Death to Sin

Imagine the awful inconvenience of being declared dead by the United States Government. Consider this true story:

Susan and Darby Nye of Arlington, Virginia, have been married for 30 years and were looking forward to many more in retirement when Susan started receiving condolences from various federal agencies regarding the death of her husband. But there was one big problem: Darby was alive and well.

It started when Darby’s purchase at a pharmacy was declined. He called to find out why. “Well, they said the Social Security Administration has informed us that you are dead,” he said.

When someone dies, they’re supposed to be put on the Death Master File. The Social Security Administration uses the death data to terminate benefit payments and report deaths to other agencies. But one typo can mistakenly declare someone dead, digging a grave that buries them along with their finances.

Darby’s plight as a categorized deceased person is not singular: it is estimated that every year, some 12,200 U.S. citizens are declared dead by the Social Security Administration due to "keystroke errors." Those affected become like the walking dead, unable to secure a job, make financial transactions, file taxes, or visit the doctor, and for months on end, must endure the nightmare of convincing a large bureaucracy that they haven't yet bit the dust.

Possible Preaching Angle:
Being declared legally dead is a terrible inconvenience for people in our society. But being declared legally dead to sin is a tremendous blessing for believers that promises incredible freedom and hope.

You can pay extra these days to buy jeans with ready-made holes that make them look old. You can buy spray-on mud so that your 4x4 looks as if it’s been off-road (yes, I’m serious). But there are no easy shortcuts to maturity in the Christian life.

Rory Gallagher was an Irish Blues guitarist who played a battered old Fender Guitar. The paint was stripped off most of it, and it went well with the gritty blues it was used to play. Johnny Marr, of the Smiths, admired Gallagher’s guitar so much that he took his own guitar to the woodwork room at school, trained a blowtorch on it, set the guitar on fire and nearly burned down the school. But to get its battered blues look Gallagher’s guitar travelled a long road of Irish pubs and clubs over many years.

Possible Preaching Angle:

We may think that if we would only read the right books and go to the right conferences, we might quickly become a mature Christian. Not so. We have to go through times of difficulty with the hard knocks of life, to follow the example of our Savior (Heb. 5:8). Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness before he was used by God. Joseph was 13 years in an Egyptian prison. Jesus lived 30 years in peasant obscurity before 3 years that changed the world. What is God taking you through just now? Embrace it. Trust him. Christlikeness is not cheap.

Benjamin Schreiber is very much alive. But that hasn’t stopped him from arguing that he died four years ago. After the convicted murderer collapsed in his prison cell, doctors restarted his heart five times. Recovering back at the Iowa State Penitentiary, Schreiber filed a novel legal appeal. He claimed that because he died before he was resuscitated, he had technically fulfilled his life sentence when his heart stopped. Schreiber filed for post-conviction relief, claiming that he was being held in prison illegally.

Judges, however, aren’t buying it. A district court judge wasn’t convinced by his creative attempt to find a loophole in the law, saying that Schreiber’s argument was “unpersuasive and without merit.” The fact that Schreiber was able to file a legal motion petitioning for his release, the judge added, “in itself confirms the petitioner’s current status as living.”

Dying for a brief amount of time doesn’t amount to a get-out-of-jail-free card. The Iowa Court of Appeals said that the 66-year-old will remain in prison until a medical examiner determines that he is dead for good. Judge Amanda Potterfield wrote, “Schreiber is either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot.”

Noting that they couldn’t find any case law that would back Schreiber’s position, the appeals court judges also ruled that he couldn’t have it both ways—claiming to be dead as far as the criminal justice system was concerned while simultaneously going on with his life.

Possible Preaching Angles:

This creative legal claim was of no help to this convicted criminal. He is bound by the law as long as he lives. In contrast, however, this is the certain hope of every believer. Because we are connected in a living way with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ we are dead and forever free from the demands of the law. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). “You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). “Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ” (Rom. 7:4).

In 1967, a student named Libby attended with her boyfriend, Tom. During the final commitment evening, both submitted their lives to the Lord. For 30 years, Tom and Libby Little served in Afghanistan, providing vision care to the people of Kabul throughout seemingly endless wars and conflict.

In August 2010, shortly after conducting a two-week medical camp in a remote valley of northwestern Afghanistan, Tom and his medical team were ambushed and killed. Upon receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her husband, Libby said, "Although Tom was killed in 2010, he had already surrendered his life to God's good purposes way back in 1967." For four decades, Tom had submitted himself to his divine master. So in one sense, Tom Little had already died in Christ prior to 1967, and he would always live through Christ even though he was ambushed and killed in Afghanistan.

In his book, The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis tells of a busload of people who travel to heaven on their way to take up residence in hell. These people appear thin and almost ghostlike in the robust atmosphere of heaven, and most of them immediately flee back to the comfort of their bus. One Ghost, who is plagued by a talkative red lizard (representing the power of sin and lust) that sits on his shoulder, ventures out into the plains of heaven and encounters an angel. Lewis describes their meeting, which is a parable of God's invitation to break the power of sin in our life and to transform it into something for his glory:

A mighty angel approached the man and asked, "Would you like me to make the lizard quiet?"

"Of course I would," said the Ghost.

"Then I will kill him," said the Angel, taking a step forward.

"Oh—ah—look out! You're burning me. Keep away," said the Ghost, retreating.

"Don't you want him killed?"

"You didn't say anything about killing him at first. I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that."

"It's the only way," said the Angel …. "Shall I kill it?"

"Look! It's gone to sleep of its own accord. I'm sure it'll be all right now. Thanks ever so much."

"May I kill it?"

"Honestly, I don't think there's the slightest necessity for that. I'm sure I shall be able to keep it in order now. Some other day, perhaps."

"There is no other day …."

"Get back! You're burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You'd kill me if you did."

"It is not so."

"Why, you're hurting me now."

"I never said I wouldn't hurt you. I said it wouldn't kill you."

[Suddenly] the Lizard began chattering loudly: "Be careful," it said. "He can do what he says. He can kill me. One fatal word from you and he will! Then you'll be without me for ever and ever. I'll be so good. I admit I've sometimes gone too far in the past, but I promise I won't do it again …."

"Have I your permission?" said the Angel to the Ghost.

"You're right. It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature."

"Then I may?"

"Blast you! Go on can't you? Get it over," bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, "God help me. God help me."

Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard. The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken backed, on the turf.

Then I saw, unmistakably solid but growing every moment solider, the Ghost materialize into a man, not much smaller than the Angel.

At the same moment something seemed to be happening to the Lizard. At first I thought the operation had failed. So far from dying, the creature was still struggling and even growing bigger as it struggled. And as it grew it changed. Suddenly I stared back, rubbing my eyes. What stood before me was the greatest stallion I have ever seen, silvery white but with mane and tail of gold.

The man, now free from his torment, climbed upon the stallion that had been his sin and rode into the glowing sunrise towards the Savior.

If there is a terror about darkness because we cannot see, there is also a terror about light because we can see. There is a terror about light because much of what we see in the light about ourselves and our world we would rather not see, would rather not have be seen.

— Frederick Buechner, U. S. writer and preacher (1926–)

A study at Temple University School of Medicine found that lying takes more brain energy than telling the truth. Participants were divided into two groups. Those in the first group were asked to shoot a toy gun and then lie and say they didn't do it. Those in the second group watched what happened and then told the truth about it. An MRI machine indicated that the liars had to use seven areas of the brain in their response. By comparison, those who told the truth only used four areas of the brain.

The evidence for Jesus' resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.

—Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg

William M. Greathouse writes:

The new man in Christ is therefore actually living a holy life in Christ and in the power of the Spirit. The old man he once was in Adam has ceased to be.

An incident in Augustine's early Christian life illustrates this. Before his conversion he had a mistress named Claudia. Shortly after he found Christ, Claudia saw him on the street in the city. "Augustine! Augustine!" she cried after her old paramour [lover]. Augustine paid no heed. "Augustine! Augustine!" she cried out again. "It is Claudia!"

"But it is no longer Augustine," he replied, as he continued on his way.

The May 2002 issue of Fast Company tells the stories of five people who worked for Enron, the company that in 2001 filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

One person profiled in that article was Phyllis Anzalone. She went to work for the company in 1996 selling energy supply contracts. Her personal earnings quickly went to six figures. She says, "As devastating as it was, I'm glad I did it. It was like being on steroids every day."

But when Enron went bankrupt, she lost roughly one million dollars. She says, "The whole Enron debacle was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I was so emotionally attached to that company, and it took so much life out of me."

If you don't love Jesus, you will soon discover that being a pastor or a church leader is not really a very good job. You will be overworked, underpaid, over-stressed, and under-appreciated. But if you do love Jesus, you will discover as so many others have that it can be the most wonderful and exciting job in the world.

In a classic Leadership cartoon, two couples are seated in a living room engaged in Bible study. One of the women is speaking. "Well," she says, "I haven't actually died to sin, but I did feel kind of faint once."