If you have ever heard a car engine backfire, you know it’s abrupt and loud enough to send cats leaping vertically into the air, jolt sleeping babies awake, screaming, and cause soldiers who struggle with PTSD to ‘hit the deck’ cowering in fear. And if it’s something your car does, or maybe a close-by neighbor’s car...one hopes the problem is fixed sooner than later. 

Suppose you do have a neighbor whose car develops this obnoxious problem and they apologize to you for its unruly disturbances, informing you they are taking it to a local garage the next day to have fixed. Then, a few days later while enjoying your first cup of coffee that morning, you hear that neighbor getting ready to leave out for work, or maybe to church and as they pull out of their driveway...there goes the loud explosion of their car backfiring once again. It causes you to recoil, spilling coffee down your front, as local dogs in the neighborhood begin barking loudly. Maybe it happens one more time, or two, a bit more muffled as your neighbor continues on to their destination driving further away from home.

Then, later in the day your neighbor returns home, with advance warning as you hear the familiar backfiring announcing their arrival. You wave at them as they pull in their drive and you are compelled to ask how things went when they took their car to the mechanic.

“Oh yeah”, they tell you...”I got that taken care of a few days ago. Cost me nearly a ‘grand’ but it was worth it!. The mechanic was a great guy and the reviews on his garage spoke highly of him. Why do you ask?”

“Because your car still seems to be backfiring”, you tell them. “I heard it when you left out early this morning and upon your return home. I was just curious if something had kept you from taking it in to be looked at.”

Now you sense a touch of defensiveness rise up in them as they quickly assure you that it is not backfiring as ‘much as it was before’, and certainly not as loud as it had been.

“But it’s still backfiring”, you point out. That’s when they tell you they are satisfied with the money they spent, they appreciated the mechanic’s expertise and assure you that maybe there was just some bad fuel in their engine and besides...no car is perfect. End of discussion; and as the days and weeks go on, local pets and babies continue to be tormented as they are jolted from their peaceful places of rest. Anyone see where this is going today?

Paul asked in his letter to the Romans...”How shall we who died to sin...live any longer in it?” (6:2)

What do you think it means to ‘die to sin’, and what is the implication to suggest one ‘still lives in it’? Serious question, I promise.

Paul goes on: “Don’t you know that anyone who is baptized into Christ...was baptized into His death...and then raised up from the dead by the Father...so we should be walking in the newness of life.” (6:3-4).

That’s another way of saying: “Your car engine (heart) shouldn’t be backfiring anymore if it was fixed.”

What does ‘walking in the newness of life’...mean to you? John would later write that “anyone who abides in Him (Christ) ought himself to be walking as Jesus walked.” (1 John 2:6). His words, not mine.

Notice how verse 5 in Romans 6 begins: “IF...we have been united together in the likeness of His death...we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection...KNOWING THIS - that our old man WAS crucified with Him...that the body of sin might be done away with...that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” (6:6)

Then, verse 7: “He who has died has been freed from sin.” What does it mean to you...to be ‘freed from sin’? I should also point out that we are incapable of ‘freeing ourselves’ from sin; hence the reason Jesus came...to ‘set the captives free’. Now, read with me once again, the words of Jesus: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:34-36). Take a moment with that, if you would.

Do you remember the story in the OT, when King Saul was commanded to put to death, among other things...all the livestock that belonged to the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:3). And when the prophet Samuel came to confront him, Saul ran out to greet him, as he was ‘praising the Lord’ assuring Samuel that he had done as instructed (13). Samuel’s response was a classic:

“Then what is the bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” (14).

Hundreds of years later, James would direct this statement to those in the church: “Brethren...out of the same mouth ...both blessings and curses come as you praise God but curse men...and these things ought not to be so. How can both freshwater and saltwater come from the same fountain?” (James 3:9-12)

To be continued....