Posted on by Chris Moon

Romans 6:3-4 – New Life, an Easter Sunday message

Read Mark 16:1-8 and Romans 6:3-4.

The apostle Paul said, “We too might walk in newness of life.” Like Jesus did. After Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, Jesus walked in newness of life. The women at the tomb were perplexed. “Where is Jesus’ body?” “Well, He has risen. He’s not here. He’s going before you to Galilee. That’s where you will see Jesus. He already is on His way. Go and tell the disciples.”

As Jesus was going to Galilee, He was walking in newness of life.

And Paul wrote, “We too might walk in newness of life.” That’s encouraging. When I was a child in our little Kansas town, I remember standing on our front porch watching the kids of the neighborhood ride their bikes up and down the street. One of the kids had a little device on his bike that made it sound like a motorcycle. I don’t know exactly what the device was. But his bike sounded like a motorcycle, revving up and down the street. All the kids were impressed. I was impressed. “I’d like one of those – whatever it is,” I said to my mother. “Nope.” I stamped my foot. “But I want it! What that kid is doing, I want to do that!” “Nope.” You know how ruthless a mother can be – so unkind and uncaring. What came next was my own childhood meltdown. You know how children do that.

Often when we consider Jesus, we just know the answer is “nope.” “I’d like to walk on water.” “Nope.” “I’d like to raise the dead.” “Nope.” “I’d like to show compassion to strangers like Jesus did.” “Do you really? Well, nope.” Jesus in the gospels seemed to have the ability to do things we simply cannot do – though we might like to do those things.

But here, in Romans 6, Paul said we can do something Jesus did. “We too might walk in newness of life.” It’s encouraging. “To walk in newness of life? I’d like to do that.” Paul isn’t like your mother. Paul said we can do it.

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Your baptism is the time when you begin walking in newness of life. That’s what Paul said – after you are buried in baptism, down in the water, in faith that Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of the world. If you are baptized in faith, you are baptized into Christ’s death. And after you are buried in faith, down in the water, the pastor will pull you up. You will be raised from the dead, so to speak, just like Jesus was raised from the dead. And then you too will walk in newness of life.

And so some of you – many of you – most of you, I suppose – are walking in newness of life. You already are doing it. You’ve been baptized. You’ve been buried and raised. And here you are – brand new. Do you feel new?

“New” is the operative concept here. “We too might walk in newness of life.” It is not old life. It’s new. God wants us to know that. Faith in Jesus Christ brings new life to us.

This concept was very important to the apostle Paul. He wrote about new life a lot.

The apostle Paul told the Corinthian church, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). It’s new – not old. The old life is gone.

The apostle Paul told the Galatians, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Galatians 6:15). It’s new. You aren’t part of the old covenant but the new. Don’t worry about those old laws.

The apostle Paul told the Ephesians, You are “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24). It’s new. It’s not the old sinful self, full of lust and selfishness and deceit and pride. It’s the new self that looks a lot like the character of God.

The apostle Paul told the Colossians, You have “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10). It’s new. That means constant renewal in knowledge. It’s not old and stagnant.

The apostle Paul told the Romans, “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6). It’s new. It is governed not by the old way of the old law but by the Holy Spirit. This “newness” was very important to the apostle Paul.

So there. Now you know I know more about the Bible than you. I am only joking, of course. Many of you are astute students of Scripture. However, I do have something over you: I attended Wednesday morning coffee time last week, and most of you didn’t. You really are missing something by not coming to coffee time. Wednesday morning coffee is a time for people to get together to talk. People want community, and you can find community at Wednesday morning coffee time.

The conversation on Wednesday morning can cover a wide range of subjects. Last week, the topic of Easter came up. One person remarked how Christians often serve ham at their Easter meals. It’s a Christian tradition. Someone observed, while sipping his coffee, that a ham on the table wouldn’t be very welcoming to any Jews who happened to come to your house for Easter lunch. Ham is a forbidden food for Jews. It’s unclean. The old covenant says so. “Wouldn’t a Jew be a little uncomfortable if you put ham on the table at your Easter lunch?”

Yes. And, I suppose, that’s the idea. It’s newness of life. The old is gone, and the new has come. The old covenant with its dead laws and regulations has been swept away by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled and abolished the old law. In Christ, there’s no distinction between Jew and Gentile. And so the people of God eat ham on Easter. We eat ham to remind ourselves that we can eat ham.

It’s newness of life. We are free in Christ. Do you feel new?

You really should think about coming to the Wednesday morning coffee. Sometimes, the people there talk about gardening. They talked about gardening last week. Did you know if you take a potted tomato plant at the end of summer and place it upside down or on its side through the winter, new sprouts will grow on that old plant? Put it in your garage or shed where it can stay warm. The old plant looks dead and lifeless. But if you are patient, you’ll see the new growth, small and green, sprouting out of the old. Even in the dead of winter.

It’s newness of life. God has built reminders into His creation. Do you feel new?

This was important to the apostle Paul. He would know. Paul had been baptized (Acts 22:12-16). For a portion of Paul’s life, he hated Christ and His disciples. Paul persecuted them. He ripped them from their families and threw them in jail. Then Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul was left blind by that encounter, and he had to be led into the city where he spent three days in prayer and fasting, wondering what this was all about.

And then a Christian came to find Paul. Good old Ananias. Everyone loved Ananias. Ananias came to find Paul. “Brother Saul” – that’s how Paul was known in those days – “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” And Paul did. Then Ananias told Paul that Paul would be a witness to everyone of all that he’d seen and heard. Then Ananias said, “And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.”

And Paul did. And he walked in newness of life. Do you feel new?

Sometimes, we might forget we are new. We might feel old and tarnished. We might feel tired and frustrated. Sometimes, we lose sight of what we’ve been given. We lose sight of who we are. Sometimes, we are tempted to sin and fall back into the old way of life.

I think the apostle Paul is trying to tell us something important here: Don’t forget who you are. “Do you not know?” That’s what Paul said. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Paul is saying, “Remember your baptism!”

At a long ago church, I once forgot to turn on the heater in the baptistry. The water was cold. Ice cold. That was the Sunday an old businessman came to get baptized. He was a grouchy old man. But his grandchildren were in church with him that day. He wanted them to see it – to see his faith. So we went up to the baptistry. I remember him looking back at me when he stepped down into the water. He won’t forget his baptism.

Don’t forget yours. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Posted on by Chris Moon

Romans 6:3-4 – Dead and Buried, a Good Friday Message

Read Mark 15 and Romans 6:3-4.

We gather tonight on a solemn occasion. The reason it is solemn is because it is a night when we remember Jesus Christ being nailed to the cross. He died at a place called Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull.” That’s quite the name for a place. I wonder what kind of skull they were referring to when they named it “Place of a Skull.” You probably aren’t wondering. You know. You’ve been on the trails and up in the woods and happened upon the skulls of dead animals – deer, elk, coyotes. You don’t name a place after something like that. It’s too common. But if it was a human skull you found? That’s something to remember.

A dead human body ought to be buried. It should not be left out in the open to rot and deteriorate, and to be seen by all. Golgotha, the “Place of a Skull”, probably had seen a lot of that kind of thing. But a human body, including the skull, ought to be buried. We need closure.

After King Saul was killed in battle, the Philistines cut off his head and then hung his body on the wall of a nearby city. His body was left there to rot – to be seen by all. Saul’s exposed dead body announced that Israel’s king had been defeated and shamed. But the Bible tells us some brave Israelites took courage and took King Saul’s body down and buried it (1 Samuel 31). That was good. Human bodies should be buried. We never hear what happened to King Saul’s decapitated head. For me, the story is satisfying – but not perfectly so – because of Saul’s skull. What happened to it? But we do get partial closure. They buried what they could.

The people at the foot of Jesus’ cross, at the “Place of a Skull”, didn’t let anything improper happen to Jesus’ body. His body wouldn’t be left out in the open to rot and be picked at by birds. It wouldn’t be abused or mutilated. No, Jesus’s body would be buried. The Sabbath was coming. It would be a stain on Israel to leave the body unburied.

So Joseph of Arimathea, a good Jew, gathered his courage and asked Pilate if he could bury the body of Jesus. I think Joseph was a valiant Israelite – brave. Pilate agreed to Joseph’s request, and Joseph took down the body of Jesus, wrapped it in a linen shroud, and laid it in a new tomb. Joseph rolled a stone over the front of the tomb. The two Marys saw all of this.

And that’s what we remember tonight. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was dead and buried. It would have been about this time of day, right around dusk, when all of this was taking place. And the people went home. They at least had some closure. This was especially so because the Sabbath was starting. It was a day of rest. In our own culture, we used to mark tombstones with the letters R.I.P. – rest in peace. People would mark the graves of their loved ones with those letters – R.I.P., carved into stone. Jesus, rest in peace. Israel, rest in peace.

It’s a solemn thing, like this night.

Throughout history, Christians have found it important to note Jesus had been buried. Not just dead, but buried, too. The most ancient creed we have, dating back at least to the fourth century, is known as the Apostles’ Creed. It starts like this, “I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born from the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.” Jesus’ body was buried. The early creed says so. Remember it.

Even more important than the Apostles’ Creed is what the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Paul’s was a “creed” that’s actually in the Bible. It starts like this: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

I suppose it is important to know that among the things that happened to Jesus was that He was crucified – and buried. We get a certain amount of closure to know a person who has died also has been buried. That’s the end of the person – Dead and Buried. It’s over. I once watched a family in the green mountains of East Kentucky bury the matriarch of their family. They dug her grave by hand in the family cemetery. They lowered her casket by hand. And they buried her by hand – one shovelful of dirt at a time back into the grave. It was closure.

That reminds me of you. To the Roman church, the apostle Paul wrote: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death …” Paul said if you have put your faith in Christ and gone down into the waters of baptism, you were buried, too. You were baptized into His death. You were buried with Jesus by baptism into death.

It gives us quite the picture, doesn’t it? You put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You believe in Him. You trust Him to forgive all of your sins and to bring you back into a right relationship with God. You trust Him to remove your filthy garments and to make you white as snow – holy and pure. So you wade out into the lake, or you step down into the baptistry. The pastor stands in the water with you. The pastor already had his own burial. This is about you. It’s time for you to be buried. And the pastor takes courage, like Joseph of Arimathea, and he buries you with Christ. You are plunged down into the water. Humans can’t live down there. You can’t breathe in the water. It’s the end – Dead and Buried.

It’s closure. A good church knows it when it is time to bury a person. The old man just couldn’t keep going in his old ways. He just couldn’t keep up the charade of self-determination and self-acceptance. At some point, he just gave up. Living like that is just too hard. Round and round a person goes. Sin after sin. No satisfaction. No peace. No joy. No love. No hope. That old woman just couldn’t keep it up. The wear and tear of life was just too much. The bitterness and worry was too much.

She died. He died. The church knows. And we buried them. The old has gone …

It’s closure. Don’t you want to bury the old, dead, sin-stricken man or woman? And not just part of him or her but the whole thing, head to toe? The word “baptism” in Greek means to dip, immerse, or submerge. The whole thing gets buried. You’re plunged down into the water. Dead and Buried. It’s over. Your sins are forgiven, paid for by Christ on the cross. By faith, you aren’t a slave to sin and death any longer – because you were buried with Christ by baptism into death. By faith, you were buried in His death. That’s good news on a solemn evening.

And what was it again that Paul said? “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that …” Ah, there’s more. But that’s a sermon for Sunday. You’ll have to come back then for the rest of it.