Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Christ Covenant Reformed (PCA)
One
of the intriguing aspects of Science Fiction is the concept of alternative
universes existing side by side.
A short-lived television show called Sliders explored
a winter’s worth of alternate worlds during the last season.
C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia are another example of
inter-dimensional travel.
In that peculiar series, the alternate universe was first entered through
the back of a closet, where the adventure took off to finally be consummated in
the death and resurrection of a Christ-like Lion King.
Please be assured that we will not lay such a fictional alternative on
you today.
Instead, let us consider the baptismal entry into the heavenly kingdom
more like a change in political or religious allegiance.
Dramatically,
this last week, the infamous Jane Roe of the Roe vs Wade
case was baptized in Dallas, Texas.
She has been all over the tube the last few days defending her new-found
faith.
Even with her new-found life in Christ, she still defends abortion in the
first trimester of pregnancy.
Most of us might wish she would go all the way and condemn that wicked
practice altogether.
Perhaps in time.
At least for now, the devil’s advocates are extremely agitated, and
they are scurrying around shoring up their damage control positions before a
watching world.
Before we leave the wickedness of such pro-death organizations behind, we
should well note the lies, deceit and absolute falsehood of the case which was
laid before the Supreme Court so many years ago.
We may well wonder how Bubba- like caricatures today can look up to such
femi-nazis and blatantly tell the world, that the “saints”
of that movement
have a high moral tone and unimpeachable sense of ethics!
One can even wonder how their leader can summon up enough gall to
instruct the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention in matters of theology.
Well
do we know, as we come to consider the baptismal issues raised by Paul, that not
everyone who has been baptized will enter into the glory of God’s heavenly
kingdom.
We also know that, like the new convert Jane Roe, we are all loath to put
away every concept, idea and agenda that has been ours for life, from the life
we once lived.
Be assured that like Jane Roe, we have many sins to be acquitted, and the
blood of Jesus can wash any one of us clean.
We
considered the question in verses one and two last week, “shall
we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?
By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
This week we must consider Paul’s twofold answer which points out for
us in verses three to eleven the implications of baptism.
Then in verses twelve to fourteen we must consider our calling to
live within those implications.
So
let us now look at the development of Paul’s argument.
As Calvin explains it, we ought to compare the new birth to the first
physical birth when we were just babies.
What mother and father would not be upset if the new baby did not
immediately put on any weight?
No growth would be an absolute catastrophe.
Imagine a twenty year old baby still needing and demanding constant care
and attention.
What parents could stand it?
Now do you begin to appreciate some of the problems of our times, where
people young and old are actually encouraged -- like the never-never land boys
of Peter Pan -- to never ever grow up?
Our schools are full of the world’s oldest teenagers, and that is just
the faculty.
I
read once about the essential difference between pet dogs and wolves.
Do you know how to tell the difference?
Puppies learn to become totally dependent creatures, with their masters
catering to their every need.
Thus, they never learn to do their own hunting and killing to feed
themselves.
Do you begin to see the social implications if students are forever kept
focused on bread, circuses and sex in the Roman manner?
Reread Brave New World to see the nightmare which afflicted
Aldous Huxley!
Then compare the concepts and issues with the trends in our time.
Imagine,
if you will, a Christian church nurtured on theological baby food, where the
emotions are more tickled than the mind fed.
Imagine baby Christians by the millions remaining ignorant of the true
faith once given to the saints.
Imagine the heyday their “theologians” could have with the complex
verses before us.
Yes, many of the Baptists sense that in baptism there is certainly an
element of burial and resurrection.
But
what exactly is Paul using that image to teach in this text?
The key concept here is the putting on of Christ.
Charles Hodge points out that “it
is not necessary to assume that there is any reference here to the immersion of
the body in baptism, as though in a burial.”
The reference here is not to the method of baptism, “but
to its effect.”
Baptism means, as Calvin insists,
“that being dead to ourselves, we may become new creatures.
Paul rightly passes from the fellowship of Christ’s death to the
sharing of His life....And since Christ has been given to us for life, why
should we die with Him, if not to rise again to a better life?
Christ, therefore, puts to death what is mortal in us in order that He
may truly restore us to life.”
It
is as if our science fiction example were actually true; by our relationship in
Jesus, it is as if we stepped through a worm hole in space and time and became
butterflies in an alternate universe.
Now, before any of you try to fly out of here and show off your new halos
and beautiful wings, let us get a firm grip on when that transition takes place.
Look carefully at verse eight:
“Now
if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
Now,
I don’t want to make to much of this worm (caterpillar) transition to
butterfly, but even though we know that we live in Christ now, we also know that
as we are being sanctified and prepared for the butterfly experience of heaven,
until then we are bound up in this human experience.
So
what are we to do?
Verse eleven is a transition verse to the instruction of our last three
verses for today.
So Paul begins in verse twelve.
“Therefore
do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.”
John Murray
assures us that “it
is not to be supposed that sin is conceived of as reigning in the believer and
that now he is exhorted to terminate that reign of sin...the presupposition of
the exhortation is not that sin reigns but the opposite, that it does not reign,
and it is for that reason that the exhortation can have validity and appeal.”
At
a more practical level, we all know that the lusts of the body very often demand
gratification.
As part of our growing up our parents imposed upon us a minimum of
decorum and civilization.
Almost everybody has been successfully potty trained.
At one time, the vast majority could even be trained to limit their
murderously inclined anger and their lustfully centered sexuality.
I have had to remind my students on many occasions that we have to have
some rules and regulations on PDA, (public display of affection), or there would
soon be copulating in the hallways, like any common animal life.
So,
let it not be supposed that you have already learned what is expected in this
growing up in Christ.
Good parents produce children who have learned to control very many of
the worst vices.
It remains, however, for those born again in Christ, to go on and not to
remain content with an outward conformity to the ten commandments, but to push
further and further up into the life with Christ.
In other words, we are to grow up in Christ as we mature.
And in that Christian maturity we are to tackle the more subtle
tendencies towards sin.
We are, as it is taught here, to offer ourselves to God as
instruments of righteousness.
In all things, we must learn to reflect the greater glory of our Christ.
I
can just barely remember a conversation from years ago.
It may have been in Seminary or in the Army.
One person in a group discussion admitted to some seemingly minor
character flaws, and the alcoholics and fornicators in the group couldn’t
imagine being concerned with such a trivial matter.
“Hang around with us,”
they encouraged him, “and
no one will ever notice!”
But even then, I knew that God would notice.
Will
you offer yourself to Him today?
Will you become concerned with the minor character flaws that the Holy
Spirit reveals to you?
Will you ask for grace enough to grow and to continue growing?
May you be prompted to do so.
Resources Used:
Places Preached:Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Hodge, Charles. Romans. Mackenzie, R. Calvin's New Testament Commentaries: Romans. Murray, John. New International Commentary: Epistle to Romans.
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America) Post Office Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213-7926
Rom06b.htm 13 August 95
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe go to: http://www.tulip.org/trf-list - Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.