Yielding to the Lord
ROMANS 6: 1-23
(July 20)
We got a new puppy about nine months ago. He is a gorgeous apricot goldendoodle that has stolen our hearts. When we first got him, he would crawl under the couch to sleep. Now he can barely fit his nose under the couch. He is a whopping 55 pounds and sometimes I feel like I live with a small pony!
Buster is his name, and he is so much fun. And while he does some adorable things, there is one thing that we are trying to get him to stop. Anyone who walks through our door gets attacked by Buster. When I say attacked, I don't mean in a vicious sense. It is actually the opposite.
Buster has never met a "stranger" and when you walk through the door, he wants to jump up and greet you with his fabulous licks and wet nose. Some people like that ...others not so much.
So, we are trying to get him to yield. We want him to submit to our authority and our demands on his behavior. It is my hope and prayer (and that of my guests) that this 55-pound ball of fur will someday get this idea through his rather large head. Until then...we offer body suits on the porch.
Paul is talking today about our need to yield as Christians. He tells us that Christian living starts with Christian learning. He uses the illustration of baptism to support his idea.
Baptism has two definitions:
To dip or immerse
To be identified with
Paul is actually speaking of both in his description. When a sinner trusts in Jesus, he is immediately baptized with the Holy Spirit. He is able to identify with Jesus. The next step is to be immersed or dipped as an outward symbol of an inward experience.
This means that the believer has a new relationship to sin. For example, if you were addicted to drugs and you died, you would no longer have the addiction because your human body would be dead and would have no desires or cravings. It cannot see the drug or feel the effects of the drug any longer. When we are in Christ Jesus, we die to sin so that we no longer want to act on the sin. And while we are dead to the sin, we are alive in Christ, and we walk in the power of that resurrection. (Pretty cool, huh?)
Is this the case for everyone? Nope. There are many "betweeners". They are saved but never stop looking for more. They believe in Jesus, but never fully enter into the power and glory of the resurrection.
With our new relationship with Christ, we should not want to go back to our old life of sin, because now we have new life. It's a lot like Lazarus. He died to his old life, but Jesus raised him up to a new one. Do you think he would want to go back to the old one?
We have to be careful that we don't serve our sin. It is something we have to be watchful for because sin will come after us, finding a small crack in our armor. Sin has no power over Christ, so we need to remember that as believers, we are in Christ, so sin has no power over us.
Paul is telling us to BELIEVE what God says in his word is true in your life. He isn't asking us to feel that we are dead to sin, or to understand. He is asking us to act on God's word ... to have faith.
This is where the ability to YIELD comes in.
Yielding is an act of the will based on what we know about what Christ has done for us. It is a complete surrender to Jesus, and this will be an ongoing thing throughout our walk with Christ.
We yield for favor, freedom, and fruit. What???? Let me explain.
Favor: We yield because of God's grace given so freely to us. Undeserved, but so willingly poured out.
Freedom: Whatever you yield to becomes your master. Who do you want to be the master of your life?
Fruit: if you serve a master, you can expect to receive the wages. In the case of God, those wages are holiness and everlasting life. Our fruit is not the shame of our past, but the joy of our future, and it brings glory to God.
These instructions need to be followed each day. We have to train ourselves daily to live this new life. It is only then that we get past the "puppy" stage, learn a new way of living, and learn to YIELD our lives to the Lord.