just doesn’t make sense. One can only be raised
from the dead if one has already died. And we are raised. We have been raised
with Christ. You may note that the Scripture speaks, of course, of the future
hope of resurrection, but it also speaks of it as a present reality: “We have
been raised with Christ.”
That means
that we have died with Christ already. Not just the physical death that we will
endure at some point in our aging and as we go through our years. We will die
physically. But Paul and the whole tenor of Scripture speaks about a death that
occurs when we are united with Christ. How can we call that good news if being
with Christ means dying?
Well,
precisely because we have a sinful nature that is destroying us. It is eating
us up inside; a sinful nature that not only destroys us, but is issuing in
actions which harm others, and which offend God. We are by nature filled with
sin, and the crucifixion of Christ is intended to deal with that. We die, in
fact, because of our sins. “The wages of sin is death,” and that has not been
overlooked by God in sending Jesus Christ to the Cross. Yes, Jesus dies on our
behalf, but according to Paul, according to Scripture, Jesus also brings us
with him into that death.
So that: we
die with Christ, but not physically here, but our sinful nature dies. We put to
death selfishness, we put to death rage and anger, we put to death all the
things that belong to the sinful nature. And God allows these things to be put
to death in unity with Christ on the Cross.
Didn’t Jesus
tell us to take up the cross daily and follow him? Dietrich Bonhoeffer put this
very bluntly at the beginning of his wonderful book “The Cost of Discipleship,”
writing, “When Jesus calls a man, He calls him to die.” Bonhoeffer was saying
that the call to be united with Christ is a call to die to self and sin.
These days in
popular Christian music, I hear a lot of really wonderful uplifting music of
praise and of affirmation of how much God loves us and how he cares for us and
does such great things for us. But it is rare to find a song that speaks about
the sacrifice that is involved in becoming a Christian; the laying down of our
lives. There is a very humorous one that does the job very well, it’s a song
called Goodbye Self. It’s in the
context of a guy breaking up with himself. He has found Jesus Christ, and now
he doesn’t really have room for self in his life anymore. Have you broken up
with yourself yet? Have you said to yourself, “there is no longer room for two
people in this body. Christ will live in me and none other.” Have you
recognized that when Jesus called you, he called you to put to death your
sinful nature, that you should no longer sin? There seem to be some people who
act as though getting their sins forgiven means that they can keep on sinning!
They act as though it’s just a question of saying a brief prayer at the end of
the day, but living their life just as they have always lived, selfishly,
sinfully, in a depraved manner, but just saying, “OK God, well, Jesus died
you’ll have to forgive me.”
That’s not
really just, now is it? That strikes us as, somehow, playing games with the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It seems to be taking the whole issue of
our sin far too lightly, and it appears that Paul, the apostle, and Jesus
Christ himself would agree that sin is serious enough that Jesus died for it,
and it is serious enough that we ought to also die to sin.
Now, what does
it mean to be crucified with Christ? What does it mean to die to sin?
Well, Paul
says to the Galatians, in a letter in which he very much emphasizes that we
can’t earn our way into heaven. In that letter, in the context of saying that
it is by grace, he does give these commands:
16 So I say, live by the
Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For
the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what
is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that
you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are not under law.
19 The acts of the sinful
nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry
and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the
like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not
inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 4:16-21, (NIV)
Now there may
be many of the things in this list that never have applied to us. I certainly
hope that none of you engaged in witchcraft or obvious idolatry, but, in fact,
this description of the sinful nature touches each of us at different points.
Whether it’s our immoral desires, whether it’s our temper and rage, whether
it’s our attitude towards others, or whether it’s our attitude to God. The
things that are wrong in our heart pour out in all kinds of behaviours that are
offensive – to ourselves sometimes! Paul even says that we sometimes we are
doing what we do not want to do, things which are offensive, yet we do them
because the sinful nature is in control. Then he says this:
22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and
self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and
desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with
the Spirit. Galatians 4:22-25
This is what
Paul says, those belong to Christ have crucified the sinful nature, and
therefore they can live by the Spirit, in all His goodness.
Let’s take a
further look at this, in a few moments, after we hear a song from Carolyn Arends.
Carolyn has written one of those popular Christian tunes that really takes on
the challenge that there is for each of us in following Jesus Christ. This song
is called “My Favourite Lie” and it concerns her recognition that she so much
wants to enjoy the resurrection without having to face the crucifixion. Let’s
listen to how she deals with that.
My Favourite
Lie Carolyn Arends – Love was Here First
I find that
Carolyn’s favourite lie is mine as well. It is not easy to recognize that God
is calling us to put to death the sinful nature. It’s not easy to put that into
practice. We find ourselves at war with our own souls as we engage in this
activity.
What does it
mean to put to death our sinful nature. Has it been done for us, or is it
something we need to do for ourselves?
Once again
Scripture seems to have two ways of speaking about this. Certainly we have been
crucified with Christ. When we received Christ we were put to death on the
Cross, and we were raised to a new life. There is something that has been done
for us. There is something that has been done fully by Jesus, outside of us. It
happened ‘on a hill far away, ’on ‘that old rugged cross.’ It was done by
Jesus, not ourselves. And yet Jesus, coming into us, Jesus living in us,
directs us and leads us and empowers us to do work within ourselves, which is
actually His work, the work of putting to death the sinful nature.
We have so
many clues in Scripture as to what constitutes the sinful nature, what it looks
like. What does it look like in your life? What are the things for which you
find yourself seeking forgiveness again and again with many tears? What are the
things that you find keep creeping back into your life, even when you think
they are dead?
Isn’t that the
frustrating part about living for God and putting to death the sinful nature:
that you just wish that sinful nature would stay dead?
I want to
encourage you do not be afraid. Jesus Christ will complete the work he has
begun in us. And he will continue to complete it by working in us both to will
and to act, according to the nature of God, according to the Spirit of God.
What does it
mean that God is working in you both to will and to act? It does means that
when you are making a decision about going the right way, God is making that
decision with you. He has spurred you on to make that decision. It may seem
like it is your effort, and indeed God encourages us to exercise our will, to
choose him as he pleads with us, Scripture after Scripture, choose the way of
God, choose the Lord, choose life instead of death. And living within us he
enables us to make that choice. He gives us the will. And then when we try to
put that will into action we find ourselves struggling with our own desires,
our own habits, with this body of sinful desire that just doesn’t seem to stay
dead. God works within us to act upon the decisions we’ve made.
To continue
forward, putting to death the sinful nature is going to be a life long struggle
for us. It is going to be a continued work of giving glory to God as we say
‘no’ to our self and selfish desires, and we say “yes” to the love of God, to
the peace of God and the joy of God. It brings glory to God each time that you,
by the power of the Spirit within you, say “no” to sin and “Yes” to
righteousness.
God continues
to glorify himself even as we find ourselves in struggles. God is going to be
able to rejoice in the testimony we have when we stand before him and we say,
“God, it was hard, but you made it possible.”
We need to
continue in this work of dying to self and living to God, so for a moment may I
turn my attention to this resurrection power of God? The resurrection power,
the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is at work in you and me to
bring forth love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. As the apostle Peter writes, think upon these
things. Think upon these good things, think upon the beauty and glory of a life
filled with the fruit of the Spirit.
Take your eyes off the sinful self! Do not indulge it even with that longing and attention that we sometimes have. Instead long for the things of God, the fruit of the Spirit, the joy of the Lord.
Let’s turn our hearts to God in Prayer as we
consider this calling from God:
Our Father, thank you
so much that Jesus Christ died that we might be set free from sin, and he lives
that we might live forever for your Glory. Lord, put to death the sinful nature
in us, and aid us in doing what you have called us to do, so that all the glory
might be yours, as your people are filled with your light, your glory and your
grace. We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Once again I
want to thank you listeners for your encouragement and support. We do thank you
because you keep us on the air week by week. We want to encourage you to
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Thank you very
much, and be sure to worship in a church where the gospel is soundly proclaimed
and lived out with compassion, integrity and resolve. Now to conclude our
program I would like to have you listen to a song called Turn your Radio on.
This is sung by the King’s Heralds and I do hope that in encourages you in your
walk.
I do pray that
the Lord will hold your heart and you would know Jesus personally and
profoundly. May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart, may the heavenly
Father surround you with his constant and abiding and accompanying love.
Good News In
The Morning is produced in the Studios of News Talk Radio 580 CFRA.
- Rev. Brian Wilkie
St. Andrew's Christian Community, Rockland, Ontario
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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:
http://accm.ncf.ca/images/15.05.03.mp3
http://accm.ncf.ca/images/15.05.03.mp3
