Sermon Series: “Our Summer in Rome”
Romans 6:12-23
“Set Free from Sin”
We began our “Summer in Rome” series last Sunday, starting with some background information. I shared about how a man named Saul held the coats of those stoning young Stephen and how he approved of his death. This man Saul then became the Apostle Paul, the writer of this letter to the Church in Rome which is where we will be camping out for the next couple of months.
Though neither he nor any of the other Apostle’s had been to Rome there was a church there; probably started by some of the Jews that lived there upon their return from the Pentecost explosion. In a city of over a million people the believing converts numbered about 150, but Paul, writing from Corinth between 56 and 58 A.D. wanted to introduce himself. By this point in time Paul had been preaching and in ministry for nearly twenty years and this would have been around the time, maybe a few years after, that Mark wrote the first Gospel. This letter to the Romans is the longest and most theological of the 13 New Testament letters Paul wrote. Although many barriers separated them, Paul felt a bond with these believers. They were his brothers and sisters in Christ, and he longed to see them face-to-face. This letter could be considered a kind Catechism [a teaching of religious doctrine] for these Christians in Rome.
Remember what Dr. Suess said: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” Last Sunday our message was about choices; this morning our message is about being “Set free from sin.”
Romans 6:12-23
Ming Chen, a delivery man from a Chinese restaurant in the Bronx was making a delivery one Friday evening to a thirty-eight-story apartment building. He took an express elevator to his customer’s apartment. That meant there were no stops, and no exit doors for the elevator, between the second and twenty-first floors. At least, there weren’t supposed to be any stops.
Chen had made his delivery and was on his way down when suddenly the elevator halted just below the fourth floor. Suddenly he realized he was trapped with no means of escape. Anyone here this morning who suffers from claustrophobia can relate to his situation.
He yelled and yelled for help, but no one heard him. He used the intercom, but no one responded. It wasn’t until some workmen came to the building on Monday morning that his cries for help were finally answered.
There he was—trapped from Friday night until Monday morning without food or water inside a 4 by 6-and-a-half-foot prison cell.
Imagine the sense of relief he must have felt when the firemen arrived to lower the cab to the lobby. Imagine the sense of freedom he must have experienced when the elevator doors were finally opened, and he could walk out into the morning light.
Have you ever been trapped in a situation where there seemed to be no way out? I’m not necessarily referring to being physically trapped, though some of us might have a story of being physically trapped sometime.
I read about a would-be burglar who became stuck in a doggie door while trying to break into a home. It’s hard to maintain your dignity when your behind is sticking out of a doggie door. I also remember a case where a man tried to access a home through a chimney and got lodged there. Glad that’s never happened to Santa Claus. Such instances make for interesting and sometimes amusing stories. Some even lead to inspiring stories.
There are all kinds of ways people can get trapped: you can get trapped in your job [keeping a job because it offers health benefits or other incentives]; trapped in an unhealthy marriage; or the saddest trap people can fall in is chemical dependency = drugs, alcohol, opioids and heroin. In our Scripture this morning Paul is writing about being trapped in sin.
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil; desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” [vs. 12-13]
In trying to understand the New Testament, some of us, including myself for a long time, try to make it a moral or ethical question. We think of Jesus as a moral and ethical example who lived a life well beyond ours. So, we fall into the trap best summarized in three words: believe and behave. But this doesn’t work!
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs those gathered, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” [Matthew 5:48]. What comes to your mind when you think perfect? Never making a mistake—being flawless. Well, the Bible thinks of perfect more along the lines of fullness—the fullness of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Remember what I said last week about if our heart is filled with the matters of God there’s no room left for the undesirable stuff. That which isn’t given to God will sooner or later be controlled by sin.
So, the way isn’t believing and behaving. The way is beholding and becoming. As apprentices and not just spectators, covered in the dust of following Jesus, we become what we behold. And when we become like Him, we can do the same things that He did, with the power of the Holy Spirit. “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these. Because I am going to the Father” [John 14:12].
“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” [vs. 14]
This is the genius of salvation by faith, Sola Fide. It is a divinely enabled triumph over sin. The law had no such power. Law is still effective as the expression of God’s will. But as it could not justify us, so it cannot sanctify us.
When we were under the law, sin was our master, not the law. But now that we are bound to Christ, [beholden and becoming] He is our master, and He gives us power to overcome our sinful tendencies. From the book I referenced last week, The Missing Messiah, authors Kyle Idleman and Mark Moore write, “Anyone who trusts in Jesus as the Messiah will be truly free—free from sin and free for service.”
Servanthood is not fixed by elaborate covenants and oaths of loyalty. It is fixed by simple acts of obedience and yielding. One must choose the desired master and act consistently. Either sin rules and brings death or you choose to serve righteousness.
Once again, we misunderstand the Gospel when we think if we turn our lives around God will love us. I’m sure you’ve read or heard this: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [Romans 5:8]. He died a gruesome death for us; that’s how much He loves us. He knows everything there is to know about us and He loves us anyway!
Take all that makes life ultimately desirable and worthwhile—all the lasting values, all the genuine fulfillments, all the depths of joy and satisfaction that can survive the grave. Put this all together and you have the end result of obedient servitude to God. This is eternal life.
And the good news is this: eternal life doesn’t mean “When we all get to Heaven.” No! It means heaven is here now, just like we pray for every Sunday, “On earth as it is in heaven.” Eternal signifies not only duration but also quality. Eternal life is life in quantity and quality.
People have been coming to America for 250 years. Some have come for economic opportunity or to flee crime or persecution in their own countries. But there is another reason people have risked their lives to come to this land. And it’s summed up in one word: Freedom. That’s what America has stood for more than anything else since its founding 250 years ago. It was founded by a group of individuals who had an amazing vision of a better way of structuring government—of the people, for the people, by the people. Freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, freedom to pursue one’s dreams—we dare not take these things for granted. And so, next weekend we’ll enjoy picnics and parades and fireworks to celebrate, as generations have before us, the gift of freedom.
For Christians, however, every worship service ought to be a celebration of freedom—for the most important freedom available in this world is the freedom that only Christ can bring—freedom from sin and death, freedom from fear and failure, freedom from anger and vindictiveness.
Nearly 1800 years before our ancestors fought at Vally Forge, someone else died for our freedom. On the cross of Calvary, a man named Jesus of Nazareth gave up His life to free us from every scourge that would crush our spirits and bring us down to sub-human activity.
Let’s give Paul the last word today: “But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Eastman First Methodist Church 