Under New Management
Romans 6:15-23; 7:1-6
Introduction:
Whenever my wife and I go to Cubao, we usually frequent a restaurant that serves, in my opinion, the best pizza and pasta in the city. The name of the restaurant was Volare. Their pizzas are baked in a red brick oven and they are well cooked to the point that they maintain their crispiness even when the pizza becomes cold. They also serve great tasting pasta, my favorite being the spinach cannelloni. Well, a few months ago, we visited Cubao and we were surprised to find that our favorite restaurant had changed name from Volare to Va Pensiero. We soon discovered that the restaurant changed its name because there was a change in the ownership as the Italian chef who started the business had found a new business partner. However, I observed that, while ownership had a slight change, the same delicious pizza and pasta I enjoyed before were still on their menu. Also, the décor of the restaurant still looked the same. It was as if nothing really changed, just the name or signage, and a new partnership to run the restaurant. For me, that's a good thing because I still get to enjoy the same great tasting food. If the change in management resulted in a different tasting pizza and pasta, I would probably have second thoughts about going back to that restaurant.
I'm sure we have all seen business establishments post a sign declaring that they are under new management. Sometimes, new management does bring about apparent changes, making the business establishment look quite different from the original. But quite often, there is a simple change in ownership but not necessarily a change in appearance or in the system implemented for running the company. Now, in the case I've cited, it doesn't matter for me if the management and name changed, as long as the food tasted the same. However, there are times when a change in management must also bring with it a change in the way things are done. Consider our country. Just eleven days ago, we had a new president assume power. When we elect a new president and he formally assumes power, it means that the country is under new management. However, a change in the person sitting in Malacañang doesn't mean a thing for the nation unless that person goes about making a positive difference for the nation, when he brings about an improvement over what the previous president achieved.
This morning, we are going to talk about a change in management in the life of the Christian. This change is never intended to be superficial like the pizza and pasta restaurant in Cubao but it is a change that is and should be seen through and through in a believer's life. We will be studying Romans 6:15-23 and 7:1-6, and learn what are the things that have changed and what needs to change in us.
So often, when we talk about becoming a Christian, our first thought is that of the change of our eternal destination. If you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will go to heaven. If you don't accept him, you will end up in hell. This was how I was introduced to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ when I was studying in a Christian school. It was all about our eternal destination. Now, there's nothing wrong when you share about going to heaven when you believe in Jesus, however, I think that is an inadequate picture of what it means to accept or believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Having faith in Jesus Christ is more than just about going to heaven, it is also about a change in management in terms of your life. The problem with a gospel that simply talks about going to heaven is that many will want the benefit of eternal life but they don't necessarily want a change in the management in their lives. Maybe this explains why Paul had to address the problem of believers who continued to live a life of sin; it was because some of the Roman believers may have wanted the benefit of their newfound relationship with Jesus Christ, namely his grace, but without having to surrender their old way of life. This probably also led them to thinking that they could continue sinning so that more grace would be given to them.
Becoming a Christian is not just about going to heaven; that is just part of the entire package. As I have mentioned, becoming a Christian also means a change in management. Let us look at three aspects wherein this change of management takes place and how it should affect the way we live as a follower of Jesus Christ.
I. We Have A New Master To Whom We Owe Our Allegiance To
The first aspect of the change of management is the change of masters. When we accepted Jesus, we are not just accepting that he alone can save us from our sins (which is his being our Savior), but we are also inviting him to be in control over our lives (in other words, we are asking him to be our master). Prior to our becoming Christians, who do you think was our master? The answer is, of course, Satan. According to Colossians 1:13, we used to belong to the dominion of darkness but we were rescued and brought into the Kingdom of light. The word “dominion” means sovereignty or control. We were under the control of Satan who is the ruler of the dominion or the kingdom of darkness. Before becoming believers of Jesus Christ, we were under his rule. We were his slaves, bound to do his bidding. Now, we may vehemently deny that we are slaves of Satan and say that this is unthinkable, however, the fact that, prior to our becoming God's children, we were under the rule of Satan cannot be denied. The Bible never said that there is a middle ground for which a person can stand upon. It is either you belong to God or you belong to Satan. If you haven't yet believed and trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you are in Satan's kingdom and you are his slave. As slaves of the devil, we have the inclination to commit sin and we do not have the power to free ourselves from the clutches of sin. Furthermore, a life under the rule of Satan leads to ever-increasing wickedness (v. 19), wherein our lustful desires can never be fulfilled, but more must come our way. This explains why people are greedy, are trapped in habitual sin, are always scheming to do even worse (from petty thief to murderer; from stealing paper clips to millions of pesos). Our loyalty to Satan was expressed through our sinful acts as well as through our acceptance of worldly standards and way of doing things.
However, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, there is a change in ownership or master. Jesus is now our new master and this means we are and can no longer be slaves to sin. When Jesus becomes our master, we are retooled to becoming slaves of righteousness. Positionally, we are now slaves of righteousness, thus we are to behave like one. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are not only acknowledging our need to be saved and to have the way to heaven opened for us, we must also acknowledge that when we let Satan or ourselves run our lives, it is a mess, thus we are also giving Jesus the authority to manage and rule our lives! We show our loyalty to Jesus by no longer doing the works of darkness but, instead, by doing those things that bring glory to his name, those things that are considered as righteousness.
What are those areas in your life that needs to be under the control of Jesus Christ? While it is true that everything in our lives must be under the control of the Lord Jesus, I think we need to clarify what we mean when we say “everything”. “Everything” means our mind (Romans 12:2) – are we thinking of things that bring glory to the Lord Jesus (Philippians 4:8)? We are also to subject our body to the control of the Lord Jesus. We should no longer yield to sexual temptations nor should we give over our bodies to anything that will destroy our bodies such as smoking, taking illegal drugs and excessive intake of alcohol or even to excessive playing of video games which causes us to lose sleep and to be unproductive in other areas of life. The third area of our life that needs to be under the lordship of Jesus is our decision-making process. We need to remember what Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, that we are never to lean on our own understanding but instead we must acknowledge him. Don't mess up your life by making your decisions based on your own experience and knowledge but learn to trust in the leading of the Lord Jesus when you make decisions. Fourth, give Jesus the control over your finances. When you spend, save or invest, do it with a firm conviction that every cent you have actually belongs to Jesus and not to you. If he tells you to do something good with the money in your hands, don't hesitate to obey him. Finally, give Jesus the rightful throne in the management of your time. This is not to say that we spend everyday being in church but what it means is that we must use our time with the Lord Jesus in mind – our working and studying, as well as giving adequate moments to commune with the Lord and to fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the faith.
When we came to faith in Christ, we changed masters, from Satan to Jesus Christ. Are we acknowledging his lordship over our lives everyday, in the five realms that I've mentioned? Jesus is both Lord and Savior. While we are assured already of eternal life, we must appropriate daily in our lives the truth of Jesus' lordship over us and allow Him to take the driver's seat of our lives.
II. We Have New Goals in Life
The second point that the apostle Paul brought out with regards to our being under the lordship of Jesus Christ is that we have new goals in life. Before we came to faith in Christ, our goals in life were in tune with those of the kingdom of darkness – it was all about our own agenda, our own pleasures, our own benefit. Everything probably revolved around us – we made ourselves the center of our own world and everyone and everything had to conform to us. What did that achieve for us? True, we may have more material possessions, we may receive more honor and recognition from people, but when we put ourselves as the center of our own world, we end up feeling frustrated and there is also an empty feeling in our lives. What is even more frustrating is that when we were still under the kingdom of darkness, the things that we did resulted in death rather than give us life!
But when Jesus Christ came into your life and took over as master, he not only forgave us of our sins and promised us eternal life with Him in heaven, he also gives us new purposes and goals to pursue. Before Christ, we pursued the things of this world relentlessly, but now that we have Christ in us, he sets us on the path of righteousness. In verse 19, we read of our former condition – we used to offer the parts of our bodies to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness; but now that we have become followers of Jesus Christ, we are told to offer our bodies in slavery to righteousness. In other words, we are commanded to pursue righteousness, to live up to our new status as righteous men and women of God by doing the things that please and honor God. In Romans 7:4, we are told that we have already died to the law of sin and death and now belong to Jesus Christ with the expressed purposed of bearing fruit for God. When we check out other passages in Scripture, we know that the word “fruit” can refer to people who come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through our faithful witness; the word can also refer to what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives in building our character. I believe that the use of the word here in Romans 7 is more in line with the Fruit of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Galatians 5 where God the Holy Spirit is changing us to become more like Jesus. Our role is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit by following his lead and by making ourselves fertile ground for him to work with.
Offer our bodies to righteousness and bear fruit to God. These are our new goals in life as followers of Jesus Christ. If we think that these are easy, they actually aren't; but if we are already saved by the grace of Christ and we constantly remind ourselves of our new goals in life and go about doing them by relying on God, we will find that God will supply what we lack. His grace will enable us to successfully pursue these goals throughout our lifetime.
III. We Have a New Object of Affection
Finally, when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have a new object of affection. Where do I get this idea? We find the idea implied in 7:1-3. In 7:1-3, Paul used the analogy of the husband and the wife in explaining the issue of our being dead to sin and alive in Christ. While the analogy has its spiritual lesson, I find the use of the husband and wife analogy as having another significance, as it is all about a love relationship between spouses. When we became followers of Jesus Christ, not only do we change allegiance but we also change in terms of our love. Before following Jesus Christ, whether we would admit it or not, we loved sin and we loved the world. Our affection was for the things of this world, for what it can offer us to please our desires. If you will allow me to say it, we were once “married” to sin and the kingdom of darkness. However, when we came to faith in Christ, we died to our sins and have been joined to Jesus Christ. We now have a new “spouse”, to whom we will be attached to for all eternity. We now have a new object of affection.
It is easy to say that, positionally, we are now one with Christ and that he is our object of affection. However, it can be quite hard to express love to the Lord Jesus consistently, on a 24/7 basis. Why? It is because there are moments when we forget that we are already in a new relationship with the Lord Jesus and we keep looking back to the old relationship that we had with sin, that we haven't really cut our ties with sin decisively. To best illustrate this, let me tell you a story.
There was a woman named Jane who was married to Frank for around 15 years. Frank was the kind of guy who never cared about sitting down to eat breakfast in the morning. All he did was grab a cup of coffee, gulp it down quick, and then shove a piece of toast in his mouth and leave for work or to do some other thing. This was the pattern for 15 years and Jane got so used to it, she never prepared a nice hot meal for Frank during breakfast. But then, Frank died, leaving Jane a widow. After two years, Jane met Pete and after a few months of courtship, they got married. Now, Pete is the kind of guy who will insist on eating a heavy, hearty breakfast every morning. Imagine the very first day after the wedding when Pete comes down for breakfast and he finds nothing but coffee and toast; he's going to ask Jane, “Where's breakfast?” Jane will then reply, “Oh, Frank never really sat down to eat breakfast, just drank coffee and put a piece of toast in his mouth. So I guess you'll want the same thing.” Pete would probably say to Jane in a kind manner, “Honey, Frank is dead. I'm your husband now and I like eating a hearty breakfast. I hope you'll get used to that fact and do something about it.” Jane was already married to Pete but she behaved as if Frank was still alive and didn't care about eating breakfast. It would probably take Jane some time before she gets used to her new husband but if she readily acknowledges that she has a new husband and that her new husband likes eating a hearty breakfast, she will most gladly prepare breakfast for him because she loves him.
Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we are now intimately attached to him, and no longer to sin and the kingdom of darkness. However, we need to acknowledge everyday and every moment that we now have a new love and that we want to do those things that will please our new love. When we consciously remember that Jesus is now our new love, then I am sure we will do everything that we can in order to honor him. However, if we fail to remind ourselves of our relationship with Jesus Christ, it will be very easy for us to keep looking back to the old way of life – the way of sin.
Conclusion:
Under New Management. This is what happens to the person who comes to faith in Jesus Christ. Its not just a change in one's future destination – from heading to hell to heaven instead; its also about having a new master to whom we owe our allegiance, about having new goals to strive for – fruitfulness for God and righteousness, and about having a new object of affection – our Lord Jesus.
For those here who are already followers of Jesus Christ, I pray that you will constantly acknowledge God's ownership over your life. We should no longer live simply to please ourselves and to fulfill our own agenda; we have been saved in order to live for him, to serve him, to do good works that will bring glory to him, to love him.
For those who don't know Jesus yet as their personal Lord and Savior, I invite you to make the life-changing decision of trusting him. Trusting Jesus Christ is more than just being forgiven of our sins and going to heaven someday, its also about giving him the control over your life. Giving him the rightful place in your life will bring you true contentment and purpose. I pray that you will not hesitate to make a decision to follow Jesus Christ.
