Death and Freedom

Romans 6:5-19

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


On July 4 each year, Independence Day, we celebrate what for many has become the "Supremum Bonum" - the highest good, which of course in America is "freedom".

Why is this? The foundation of our country was built on the sacrifices of men who were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of freedom. Let me give you a few examples from the little known histories of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

    Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in rags.

    Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

    At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

    Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

    John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

    In addition, five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died, and nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

And Paul writes something similar, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." (Romans 5:7)

One area where we have examples of the kind of courage spoken about by Jesus and Paul, is with these and other great men of history who did just that, lay down their lives for the sake of freedoms that their friends and fellow countrymen would enjoy. We today continue to receive the benefits of their sacrifices.

But what we have is this - freedom comes with a price, and in the world, the price of freedom often is death. The Bible makes a similar point when it points out that true freedom is only possible through death and resurrection.

What Paul understood is that sin is a master. Many people today echo the slogan, "I want to be free to be me." But this isn't possible. Why? Because we are under the rule of a foreign power, sin. The only way to freedom then, is getting out from under that master. Notice in Romans 6 verse 12, "Do not let sin reign. ,. . . " and verse 14, "sin shall not be your master."

In order for America to be free, men died. In order for you and me to be free, there also must be death. First it is Jesus who died on the cross, and rose again. Then we follow Him in His death. That's the picture of baptism.

When Paul wrote to the Romans about baptism, he saw it as an analogy of death and resurrection.

"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (Romans 6:6,7)

When we are baptized in water we are identifying with Christ. He died and was put down into the earth - so we too die to ourselves and are put down into the water. But as we are brought out of the waters of baptism, we also identify with Christ as He was raised up from the dead. This is one reason why baptism by immersion is important to us, it best demonstrates this death-to-life process which takes place at salvation.

But the question is, are we really free? Can I now do anything I please? No. For you see, freedom is not doing what I want, but doing what is right. That's why Paul later on Paul writes in 6:19, "Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

The freedom that the Bible describes is not total freedom, it's simply a matter of changing masters. Before we accept Christ, we are slaves to sin, but now we have become servants of God.

Some of you have heard me tell the story of the elderly Salvation Army man I once visited in the hospital. With a glimmer in his eye he told about how he, in his younger days, would walk through town carrying a sandwich board. As people would approach him on the sidewalk of his home town, Manchester, CT., they would see a sign, scribbled in large letters which said, "I AM GOD'S FOOL !" They would giggle and snicker as he passed by, but they wouldn't be able to resist turning and looking at the lettering on the other side of the sign. It said, "WHOSE FOOL ARE YOU?"

In the world, apart from Christ, we are slaves to sin. Paul would later call it a law working in him, the law of sin exercising control over him. Like the law of gravity, this law would compel him to do things he did not want to do - he seemed helpless to do what he knew to be right and good. But when he met Christ, that changed. What made the change possible was that he changed masters. Now, instead of being in bondage to sin, he was a "love slave" to Christ. If Paul were living today, he might be the one wearing the sandwich board. On one side would be written, "I am God's slave." But on the other side would be the question, "Whose slave are you?"

On Independence Day we give thanks to God for the political freedoms we enjoy, freedoms which were bought at the cost of others having given their lives so that our country could be free from the exercise of external control. But just because we are free to determine what kind of government we will be under, this does not mean that we are free to be who God intended us to be, and free to do what is right and good to do. This too requires death. Are we willing to give up our lives for freedom?

Let's be clear about this, if the "Supremum Bonum", the highest good, is freedom, it is not the self-centered, individualistic freedom promoted in our world today. Rather, it is the freedom which is motivated by love.

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