Ahh...those were the days...when I used to cut down trees and chop up my own firewood. It was hot, hard work that I found deeply satisfying. The place where we built our home back in Texas had a number of older oak trees, some I needed to remove before we poured our slab, and then others I thinned out over time. Whenever I did lay a tree down, I usually let it sit there for a week or two before I would start to split it and get the area cleaned up. And something that I witnessed on every occasion was when the tree was first cut down, most of the branches and the green leaves remained intact. It appeared to be a ‘living tree’ that was laying on its side. But one would notice after a few days...the leaves began to ‘wilt’; and the longer it laid there... the leaves turned brown as it became quite obvious...this tree was no longer ‘living’, for it had ‘died’ and was in the early stages of decaying.

Never, in all the years of doing this, did a cut down tree continue living, losing its leaves and then putting forth new buds in the spring that burst into new life with acorns and all. Dead trees, nor any plant, that I’m aware of... do that after they've been cut down.

“Wherever the tree falls, there it lies” (Ecc. 11:3).

It’s been over two years now since we sold our home and moved out west; but to this day, I could take you back to our old place and point out several locations where certain trees once stood...but are no longer there. I would refer to those trees in the ‘past tense’. That is usually the ‘tense’ we use when speaking of things that have...’died’, be it a plant, a beloved pet, or family members and friends who have...passed away. We refer to and think of them in... the ‘past tense’. So does Paul...and other early writers in the NT when they refer to our ‘former lives’, prior to our coming to Jesus where we might have ‘abundant life’ (John 10:10; 5:39-40).

The Bible teaches us that prior to coming to Christ, we were ‘dead in sin and trespasses’ (Eph. 2:1). But it also states in the same verse that we were ‘quickened’ or ‘made alive’, speaking about those who had actually turned their lives over to Christ. He then elaborates in the next two verses as to what our lives looked like previously...when we ‘used to’ live according to the lustful desires of our flesh and minds; even adding that there was a ‘spirit’ (not good one) working IN us. That would explain 1 John 5:19, how ‘we know the whole world is under the influence or power of the wicked one’; that is if they have not been ‘made alive’ yet through their faith in Christ.

You are aware that we tend to bury things that have died, because we don’t expect to see them anymore, in this life, at least. So when Paul asked that question in Romans 6 (yesterday’s message)...’how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?’, he was pointing out a rather profound truth, one in which I fear has been lost on many sincere professing ‘believers’ today who fill our churches. It seems the word ‘dead’, or ‘died to’ has different meanings to different people. Paul wrote: “He who has died has been freed from sin.” (Rom. 6:7). Peter also wrote, pointing out that “we who having died to sins...might live for righteousness...” (1 Pet. 2:24). In fact, the more you comb through the pages of the New Testament, we keep seeing how this ‘dying thing’ is often referred to in the ‘past tense’.

Back in the old days, when people went to war, the dead were usually buried there on the battlefields after the conflicts were over. Now days, efforts are made to bring their remains back home so the families can lay their loved ones to rest. Now... if we are looking over the landscape today in a ‘spiritual sense’...something happens to ‘dead people’...who are ‘buried in Christ’ (through baptism Rom. 6:3-4). Reading through the rest of that chapter tells you exactly what happens to a person ...who is ‘buried with Christ’ - they are ‘raised up and walk in the newness of life’ as they ‘become a new creation where old things are passed away and all things become new’ (2 Cor. 5:17)

Interesting story buried back in 2 Kings 13:20-21. Elisha, the prophet, had died and was buried in a tomb. During the spring, a band of Moabite raiders invaded the land and during that time, there was a man who was being buried, but when the raiders were spied, they quickly put that dead corpse into the same tomb/grave that Elisha had been placed. The Bible tells us that when the ‘man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.”(21).

I think it’s safe to say that had Elisha’s body (or bones) not been in that tomb, that man would have remained ‘dead’. I also think it’s worth considering...that if someone is ‘baptized’ and ‘buried with Christ’...if they are continuing to walk in sin and death...and not...in the newness of life...is it possible that perhaps they might have been ‘buried in the wrong tomb?

It’s something to seriously consider; which to be brutally honest...ought to be a great encouragement and source of hope for anyone who has continued to struggle with sin. I mean...really...think about it, especially in light of Paul's statements in Acts 19:3 and 2 Cor. 11:3-4.  See you tomorrow?