Joel Snider's Sermons from FBC Rome

March 23, 2008

Death Hath No Dominion

Romans 6:3-13

In our minds, there are some things that go together. If you say one name, another name pops up. If I say, “Proctor,” you think, “Gamble.” If I say, “Romeo,” it is hard to think of Romeo without Juliet. Some things just go together.

If we mention famous pairs of comedians, we think of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello. There are some infamous pairs, too, some bad folks that go together. We always think about Jesse James, but he had a brother, Frank, and they were in a gang together. We think about “Bonnie,” and we know there was a “Clyde,” and we know that together they wreaked terror across the Midwest. Some things go together, and they are not always good.

In the first five-plus chapters of Romans, the Apostle Paul has been trying to tell us there are two things that go together and they are not good. They are partners in crime and enemies of God. If they had their way, they would destroy each of us. They are sin and death. Sin and death go together. Paul has been trying to say this and continues to say it in Romans 6. Sin and death, and in just a couple of verses beyond verse 13, Paul is going to say some of those famous words that most of us, at least, remember. “The wages of sin is death.” The outcome, the consequences of sin, the results of sin, is always death.

Unfortunately, it is one of those great sermon clichés to begin to immediately point to things like smoking and drinking and saying if you don’t quit, they are really going to kill you. Sin brings about death. That’s just way, way too easy.

Let’s think about some white-collar sins. Let’s think about things like pride. I am not talking about you being proud because your child won a soccer trophy or that your child made the honor roll, but I am talking about the kind of pride that sets us as judge over other people. We think we are superior to them and we judge them in a way that we become religious snobs and we find ourselves being very much alone. This kind of pride puts us in a position where we pray a lot telling God what God should do but we pray very little asking what God would have us do and what God would want to do with our lives. We ask for no help because we need no help. We are rather self-sufficient and we are alone.

Most importantly, this kind of pride ends up in us just simply seeking ourselves, only being interested in ourselves and what we can get out of life and business or whatever else it may be, and we are alone. It is the same as if our soul was dead.

Someone told me a beautiful illustration about hate. They said hate is like drinking a bottle of poison and waiting for someone else to die. Isn’t that a great image? It’s like me drinking poison and waiting for you to die. Hate will, indeed, kill us.

What about lust? You can get Eliot Spitzer’s phone number and give him a call and find out what lust will do for you. The truth is that is also a great example of pride when you set yourself up as judge, jury, and executioner and do not realize what grace is needed in life. Sin and death are allies. They go together. What is the old Frank Sinatra song? Love and marriage, horse and carriage. Sin and death go together.

This is Easter and you are thinking, “I came for something a little better than that. Oh man, that was heavy. I went to church on Easter and you wouldn’t believe it, but he talked about sin and death. I wanted to talk about empty tombs and disciples racing each other and women leaving the tomb.” Paul links sin and death together as enemies of God, and it is the message of Easter. If Jesus Christ has defeated death, then sin is defeated, too. That’s good news.

The New International Version of the Bible says that “death shall have no mastery over him.” Today, it just seems to call for one of the older translations, “Death shall have no dominion over him.” Christ has died. Christ has been raised. Christ has conquered death. Wherever death is, there also is sin. Christ has also defeated sin.

When we celebrate Easter, it’s not only a celebration of “Hallelujah, I am so afraid of dying and the promise of being a Christian is that I can live with Christ forever.” It is also that Jesus Christ is a part of this life and Jesus Christ who has defeated death has also defeated sin.

The whole reason that Paul brings this up at this particular point in the Book of Romans is because there were some Christians who were not living as if they have been raised to a new life. They were baptized. They were raised up out of the water and the symbol of being raised with Christ just didn’t seem to be taking effect. Paul is telling the Christians in Rome, “Jesus died, and with him, all the sins of the world.” Once you are dead, sin has no power over you anymore. Now that he is raised, it has no power over him. If we would say, “We have died to self and have been raised to a new life in Christ,” then guess what? This isn’t just something for out there. It isn’t just something for some day. Some day, I get to be with Jesus. Now, this day, Jesus is with us. Jesus is in us and empowers us and lives through us. The question is always, “You become a Christian and you still sin.” But Paul says, “It doesn’t have control. It need not have control of your life because Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world and was raised on the third day. The stone was rolled away, and the angel said, ‘He goes before you to Galilee,’” and with that is included the destruction of sin. Sin need not reign in our lives because we have been raised to Christ. His victory over death is victory over sin.

There are two reasons to really love Easter. One is that promise of everlasting life. Paul does say to the Corinthians if we only hope for Christ in this life, we are to be most pitied. But the other reason to celebrate for Christ is that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead can live in our lives and save us from those things that are killing us.

If you are at some place in life where, for some reason, you are afraid of death, just remember: We do believe this is so. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. I pray that your fears will be taken away. If you are living at a place in life where you are somehow locked into a pattern—a pattern of pride, a pattern of envy, a pattern of hate, a pattern of bitterness—and it is eating up your soul from the inside, Jesus Christ has conquered sin. The two were allies. They were enemies of God and Jesus has beaten them both. You don’t have to be a slave to that any more. The Living Lord, Jesus Christ, would set us free from that. It’s beyond forgiveness. Forgiveness, yes. But it’s beyond forgiveness; it’s all the way to freedom.

I don’t know what you came for on Easter, the music, the flowers, the handbells, the display that reminds us of Thursday night reversed, but let me tell you what is here. The power of Christ is alive and for all who will claim him as Lord, all who have symbolized that death to self and rising with him, the power is there. The promise of life everlasting. The promise of sin beaten now. Good news.

Copyright 2008. P. Joel Snider. All rights reserved.

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