Bible Text: Romans 6:4-11 | Pastor: Eric Danielson | Series: Easter

In the same way that the landscape around us in northern Wisconsin is about to undergo a radical transformation from death to life, we can experience radical transformation in our lives through the resurrection life and power of Jesus Christ! How can that transformation happen in your life?

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Resurrection Hope
Romans 6:4-11

Spring is one of my favorite times of year. We’ve just had a long, cold winter, with lots of snow – we were reminded of that again this weekend! Everything has been dead and dormant – the trees are bare, the leaves gone, lakes frozen – everything is brown and dead. But within a few weeks a radical transformation is going to happen. Thing are going to spring to life! We’ll see buds and blossoms, flowers will begin to grow and bloom, the grass will come to life and turn green, leaves will pop out on the trees – there will be new life and new growth everywhere you look. And I just love to see the transformation take place.

This morning I want us to think about how that transformation is like something that can happen in our very own lives. We too were once dead and dormant – in our spiritual lives. There was no life in us. The Bible talks about how we were dead in our sins, following our own self-centered, sinful desires; acting out upon the cravings of our bodies and minds. We were spiritually dead with no desire for God, no life, no growth, no ability to please God in any way. Everything was dead. We resembled the trees all around us that look like they’re dead.

But Jesus can change all of that. A transformation can take place – new life can spring up from the dead and things can begin to change. Our longings and desires that drive us can change. We can begin to despise sin and be filled with new desires to love God and obey him – to live for him and for other people instead of only for ourselves. We can begin to see good fruit spring up in our character – things like patience and forgiveness where there was once bitterness and anger; honesty and generosity where there used to be lies and greed. The way we talk can change along with our behaviors and we can become a different kind of person.

I remember when things began to change for me. It was when I was twelve years old. I had been living for myself, trying to gain attention and friends by sinful and arrogant behavior. I would use bad language to fit in, tell dirty jokes to get people to laugh, push other kids around who got in my way. I would cheat on tests and school work. I was fitting right into the mold of everyone else around me. But then something changed one Sunday in January of my 8th grade year. God spoke to my heart and showed me the guilt of my sin. I was ashamed for the things I had done and for the person I had become. I felt sorry for my sin. I realized that it was because of my sins that Jesus died on the cross and that he had died so that I would no longer be trapped in living in sin. I realized that I could find forgiveness for all my sins because of what Jesus did on the cross. My sins were all paid for. Christ received the punishment that I deserved and was calling me to put my faith in him. So I did. I cried out to Jesus and found peace with God and forgiveness of sins and everything began to change. The things I once did to make people laugh and gain their attention and fit in with the crowd, I didn’t want to do anymore. I knew they were wrong. There was a transformation that began and is still taking place today.

This morning as we celebrate Easter, I want to look at how that transformation takes place. How can Jesus take what was dead and corrupt and make it alive and growing? To do that I want to look at part of a letter written by a man named Paul. Paul lived 2000 years ago and is a man in whom radical transformation took place. At first he was a man who was zealous about an empty religion, which led him to do terrible things. He was spiritually dead and his life resembled the trees around us. He was known for hunting down Christians, throwing them in prison, and then trying to have them executed. He hated Christians and wanted the memory of Christ and everything he taught to be snuffed out forever. But one day, Jesus began to radically transform his life. He went from killing Christians, to becoming probably the most influential Christian the world has ever known. Radical transformation took place in his life and he wrote about it in a letter. He described what happened in his life and in the lives of the people he was writing to and why they would no longer be the same.

Read Romans 6:4-11.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

These verses describe how radical transformation takes place in people’s lives when they put their faith in Jesus Christ. There are two things Paul points to that God does – they are united with Christ – inseparably linked with him – in his death and in his resurrection. On Friday, we celebrated Good Friday and remembered that day 2000 years ago when Jesus was scourged and beaten and hung on the cross to die. When he hung there the Bible says that he became sin for us – he took upon himself all our sins and guilt and the punishment we deserved. When we come to him in faith, Paul says that we are united with him in his death. Our old self that was corrupted by sin died with him on that cross. Through him we died to sin. The power that sin had over our lives to enslave us and condemn us was completely broken. Sin could no longer win because we died with Christ on the cross on that day. That all becomes true for us through faith when we are united with him in his death. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation – the old has gone…”

But Paul also points out something else that happens to us through faith – not only are we united with Christ in his death, but we are also united with him in his resurrection. When Christ died that day, his body of flesh went into the grave. That body was like ours – subject to the desires of the flesh, to corruption, sickness, and death. That body died. But when Christ came up out of the grave, he rose to a whole new kind of existence and life that we’ve never experienced before. Paul describes it in 1 Cor. 15 as imperishable, indestructible, immortal, and full of glory and power.

When we put our faith in Christ we are united him in his resurrection. We are joined together with him so that his resurrection power and life flows into us. He pours it into our lives by his Spirit so that what’s going to happen in a few weeks to all the trees, and flowers, and grass will also happen in us. Radical transformation can happen because the resurrection life and power of Jesus Christ is in us.

Right now is maple syrup time in northern Wisconsin. I know that many of you are tapping trees to make maple syrup. And as you drive around you can see the blue bags and buckets and tubes all over because people are harvesting all that sap to boil down to make syrup. That sap is like the lifeblood of a tree. In the dead of winter it’s frozen and unmoving so the trees look like they’re dead. But now the days are getting longer, the sun is getting hotter, the ground is warming up, and when that happens the sap begins to flow. Transformation will be taking place because the sap is flowing through those trees.

That’s the way it is with the resurrection life and power of Jesus Christ in us. When we turn to Jesus in faith and are united with him in his death and resurrection, he begins to pour his resurrection life into us by his Spirit. Like sap flowing through the trees, his resurrection life flows in us and transformation begins to happen. For some of you, that transformation has been going on already and you can see the new life and growth and fruit in your life. For you, Easter is a time for great rejoicing because not only is your Savior risen from the dead, but he’s living in you and through you, bringing hope today through the transformation he brings.

But for some of you this transformation hasn’t begun yet. As you look at your life you don’t see the new life of Christ and his power in you. You still see sin and spiritual emptiness. But this can be a day when that all begins to change – just like it did for me back in 8th grade. You too can begin a life of transformation. How? Through faith. We are united with Christ in his death and resurrection through faith in him. Faith in Christ is the key to for transformation to begin. Through faith we are counted dead to sin and alive to God, just like Paul wrote. Our sins are forgiven and we are united with Christ. He gives us new life by his Spirit and things begin to change. I’m going to give you the opportunity in just a few minutes to express your faith in Jesus Christ. But first I want us all to see what a difference he can make in us.

After I pray, you are going to see the transformation that Jesus has made in the lives of many of the people in this room and if you have not yet experience that transforming power, he can do the same in you, and it can begin today. Let’s pray…