The New Reality
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no
more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto
sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto
sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:9-11)
It seemed like it couldn’t be true.
My friends and I had our college
diplomas in hand, but it just didn’t seem like we had graduated and that our
time at Carolina was complete. It seemed like a dream, not like the new reality
for us.
But it would’ve been foolish for us to
show up the next semester for classes or to spend time writing papers.
Professors would have stared at us quizzically, because graduates don’t have to
attend class or write papers.
Reality came crashing in, though, when
we realized we needed to get jobs and to make something of ourselves. That’s
when we really sensed we had new authorities to which we had to answer, new
duties to which we needed to attend.
Things never would be the same.
Easter is about resurrection hope in
Christ. But it also is about a miraculous change for you and me who look to
Jesus as our Savior: a change in jurisdiction.
You and I spent our pre-Christian
lives answering to sin. We grew accustomed to living for self and for whatever
felt right at the moment – yet we never were satisfied with what our lives
brought us.
Now, however, there is a new reality.
You and I have a new Authority – the risen Lord Christ – and new duties to fulfill.
Thank the Lord, things never will be
the same.
You and I rarely think of death as
being connected directly to sin. In our culture of Godlessness, we’re told that
death is “natural” – when in fact it is the most unnatural thing of all. Death,
we’re told, is something each of us must undergo, bearing no theological
significance.
Yet St. Paul, in his first epistle to
the Corinthians and here, in the sixth of his letter to the Roman Christians,
draws a straight line between our sin and the specter of death. Death is
theologically significant, because it is the fruit of rebellion against God. On
one hand, death (spiritual and physical) is the punishment you and I face for
our sin in Adam and the sin we commit daily. And on the other hand, death is the
payment required by the Lord God if you and I are to be forgiven our sin. In
the Old Testament, God’s people had to offer a spotless and innocent sacrifice
in their place when they confessed their sin before Him. In Romans 6, Paul says
Jesus died “to sin” – not to its control over him or because he had any sin; of
course he didn’t – but in order to end its control over those who look to him
in faith as their Redeemer. Sin produces death, and the price of atonement for
your sins ultimately required the death of the only One who could pay the
amount in full: the Lord Jesus.
Jesus continued under the power of
death for three days. He truly died and was buried.
But death – prevalent as it is among
us, as much as it occupies your thoughts – did not endure. Only Jesus’
resurrection life endures.
St. Paul writes that Jesus died once
for all time to pay the price for your sin. But in that he now lives, Paul
teaches, he lives to God. And that means he lives eternally with his Father.
The enduring nature of Jesus’ death
compared to the limited control death once exerted over him seems foreign to
you and me. We tend to think Freeman Funeral Home and Scotland Cemetery have
the final say over us. That’s where our bodies go; that’s where you and I go on
what seems to be a weekly basis. Yet Christ truly died and truly rose again
from the dead, and death no longer exerts dominion over him.
If you look to Jesus as your Savior,
then you are united with him in his death to the dominion of sin and death and
in his resurrection from the dead. His death is yours. His life is yours.
And this union with Jesus bears itself
out in the here-and-now of everyday existence. Death, and sin’s way of living,
no longer dominates you, just as death no longer dominates Jesus. Life, and God’s
way of living, now hold sway over you. This is the new reality.
Just as it would be foolish for me to
show up in a college classroom in North Carolina tomorrow morning ready to
study for a test, it makes no sense for you and me who name Jesus as our
Redeemer to answer to our flesh. Lying and stealing and destroying others with
our words marked our former life, but if we truly trust in Christ, our union
with him means we have a new Authority and a new framework for living.
Easter is about the New Reality of
your new jurisdiction.
Our focus this time of year tends to
fall on everlasting life and on the hope of resurrection. Somewhere in the back
of your mind, the question lurks: is the Gospel account really true? Are Heaven
and Hell real?
Based on Paul’s teaching here in
Romans 6, I see Heaven and Hell on a daily basis. You do too.
I have friends who lead meandering,
joy-less lives, because they answer to sin and bear sin’s fruit, death, in
their daily existence. They resign themselves to addictions and to bitterness
and to funerals and to graveyards of all sorts because they live under the
jurisdiction of sin. And sin always breeds death.
I also have friends who give their
valuable time to doing church work. They forsake money in order to share the
Gospel. They deny themselves what the world says is okay because Jesus says
those things aren’t okay. They give themselves to prayer time and to Bible
study, and they do battle with addictions and with bitterness and with sin
every day. They live under the jurisdiction of Heaven, and they live a heavenly
life day in and day out.
Heaven is about your life right now. It’s about resurrection and hope,
certainly.
But the Lord doesn’t leave Heaven as a
distant hope for you and me.
He makes it a present reality, a new
jurisdiction, a new calling and an unending collection of joys.
If Easter is going to mean something
to you one day, it must mean everything to you now.
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