By Grace Through Faith, Part Four (Romans 6)
Introduction
Hello, welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. You can learn more about Faith at our website, www.faithshelton.org. This podcast is being recorded for the 5th Sunday in Lent, March 26, 2023. I’m preaching through the book of Romans this spring. “By Grace Through Faith” is my series title, and today is Part 4, looking at Romans 6.
So far, in the first five chapters of the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul has talked about sin, salvation, and suffering—all of us in the same boat, bound to sin and saved by grace, apart from any works of the law, including theories like substitutionary atonement. Suffering is neither a sign of blessing or disfavor. Suffering mostly just, well, is. Today, Paul addresses a fourth universal human experience: death. I’ll begin today by reading a few verses of Romans 6, then pivot to a story about a man named Lazarus, in John 11. Understanding the story of Lazarus will help us understand Paul, death, and baptism.
Romans 6:1-14
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, 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. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Dead Man Walking
“Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” If I’m saved by grace, if there are no guaranteed direct consequences for my actions and choices, does that mean I can do anything I want? No, Paul says, after all, how can we who have died to sin go on living in it? If you are a bit confused at this point, you aren’t alone. Let’s read about a dead man named Lazarus in John 11, then we’ll circle back around to Romans 6 at the end.
John 11:1-16
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Comments:
1. I love how the story begins with two sisters who bring their concern for their brother to Jesus: Lord, the one you love is sick. Two thousand years later we use email and Facebook, but we still bring our loved ones to Jesus in prayer: Lord Jesus, the one you love is sick…
2. Jesus responds by saying that everything is going to be okay, and that this sickness is an occasion for God to be glorified. I want to tap the brakes on taking this to mean that God somehow caused Lazarus to get sick so that Jesus could do his thing. But it is true, that often we can witness and experience God’s grace best when we are going through a difficult circumstance. Fair enough?
3. Third, people were as bad at talking about death back then as we are now. Even Jesus tries to use the euphemism of “falling asleep” to refer to the death of Lazarus. The disciples take him literally, and he has to spell it out: “Lazarus is dead.”
4. Finally, we learn that returning to Judea, going to Bethany, was putting Jesus and the disciples at risk. Last time they were near Jerusalem, Jesus almost got killed. Thomas shrugs and says to the rest of the disciples: come on, let us also go, so that we may die with Him. The Him is Jesus, not Lazarus.
John 11:17-37
On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Comments
1. With the timeline we are given, it is hard to say whether or not Jesus could have gotten there before Lazarus dies. He’s been dead four days, we are told, by the time Jesus gets there.
2. Both sisters confront Jesus with the part confession, part accusation, Jesus, if you had been here, our brother, your friend, whom you loved, would not have died. Ouch.
3. Jesus weeps, which is both the shortest Bible verse: “he wept,” and very much revealing about God’s nature, God’s character. God experiences grief and loss. Jesus for his friend (and for the sisters); how much more will God the Father grieve and weep when, a few days later His Son dies on the cross. We are tempted to assign Jesus tears to his “humanity,” but maybe God weeps, too.
John 11:38-53
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
Comments
1. Foreshadowing of his own death: a stone across the entrance of the tomb being rolled away; strips of linen grave clothes.
2. The raising of Lazarus is a sign for the people, not a personal favor. “This is for the benefit of the people standing here.” For better or for worse, Jesus does not “play favorites.” Every single human being is a precious child of God. God doesn’t play favorites.
3. This public raising from the dead is also the last straw. Many came to believe in Jesus, but others saw him as the ultimate disturber of the peace. Not only do they double down on plans to arrest and kill Jesus, they also determine to kill Lazarus—hard to argue with a dead man walking!
4. Verse 51 says that the high priest “prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation… and for all the scattered children of God, To bring them together and make them one.” And that is what he does: the bronze snake who brings healing to the nations; the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep; the one who is lifted up so as to draw all people to himself; the Living Bread from heaven; the Light of the world; the Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, and the Life.
Dying to Sin
Thanks, Pastor Doug, for helping us understand the story of Lazarus, but isn’t this a sermon series on the book of Romans?
Yes, it is. And in chapter six, Paul argues that we have died to sin, that in Baptism we have been buried with Jesus in his death; that our old self has been crucified with Christ; that we have died with Christ; and that we should count ourselves dead to sin, no longer under the law. And the story of Lazarus, I think, helps us make sense of what Paul is trying to say.
1. We are still not good at talking about death and dying. Like Jesus, we use clumsy euphemisms. Like Martha and Mary, our faith and grief often mask anger and resentment—why did he have to die?
2. And yet, everyone does die eventually. Lord, if you had been here, our brother wouldn’t have died. True, but also not really. Everybody dies. And Paul argues that this is not a bad thing.
3. In death, we finally lose our ability to sin, or to blame, or to judge, or to toot our horn. Like Lazarus, we can’t “do” anything. In the ground four stinking days.
4. But we are also free from anybody or anything telling us what we can or can’t do. The Law can’t judge us. Satan can’t accuse us. In fact, the only voice we can hear and obey when we’re dead is the voice of the one who loves us, Jesus Christ.
5. And Jesus tells dead people to come forth, to rise from death into life. And they do it.
6. So Baptism, properly understood, says Paul, is not so much about getting us cleaned up and ready for dying. Rather, baptism is a way for us to practice daily dying and rising.
7. There is an expression regarding Holy Communion, an invitation that goes like this: Let us approach the Table of the Lord as though we were approaching our death so that one day we might approach death as if we were going to the Table of the Lord. Baptism works the same way—we get so used to dying and rising, relying on God’s grace, listening for the voice of Jesus and obeying him only. Every day, dying to sin. Every day, rising to walk in newness of life. Without fear of death, so that, like Thomas, we can bravely follow Jesus, “that we might die with him.” So that when the last day finally comes, we’ll barely notice the difference.
This is life in the Spirit, and we’ll talk more about that next week.
Conclusion
Thanks for listening today. I hope this podcast series is helping you fall more deeply in love with the God who created you, who loves you, and has a purpose for your life. God loves you: deal with it! To learn more about Faith, go to our website, www.faithshelton.org. I hope you’ll “like” us, subscribe, donate, or sign-up for our newsletter. You can subscribe to this podcast on most podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple, and Google. Chas and Nadia, thanks for your production work on this podcast every week. All glory…