Last week we reflected on the beginning of Romans chapter 5 and what the grace of God means; that we are all 'flawed' as human beings and we cannot mend ourselves, but we have peace with God, and we stand in grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. The message of Romans is that God has done something decisive for us in Christ that we couldn't do for ourselves and God's undeserved love is poured into our hearts through his Holy Spirit. In our reading this morning from Romans chapter 6, Paul declares that we are now dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ. We are given a new life in him.
As I said last week, Paul in the early chapters of Romans describes the human condition in bleak terms; we are caught up in egotistical and destructive attitudes and patterns of behaviour, trapped in 'the dark little dungeons of our own little egos.' 'All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God' Paul concludes, and we can surely see the truth of that statement when we look at the violence, injustice, corruption and suffering all across our world. But Paul says here that being united to Christ, sharing in his death and resurrection through baptism, we are now 'freed from sin' and walking in newness of life. And how can we who died to sin go on living in it?
Now we may have a problem at this point. If, like me, you accept the truth that human beings (including you and me) are flawed, and that sin – that is selfishness, pride, anger, envy, greed etc - is a reality in our lives and our world, how can we also say that in Christ we are 'dead to sin'? Are all of us who have been united to Christ in faith and baptism now perfect? Do we now have no trace of egotistical, self-centred and destructive attitudes in us? How wonderful it would be if that were so and how easy Christian life, relationships and mission would be. But I suspect that we all know that is not the case. Certainly Scripture and experience remind us continually that we still struggle with selfish attitudes and that we do not suddenly become perfect when we put our trust in Christ. As the writer of the first letter of John puts it: 'If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.' It is an illusion to say we are sinless and perfect; a dangerous and proud self-deception; we know we need to confess our sins day by day, and we do so every time we worship together. Paul knew this in his own life and experience and in the lives of his churches, where often, it seems, people behaved pretty badly. He would hardly need to continually urge them to put to aside envy, pride and quarreling if they were already perfect.
So what is Paul talking about when he speaks of us being dead to sin and alive to God in these verses? While recognising our continued struggles with sin (and we will think further about that in subsequent sermons on later parts of Romans), here in Romans 6 he insists that something decisive has happened to us. He uses the very strong language of death and resurrection. We have been buried with Christ in his death and raised with him to walk in newness of life. He is not here talking primarily about our daily experience but about our status before God. When we are in Christ, God sees us differently and we should see ourselves and others differently too.
Paul here speaks of being baptised into Christ's death. We still say this in the baptism service where we hear the words: 'In baptism, God calls us out of darkness into his marvellous light. To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him.' Perhaps in most of our baptism services we are so taken up with the delights of a young baby and all the joy of family and friends that we do not always notice how striking the imagery is. The priest who prays over the water refers to water as a gift to sustain, refresh and cleanse, but also refers to the waters of the Red Sea through which the children of Israel crossed from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. Paul takes up this theme of slavery and freedom later in Romans chapter 6. The waters of baptism also symbolise the depths of death as we are reminded that we are buried with Christ in his death and raised with him in his resurrection. During the service, those who are to be baptised, or their parents, commit themselves to turn from sin and turn to Christ, to turn from death to life. In baptism, God unites us to the death and resurrection of Jesus and we who are baptised are called to live out this reality in our daily lives.
Paul, here in Romans 6, puts it starkly: our old self is crucified with Christ, it is put to death, that we might no longer be enslaved to sin but live a new life. Faith in Christ, and the baptism that signifies that faith, is a decisive turning point. It is a new beginning; a new birth, a new life. We are now a new person before God, not because of anything we have done but because of what God has done for us in Christ. God's grace and forgiveness, the life of his Spirit is at work within us. We may still struggle with selfish sinful attitudes but the ultimate power of this old self has been destroyed.
God sees us as we are in Christ. When he looks at us he sees his beloved son; we are now his sons and daughters. Just as God says to Jesus at his baptism 'you are my beloved Son' so God says to us 'you are my beloved son', or 'you are my beloved daughter'.
We are dead to sin and alive to God because we are in Christ.
Last Sunday we reflected on the opening verses of Romans 5 and this week we are thinking about the opening verses of Romans 6. We have missed out the second half of chapter 5 in which Paul talks about us being both 'in Adam' and 'in Christ.' Adam is the prototype of all human beings; with Adam we all share the same basic human nature, we share the same selfish and sinful attitudes, and the same alienation, suffering and death. We are all related to Adam, we are all 'in Adam' (and we don't have to believe in a literal figure 'Adam' to see the truth of this). But we are also, through faith and baptism, 'in Christ' and so we stand in the grace of God. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, 'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.' Sin, alienation and death came into the world in the disobedience of Adam, but grace abounds through the gift of Christ.
God sees us now as we are 'in Christ' and not 'in Adam'.
However, the Christian life is a tension. Although we are now in Christ, the attitudes of the old Adam are still in us. Christians have always recognised this tension and it also runs through Scripture. I quoted the first letter of John earlier, when he says 'if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves', yet later he says 'those who are born of God do not sin.' Paul says we are 'dead to sin' yet he is acutely aware of his own failings and the failings of those in the churches he serves. We live in the now and the not yet; the new life is in us, yet we still struggle with the old. Or to put it another way, 'we have this treasure in jars of clay' as Paul says in 2 Corinthians.
We need to be aware of both truths. We have the treasure of God's grace, his new life within us; at the same time our feet, and more than our feet, are made of clay. If we refuse to admit our failures and sins we are indeed deceiving ourselves. But on the other hand, if we focus too much on them, we forget who we are in Christ and the new life he calls us to.
While being realistic about our weaknesses and failures and all the selfish and mean attitudes within us, we also need to remind ourselves again and again that God sees us as we are in Christ and calls us to live into that new reality. Can we take more seriously what God has said about us than what we feel about ourselves? There is a discipline involved in this. We need constantly to think, to recall, to consider what God has said about us, and not settle for a complacent acceptance of, or a self-accusatory obsession with, our sinfulness. Paul urges that because we are united with Christ '(we) must consider (ourselves) dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.' Rather than giving in to either indulgent tolerance or agonised despair about our failings, can we get up each morning and remind ourselves that God sees us as we are in Christ? If we take that seriously, we will want to live out this new life we have been given.
This is a challenge to us both as individuals and as a church. As a church we want to be a place where everyone is welcome, a place where we acknowledge that none of us are perfect, but all of us are messed up in different ways; yet at the same time we want to be a people who encourage one another to holy living; to be who we are in Christ.
So let us, remind ourselves day by day how God sees us and consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. We stand in grace; we stand on resurrection ground. Let us pray for the grace to live accordingly.
Revd Helen Marshall