Introduction: Conformed
to Christ’s Image
I. The Principle of
Divine Exchange
A) All the evil justly
due to come onto us came onto Jesus so that all the good due to
Jesus might be made available to us!
1) Jesus was punished so
that we might be forgiven!
2) Jesus was wounded so
that we might be healed!
3) Jesus died our death
so we might share His life!
4) Jesus bore our guilt
so we might share in His justification!
5) Jesus was made our
curse so that we might receive His blessing!
6) Jesus bore our shame
so that might share His glory!
7) Jesus endured our
rejection so that we might enjoy His acceptance!
8) Jesus was made sin
with our sinfulness so we might be made righteous by
His righteousness!
9) Our old life died in
Jesus so that His new life might live in us!
I’ve discussed parts of
most all of these exchanges now in the top eight over the last
four weeks, so I’m going to take us to number 9 today and shift
gears for the next couple of weeks.
9) Our old life died
in Jesus so that His new life might live in us!
The first eight exchanges
talk mostly about what Jesus death on the cross did for
us; the last exchanges launch us, for the next 2 weeks, into what
Jesus death on the cross did in us.
Jesus bore on Himself all
the punishment and, wounding, and guilt, and rejection, and curse,
and shame, and rejection, and was literally made sin for us, in
our place so that we
Could enjoy his
forgiveness, and healing, and justification, and blessing, and
glory, and acceptance, and when God looks at our lives he sees not
our sinfulness but He sees the righteousness of Jesus.
Exchange # 10 reminds us,
though, that Jesus death on the cross provided for more than our
positional righteousness through Christ…..It provided for actual
righteousness, an actual transformation, to happen to us
on the inside.
9) Our old life died
in Jesus so that His new life might live in us!
I. The Old Man; (and
that’s not your dad)
The New Testament rather
often talks about the difference between what it calls the Old
life and the new life. The King James calls it the “Old Man” and
the New Man. (The original actually uses the word anthropos- man)
No offense to you who are female…to you it’s the old lady and the
new woman.
The Old Man or the Old
Lady is a first century way of referring to the old sinful you.
The you that was controlled by your sin, before you gave your life
to Jesus. The language used to describe the old you is not pretty
and not very promising for the future:
(Galatians 5:17-22)
For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and
the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in
conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want….
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality,
impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord,
jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did
before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom
of God. ……. There is hope…
V: 25 But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, (NIV)
(Ephesians 2:1-3) As for
you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you
used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the
ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in
those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one
time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects
of wrath. V:12- …remember that at that time you were separate from
Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the
covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the
world. (NIV)
This is describing you
and me.. and every human being would has ever or will ever life.
Dead in sins….gratifying
the cravings of our sinful nature, following our sinful nature’s
desires and thoughts. Is there anyone here this doesn’t describe?
Remember the set of
verses we have been digging through from Isaiah 53. Here is verse
six again:
(Isaiah 53:6) We all,
like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own
way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (NIV)
We’ve all gone
astray, we’ve all turned to our own way, and our iniquity…our
rebellion has been laid on our Savior, Jesus Christ!
There is a sinful rebel
inside each one of us. In some of your cases it was a mean
alcoholic rebel, in some cases a fairly nice socially acceptable
rebel; but the reality is that all of us have turned from God’s
ways over and over again and “done life” our way. Scripture calls
this rebel…the old man…the old life. Each of you, if you have
experienced any degree of spiritual transformation, can look back
and pinpoint what the old you used to act like. If you have not
experienced spiritual transformation you are possibly living in a
world of guilt and remorse for sinful actions that you just can’t
seem to stop. It’s that inner rebel that dear old Adam and Eve
passed on to us.
If you go to church and
pray for the forgiveness of past sins and leave the church with
the rebel still controlling you on the inside you will
simply repeat the same sins, over and over, and over. Many of you
came from traditions where you were invited to repent of your sins
frequently, but were often not advised that it was possible for
those sins to lose their control over you. Somebody told me, this
week, of someone they knew that was a hired killer; killed many,
many people as part of his job; but when every Sunday came he was
right there in the service with all the other re-penters being
absolved of the guilt of the weeks sins.
In order to be freed
from slavery to our sins, we must do more than receive forgiveness
for past sins… we must allow God to deal with the rebel on the
inside!
If God “laid our iniquity
on Jesus” we must allow him to bear it instead of continuing to
carry it around inside of us.
II. Disposing of the Old
Man
The Old Testament
specifically says that God laid our iniquity on Jesus; the New
Testament tells us very specifically how that came about.
God had a remedy for the
“rebel“…
He didn’t advocate
training the bad behavior out of the rebel
He didn’t send the rebel
to Vacation Bible School
He didn’t get the rebel
to memorize the Golden Rule
God’s solution was:
Execution!
(Romans 6:6-7) For we
know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of
sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to
sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed
(made innocent)
from sin.
I want you to watch this
carefully. Paul is talking to people who are obviously already
believers; the Roman church. He trying to get them to understand
their relationship to their past sins. They definitely know Jesus
Christ as their personal Savior but they have not yet caught on to
full scope of everything he provided for them on the cross.
(Romans 6:8-10) Now if we
died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For
we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die
again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he
died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
(NIV)
(Romans 6:11) In the
same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. (NIV)
Count- reckon- conclude
The conclusion of the
matter is that Jesus already paid the full cost for your sins and
rebellion. Not only does that mean you are forgiven for them but
it also means you now don’t have to commit them at all. Amazingly
your:
“old
self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be
done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--
because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”
This is the conclusion,
this is the reckoning that is supposed to take place inside each
one of us.
It seems to be possible
that your sins could have been crucified with Christ, and if your
do not conclude that to have taken place that you could
conceivably find yourself continuing on in the same old sins even
though the power to overcome them has already been
provided.
The “death to sin” was
accomplished purely by Jesus on the cross. It’s not something you
could ever do, it’s not something you will ever be expected to do.
Jesus already did that for you. He took your sins, every one of
them, to the cross, providing forgiveness and the power to
overcome the temptation to commit them. Paying for your sins is
not something you could ever have done on your own. Dying for your
sins is not your task!
However, reckoning
yourself to be dead to sin is your task! Making a conscious effort
to move toward the grace Jesus has provided to overcome the habits
of sin in your life is your task. This chapter in Romans goes on
to spell out what our mindset should be:
(Romans 6:17-23) But
thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you
wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were
entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves
to righteousness… Just as you used to offer the parts of your body
in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now
offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When
you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of
righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the
things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But
now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to
God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. III. The Old
Man…Executed!
Imagine the worst sort of
man. He curses everyone in sight, he drinks like a sot, he’s mean
and vicious to his family, he‘s full of lust. His family leaves
for church and he’s sitting with his alcohol and skin flix,
cursing as they go out the door. They have a wonderful service and
return home expecting to find their cursing, drunk, lusting,
father and husband. When they walk into the door they hear no
curses, the movie is playing but he is not watching, the whiskey
is sitting in the glass but he is not drinking. You see, he is
dead. ( this is just an illustration so don’t get all bleary eyed)
The lust no longer appeals to him, he’s dead. He no longer has a
craving for whiskey, he’s dead. No curses are coming out of his
mouth, he’s dead.
Sin has no attraction
for him; sin gets no reaction from him.
If you will pardon the
earthiness of the illustration, our response to sin is supposed to
become like this dead guy:
(Romans 6:11) In the
same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. (NIV)
If you are dead to sin;
sin loses it’s attraction for you. Sin produces no more reaction
from you. Sin has no more power over you.
Are you saying, Pastor,
that it is possible for the sinful habits that constantly pull me
down to lose their control over me.
I’m saying, that it is
not only possible, but the entire
package of you being free from the guilt of that sin and
free from the power of that sin has already been paid for!!
Picture three crosses on
the hill at Calvary. Who was the cross in the middle designed
for?? Not for Jesus! That crucifixion was already scheduled for
three criminals to pay for their crimes. On the middle cross was
supposed to be ??? Barabbas! Barabbas was set free, in
spite of his crimes, and Jesus was crucified in his place. The
symbolism is significant. You and I were the criminals for whom
the cross was constructed. It was made to our measurements. It fit
us exactly. But Jesus took our place. He wiped out the power over
sin in our lives.
Sin itself, has no power
over you any more…… If the evil one can convince you that it does
you will go ahead and sin anyway even though Jesus already
provided all the power in the universe for you to say no!
(Ephesians 2:1-6) As
for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of
the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work
in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at
one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and
following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by
nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we
were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (NIV)
(Colossians 1:13) For
he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us
into the kingdom of the Son he loves, (NIV)
(Colossians 2:11-15)
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful
nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with
the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in
baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of
God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins
and in the un-circumcision of your sinful nature, God made you
alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the
written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that
stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And
having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (NIV)
All this is your simply
by you exerting faith in Jesus as your Savior and Lord. You do
have the power to say no to sin. You do have the power to choose
righteous behavior instead of repeating the same sinful choices
you have made for so long. However, you need to consciously and
specifically trust God to bring victory over in in you life. You
must “conclude” or claim the victory over satan that Jesus has
already paid for on our behalf.
(Ephesians 4:22-24)
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put
off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful
desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put
on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness. (NIV)
(Colossians 3:5-10) Put
to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:
sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which
is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You
used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now
you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage,
malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to
each other, since you have taken off your old self with its
practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in
knowledge in the image of its Creator. (NIV)
Conclusion: Deliverance!
1) Deliverance from this
present evil age
2) Deliverance from the
bondage of the Law
3) Deliverance from self
and selfishness
4) Deliverance from the
flesh
5) Deliverance from the
world
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