Series Title: The Life You Were Meant to Live

Sermon 6: Surrendered Body

Romans 6:15-23

July 16, 2006

An amazing thing happened yesterday. In Afghanistan 18 candidates, including one woman, received votes for the presidency in that country’s first free election since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. It’s dangerous to vote there. Attacks have been leveled in an effort to disrupt the elections. Some voters were killed just for registering. No matter what you may think about the condition of our country, you won’t have to wear a flak jacket to the polling place on November 2.

Freedom is not only “hard won;” it’s also “hard kept.” I think we would all agree that something in the core of the human spirit longs for freedom. And I’m not talking narrowly about political freedom. Life in this world tries to bind and chain us in a thousand different ways. There are chains of social status and chains of poverty; chains of shame and chains of fear; chains of addiction and chains of abuse. I don’t know of anyone who has ever experienced bondage to anything who does not long to be free. The amazing thing is that even when that freedom finally comes, it’s often surprisingly hard for people to remain free.

I read with interest the report of a Chicago Tribune correspondent who interviewed an Afghan woman named Nasifaz. The reporter wondered why so many women in Afghanistan continue to wear the burqas—the full-body coverings mandated by the Taliban—even though they don’t like them and are no longer forced to wear them. In response the Afghan woman said, “We have lived in darkness for so long that now we are afraid of the light” (World, December 22, 2001, p. 13).

I think it’s an apt picture of what happens to many Christians. And it lies at the heart of why I’ve been trying to preach this series of messages. I believe with all of my mind and with all of my heart that there is enough power in the cross and resurrection of Jesus to transform our lives, and truly to free us from the things that so easily entangle and bind us. And I don’t say this because I was taught to say it in seminary. I say it on the basis of God’s Word and I say it out of the testimony of my own life. I know personally that God in Christ is able to free us from sin.

But my heart is heavy because my job in this world is to try and keep a finger on the heartbeat of God’s people as represented by this congregation, and sometimes I have trouble getting a pulse! It’s too often faint. It’s too often weak. Sometimes it seems to disappear altogether. The way I’ve been saying it during this series is that so many Christians are living far beneath our privilege in Christ. I don’t think it’s because we don’t want the gifts of God. I don’t think it’s because we don’t want to be free. I do think it has everything to do with how easy it is to allow our lives to be shaped and guided by the values of this culture, rather than by the values of the kingdom of God. The truth is that when the life patterns of those who profess vital faith in Jesus Christ are compared with the life patterns of those who claim no such faith, there is really not much distinction. For example, I just read a report from the Barna Research Group that says the divorce rate among Christians is not distinct now from the divorce rate of the general population. How can that be? If we really believe what we say we believe, that life under the lordship of Jesus is the key to a healthy marriage, then how can Christians not be experiencing a greater degree of marital health?

That’s just one example. There are many. I think one of the reasons we see so many Christians bouncing around from church to church today has nothing to do with what those churches do or do not offer. It has everything to do with a sense of spiritual unrest that gnaws at the soul, because we are not walking in full surrender and complete obedience to Christ. When we fail to live fully under the lordship of Jesus, it’s no surprise we are turned into omnivorous consumers. And that way of living is so opposite of that to which Jesus calls us, it’s no wonder the power is sucked right out of us.

I believe there is a huge power failure in the Church today. The reason is we are not doing well with standing firm in what is true and right in the midst of this compromised and chaotic culture of ours. It makes me think that as God’s people we really do not believe what God’s Word says. We may give lip service to it, but it’s really not finding its way into our daily lives.

Over and over again we have seen in just these six texts we’ve studied, that when the Bible speaks of what happens to us when receive Christ Jesus as our savior and Lord, it uses words like “transformed, changed, made new, resurrection, freedom, and holiness.” That’s precisely what Paul is talking about in our text for today. Here he puts it in terms of slavery, which is kind of an interesting way to think about it.

This follows one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. In the first part of chapter 6 Paul said when we come to Christ by faith and are baptized into Christ, we are buried to the old way of life and raised to a whole new way of life. In our passage, he’s really just going on with that truth. It’s the idea that when we become Christians it’s far more than a change of status. It’s far more than fire insurance. It’s far more than joining a new club. Our whole orientation of life is shifted. And using illustrative language that would have been meaningful to them, he says it’s like once being a slave to the master called sin and then undergoing a total change of ownership. Now, through Christ, sin no longer owns us. We now belong to Christ and now, having been freed from the grip of sin, we are free to embrace a new “slavery” —not of compulsion but of love. This, Paul says, is slavery to righteousness.

I know we need to unpack that a bit. First, I want to make sure you know what I mean and what the Bible means when we talk about “sin.” Maybe what comes to your mind when you hear the word “sin” is a certain behavior or behaviors. The Bible doesn’t frame sin primarily as a moral category in the sense of a list of prohibited actions. The essence of sin is when the human mind and heart turns in on itself. It’s when we live under the sovereignty of our own will and desires instead of under the sovereignty of God.

So in this whole discussion of the life you were meant to live, the issue is much deeper than figuring out how to eliminate certain, unacceptable behaviors from our lives. It’s all about the total orientation of our lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ. That’s why Paul put as he did. You’re either going to be a slave to sin or you can, by God’s grace, be a slave to righteousness. I know that sounds kind of weird, but really it’s no different than what Bob Dylan acknowledged years ago in the pop song, “You’re Gonna Serve Somebody.” We know that’s true. But it’s important to realize the two slaveries Paul is contrasting are not equal and opposite, for the motivation is entirely different. If we find ourselves enslaved to sin it’s because we want what we want and nobody, including God, is going to stand in our way. But when we are enslaved to righteousness, the motivation is a heart of love that simply longs to respond with a holy life to what God in His mercy has done.

Becoming a Christian is not one piece of an otherwise self-oriented life. Becoming a Christian and living as a Christian is a whole-life response to the merciful love of a Father who in Christ has forgiven, healed, and made us new. Now it’s one thing to declare that in the safety of a Sunday morning. Most of you would probably say, “Amen.” But Paul was warning against a mindset, an attitude that has reared its ugly head again in our time. You see, as Paul earlier layed out how we are saved by God’s mercy and grace and not by our own good works, he could just imagine some in the Roman church saying, “Well, if God is full of grace and mercy then it really doesn’t matter much how we live. God will always forgive us no matter what.” In fact he takes it a step further by asking the question we heard in verse 15: “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” His answer is passionate, definitive, and strong—by no means! God forbid!

But I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that this is precisely the mindset of our age, even among people who identify themselves as Christians. In our popular Christian music, in Christian books, TV, radio, and from pulpits across the land one of our favorite proclamations is that “God accepts us just as we are.” It is true that God does not demand we clean up our act before we can come to Him and receive His love. But make no mistake: God has absolutely no intention of leaving us as we are. If you really think Christ died on that Cross only to forgive your sins, buy you a ticket to heaven, and then leave you to struggle in your sin—you may as well slap Him across the face and spit on Him, just as the religious rulers did on that awful Friday. Jesus endured the shame of the Cross so you and I could be free from the chains that bind us to the earth. In verse 19 Paul says, “Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity . . . So now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”

Christian, to what, to whom are you offering yourself on a daily basis? I would imagine most of you here today really want to live the life you were meant to live—a life that would please God and bring joy and peace to your heart. But it won’t happen unless and until you use the grace that has already been given to offer your heart, mind, soul, and body to the Lord on a moment-by-moment basis.

I’m worried about you. I’m worried about us. We have so much to do, and yet we are experiencing a power drain because so many of us are taking our cues from the world. I’ll tell you specifically what I worry about. And I know I’m going to over-generalize these, but for the sake of making the point:

1. I worry that you have no margin in your life from which to serve people. You are so consumed with your own stuff that you don’t offer yourself and your gifts to ministry.

2. I worry that you gauge your life by how you feel instead of by what is true. A feelings-oriented life will always end in disappointment. A truth-oriented life will always end in peace.

3. I worry that there is no space in your life where God can meet you and shape your mind and heart. You don’t read His Word; you talk about praying, but you don’t really pray.

4. I worry that our culture’s obsession with sex is eating away at your very soul. It may feel exciting when you’re consuming lust, but it always leaves you feeling empty. There will come a time when suddenly you’ll realize there’s nothing left.

5. I worry that you are robbing God and apparently think nothing of it. Every time you fail to surrender your resources fully to God, there’s a little more distance, a little more desire to hide.
I know those don’t all apply to all of you. But is there anywhere in that brief survey where the Spirit of God would say, “Child, that’s you”?

Loved ones, how can I help you get it? How can I help you see it? If you insist on keeping God at arm’s length, you can never fully enjoy what Christ died on the Cross to give you. It is time to make a decision. Some of you may need to make the decision to invite Christ into your heart for the first time. Many others may need to make the decision finally to surrender full control of your life to Christ and allow Him daily to show you the way of holiness.

When deep in your heart you want more than anything to respond to God’s love for you with a life that truly honors Him—when that becomes your consuming passion—then you can live the life you were meant to live.