Alleluia, He is Risen! Therefore

We are Risen Indeed!

May you rejoice as you realize the gifts of God our Father, poured out on you in Baptism, as we are united with Christ’s death and Resurrection!

It’s not just for Easter Season!

For someone whose been to church for a while, some phrases we say are as automatic as responding to someone who sneezes.

They sneeze, we say, “God bless you”

For those who’ve been around this church and many others, if I were to say, “The Lord is with you”…. Hahaha… I knew some of you would not wait to hear me respond…so please – don’t respond to this next one…

“Alleluia! He is Risen@” you would normally answer, “He is Risen Indeed!”

Not today, today I want you to respond, “Therefore we are risen indeed!  Alleluia!”

Let us try it – “Alleluia – He is Risen!”

“therefore we are risen indeed!  Alleluia!”

One more time?

“Alleluia – He is Risen!”

“therefore we are risen indeed!  Alleluia!”

We desperately need to understand this – that because He died, and He rose, we too with the church in Rome, can consider ourselves to be dead to the power of sin, and alive to God, through Christ Jesus.

That has to become part of our daily thought, to realize we are dead to sin, and alive to God through Christ.  As it does, we become more and more aware of His love for us, and His walking with us through life.

How we would want to live

With 15 years of being a fulltime pastor now, I think one of the greatest challenges that exist for people is to understand the Doctrine of Justification personally, in their daily lives.  Or to put it clearly – to get the connection between the phrase Alleluia! He is Risen, and “therefore we are Risen Indeed!  Alleluia!

We know how God expects us to live, loving Him, loving those around us.  We understand that is God’s salvation is His gift to us, and it is found in trusting Christ, not in our works. Many of us have known these truths as long as we can remember. 

Yet when we look at our lives, we struggle, because there great truths aren’t always seen in our daily actions, We know what’s good, but can we live that way throughout our lives? It’s a paradox, one that can make us question whether God really is active in our lives. Or take the opposite tack, and try to excuse and defend our sin, rather than seeking the comfort

Though we think more of Romans 7 and 8 when we talk about our struggle with sin,  it really begins here, in the first verses of chapter 6.  Here Paul begins to address sin, and our being declared without sin, because of Jesus.  We lose our ability to just dismiss it, or justify it’s constant presence in our lives.  First, he deals with the dismissal, that sin isn’t that big of a deal, because God is glorified as He forgives and cleanses us of sin.  Therefore, more sin equals more glory, so no big deal?

He says we can’t let that attitude even be born in our lives, because, we’ve died with Christ.  Having died with Christ, why should we go back to it?

Paul strips away our excuses for our sin, by reminding us of what happened.  Being in bondage to sin isn’t our normal way of life anymore.

Hear the Message! 

That’s the key to this passage, sin and its power over us is history, sin doesn’t have the power we once knew it to have.  It cannot, for we have been baptized into Christ, joined with Him

And as we have been united with Christ – the words are incredible there – we are nailed to the cross with Christ, they are compound words – syn-staurothe – crucified together with Christ, Synthapto, buried together with Him.  The prefix syn indicating a communal aspect – all together in this, sharing in it, one with Him in His death.

These picture us so untied to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection that we can’t be separated from it,   Paul then goes on to say, if this is true regarding being one with His death, we will be one with His resurrection, in His tossing aside death, in His leaving sin so powerless – that we are considered dead to each other.

For Alleluia!  Christ is Risen! Therefore?

Consider yourself…

So what do we do?  We realize what Paul is saying to the church in Galatia as well,

²⁴  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.   Galatians 5:24 (NLT)

That is what living in Christ is all about – about leaving our sin, our passions and desires, nailed to the cross – and when we struggle with sin, to bring it back there and leave it where it belongs.

You’re dead to its power – and alive to Christ.  Because God claimed you in baptism.

When we said earlier that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, that’s what we know, yet it is something for which we need daily reminder. It’s why we pray that God would lead us away from temptation and deliver us from evil, so that we will know He does. It is why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and hear St Paul say that every time we do this, knowing Christ, we proclaim His death until He comes again.

Because in proclaiming His death, we are proclaiming the victory, the liberation of us from the power of sin.  Delivering us into a life filled with the Father’s love and mercy and comfort and peace.

So you sinned this week, God’s dealt with it, and when you face temptation, your struggle is not to overcome it by your own strength, but to look to Christ, know you are in His presence, flee to His side, to the cross, and know that sin cannot defeat you there. Remember you are baptized into Christ’s death, and raised with Him, think of the body and blood given to you in this place, and know God has separated you from your enemy sin.

That’s what this service, and Sunday School, and our Bible study are all about.

To help us know this.

That we are dead to the power of sin, and alive to God through Christ.

For Praise God, He is Risen, and therefore we are risen indeed, Alleluia?