Above the System
A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
September 2, 2018
at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia
Romans 6: 1-11
Deuteronomy 6: 1-9
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your mind knows the truth
Your being is the life.
Amen.
We continue with Romans,
Right with Paul we’ve covered so much ground.
. .
From the exchange that we call sin, exchanging
Love, relationship, faith, in God, for our own devices, our own perspective. .
. and how that is the mighty disease that leads so our pain.
To Paul’s place as a Pharisee and his zeal to
bring the nations to the truth about God
How on the road to Damascus that truth about
God changed, clarified, etc. .
That he is now appealing to Gentiles, that
they by the same faith can be saved
We looked at how that might be troubling to
those already on the inside who have been working towards righteousness
themselves. . . what is this Grace?
And then Paul went back to the Beginning
looking at how with Abraham there was righteousness before the Law was given to
Moses through the Faith of Abraham
Bringing us to the last few weeks where we
have been looking at Sin, Life, and Death, and how in this new Resurrection
light, these ideas, these states, these seeming powers and our relationships to
them have changed completely
Like when he looked at Abraham and how faith
makes righteousness even before the Law
He shows how with Adam there was sin before the
law, showing that sin is more than just violations of a list of rules, but
instead that which leads to death, that which is bound to death, that which is
conditioned by death to squash and squeeze the life out of us,
But that Jesus, the resurrection allows for
Life. . .
Now, today, he takes this a step further,
looking at this new relationship between Grace and Sin and Life. . .
Let’s look at what he does:
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go
on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to
sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or
don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? 4 We
were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
we too may live a new life.
5 For if we
have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united
with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified
with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that
we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because
anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we
died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.9 For
we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again;
death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to
sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the
same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Look
at the sections here, WE have died to sin. . . how can we live it any longer?
Baptized
into Christ. . . into his death. . . buried with him into death. . . just as he
was raised, we are raised, we have a new life. . .
United
in death and life. . . old self crucified with him, body ruled by sin, done
away with. . . no longer salves. . . any one who has died has been set free. .
.
Died
with Christ. . . also we live to him, live with him. . . Christ raised from the
dead, death no longer has mastery. . . the death he died, he died to sin once
and for all. . . but the life he lives, he lives to God. . . .
IN
the same way. . . count yourself dead to sin. . .
This
is transformational language. . .
But
I skipped the first line, perhaps the most important
What
shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no
means!
He parallels this statement, again at verse
15, and again emphatically says, By no means!
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but
under grace? By no means!
What do you take from this? How does this
strike you? What is Paul getting at?
Before we go too far of field lets take a look
at the old testament, which comes from Deuteronomy, the second law, the last
testament of Moses, his parting advice to his people
These are the commands, decrees and laws
the Lord your
God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the
Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their
children after them may fear the Lord your
God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that
I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear,
Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that
you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just
as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 Hear, O
Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength. 6 These
commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about
them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down
and when you get up. 8 Tie
them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates.
Look at verse 3 – hear Israel, and be careful
to obey, so that it may go well with you, and that you may increase greatly in
a land flowing with milk and honey. . .
Do this so. . .
It’s hard not to think
of that as systematic thinking, if I do this, blessings will flow.. . .
Much of Ancient
religion had that overtone. . .
I do things they
benefit me. . .
The purpose then of
religion is working things out for my benefit. . .
So it would make
perfect sense to think. . . grace is for my benefit, grace comes as a result of
my sin. . . why not sin so that this grace abounds?
Why keep from sinning,
if we are living under grace anyway?
The system is in place
and I am simply living under the rules of the system. . .
Frank DeAngelis – Stay out of the system. . .
Why did he say that?
Systems are good right, they are natural
Look at our world, the natural rhythms that go
on, the sun, the orbit of all things around the sun, the seasons, days, like
clock work the darkness follows the light, and vice versa.
There are patterns of life and death, food
chain, decomposition and fertilizer
Our bodies work in a system, digestive system,
respiratory system, each organ with a specific purpose, working together
accordingly
It is no wonder that we think systematically
Businesses, politics, order. . .
How can we make this run more efficiently? How
can we make that run more effectively?
Perfecting systems, streamlining systems. . .
study systems to make other systems work better?
With all of this, why did that old man talking
to those young men, giving his last bit of advice, why did he say to them to
stay out of the system?
Let me get to that
What does Science do?
At one point it was about studying the systems
of the universe to conform life to those systems, to find out how best to order
life according to those natural systems. . .
But that has morphed into changing the
systems, manipulate the systems to benefit life, and benefit is an interesting
concept?
The same folks, leaning on science claim on
one hand that gender is a social construct and then at the same time, out of
the other corner of their mouth claim that someone can be genetically
transgender. . .
Yes, benefits is an interesting concept
Who benefits, and how?
How do you determine the benefit? By the
result. . . the outcome, the fruit. . .
But rarely is the cost analyzed because the
cost can be put off, staved off, and shaved off
Crisis of 2008 bail out, trillions of dollars
of debt. . . shave off and stave off
Why does this happen. . . limited perspective.
. . Poor system analysis. . . unforeseen factors
What is the purpose and function of the sun?
Scientist might say, it has no purpose only a
function. . .
What is its function? Heat, light, holding the
planets in their orbit?
Let there be light” light pre-exists the sun.
Does this make you think differently about how
the sun works? Does it defy systematic logic?
What is lessened? The value of the sun. . . it
takes the sun and puts it in a box, limiting it
Often that is what systems do. . . a number, a
name, a measurable value, fit or not fit. . .
People, kids, students, workers, voters, cogs
in the wheel
Football
True coaching --- adjusting to fit the talent
The best year 2012
Stay out of the system – it limits you
Favorite quotes – “They constantly try to
escape from the darkness outside and within by dreaming of systems so perfect
that no one will need to be good.”
But true goodness flows from grace, more so
than it ever did with the law
Law is about minimums
Grace is about maximums, and those maximums
don’t even exist they simply rise higher and higher. . .
Rise above the system. . . .
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