Romans 6:4 - Homiletics

"Newness of life:" a New Year's sermon.

Things new and old make up the sum of human experiences. All that is new becomes old, and the old disappears to come before us again in new combinations, in new shapes. The mind of man seems to have a natural leaning in both directions; we like the old because it is old, and the new because it is new. This is one of the contradictions inseparable from human nature. There is some truth in the common saying that the young prefer novelty and the aged cling to "use and wont." It is easy to see how, to the youthful, change should be welcome, for their knowledge is yet very limited, and new experiences are the appointed means of furnishing and equipping the mind. It is less easy to explain the conservatism of age and its dread of innovation, for experience must have taught the old how imperfect is everything that concerns man's culture and condition; this trait of character may be largely owing to the increasing feebleness which indisposes to the unwonted exertion of the faculties, or to accommodation to new circumstances. True religion takes advantage of both these tendencies of human nature. It appeals to the natural attachment we feel to what is ancient and sanctioned by prolonged existence; and it appeals also to the yearning for progress and for fresh experiences, which we all either have felt in the past or feel today. But observe in what way revelation makes use of these natural tendencies, and remark the harmony there is between the moral necessities of man and the Divine communications of Scripture. Broadly speaking, whatever concerns God is commended by its antiquity and unchangeableness; whilst that which refers to man approaches us with the charm and the allurement of novelty. A moment's reflection will show us why this should be so with true religion. Man, in his brief life, with his feeble purposes and his petty achievements, looks away from himself for the eternal and the unchanging. This he knows is not in himself or in his race; and he seeks it in the unseen God. And herein he is right. He does not seek these attributes in vain. For, knowing God, he knows that in him there is absolute being, unaffected by the changes to which all creation is subject. Man can find his true stability and his true peace only when he rests in the care and love of "the Father of lights, who is without variableness and shadow of turning." But, on the other hand, man, when he knows himself, is aware that his past has been a past unsatisfactory to himself, and blamable by his Creator and Judge. His changes have often been from evil to evil; and he looks forward, rather than behind him, for relief. His only hope is in his future. The old he can regard only with pain, with regret, with distress. If there is improvement, it must be in what is new—in a new condition, new impulses, new principles of the soul, in new associations and new help. Accordingly, Christianity comes to man with gifts of heavenly newness in her hand. Christianity establishes with man a "new covenant," and gives to him a "new commandment;" makes of him a "new creation," transforms him into a "new man." It opens up to him a "new way" unto the Father by the Mediator of a "new testament," gives him a "new name," and teaches him a "new song," and inspires him with the hope of a "new heaven anti a new earth." In short, it enables him to serve in "newness of spirit," and to walk in "newness of life." "Life" is, in the New Testament, used as equivalent to the history of the spiritual nature. The Lord Jesus professed to be "the Life," "the Life of men;" he came that "we might have life, and that more abundantly," and the acceptance of him as the Divine Saviour is designated the "passing from death unto life." This being understood, it will not be supposed that by "newness of life" the Apostle Paul refers to the life of the body, or to the outward circumstances in which physical life may be passed. And yet the context shows that he is not treating of the future and blessed life in the nearer presence of God. Accordingly, we understand by "newness of life" that which contrasts with the spiritual deadness which hung as a cloud of darkness over heathen humanity, and which contrasts also with the earlier and imperfect developments of spiritual vitality. It is a newness of life which is peculiar to the Christian dispensation, but is yet found wherever Christ is known, trusted, and loved. We greet the new year with gladness and with hope, because it seems to offer us the opportunity to begin life anew. We are thankful for the relief of leaving the past behind, and we cherish the hope that each new year will be one of greater spiritual progress and happiness than the years that are past. Christians wish to forget the things that are behind, and to reach forth to those things that are before. Some who have been undecided as to their course have resolved with the new year to make a fresh beginning in life, and henceforth to live by the faith of the Son of God, and to his service and glory. The subject ought, therefore, to be appropriate and welcome to such as are hopefully and prayerfully aspiring unto "newness of life."

I. The newness of the Christian life will appear from the consideration that it is A LIFE IS CHRIST . This very language must be at first unintelligible to a person unacquainted with the gospel. That life should be in a person seems monstrous and meaningless. Yet Christ himself has said, "Abide in me, and I in you;" and his Apostle Paul has taught us that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." Christ is the Basis upon which the Christian builds, the Foundation of the edifice of his new and higher life. Christ is the Vine-stem into which the Christian is grafted, and from which he draws all his vitality, his vigour, and his fruitfulness. Christ is the Head, in dependence upon whom the Christian is a living, active, and obedient member. The signs and evidences of this life are these:

1. The renewed man learns who Christ is, and what Christ has done and suffered for him.

2. The renewed man admits the claim Christ has upon his gratitude, his faith, his love; and trusts in him.

3. The renewed man consciously accepts life as the gift of God in Christ.

4. The renewed man, by maintaining fellowship with Christ, advances in the new and higher life.

II. The newness of the Christian life is manifest from THE AGENCY BY WHICH IT IS EFFECTED .

1. A spiritual agency.

2. A Divine agency.

3. A freely acting and gracious agency.

4. A transforming agency.

5. A ceaseless and progressive agency.

III. The newness of the Christian life is displayed in THE MOTIVES AND PRINCIPLES BY WHICH IT IS GOVERNED .

1. The love of Christ revealed and responded to is the motive power of this life.

2. The law of Christ becomes a law of friendship.

3. The approval of Christ is an animating and cheering power in the heart.

4. Thus self and the world, the common motives to action, fall into their proper place, or are banished from the Christian's soul.

IV. NEW ASSOCIATIONS are a feature of the Christian's new life.

V. The Christian life tends and points to A FURTHER AND HIGHER REGENERATION IN THE FUTURE .

APPLICATION . Newness of life depends comparatively little upon outward circumstances. There is nothing in the colour of a man's skin, the climate of a man's birthplace, the nature of a man's occupation, his condition whether of poverty or wealth, his education whether scanty or liberal, his age or his station,—there is nothing in all these things which can interfere with or hinder him from becoming a new man in Christ. Does it seem to any one that for him this is an impossibility, because of the unfavorable circumstances in which he finds himself? Disabuse yourself of this illusion, for illusion it is. It may not be within your power to become a learned man, or an eloquent man, a rich man, or a powerful man; but the circumstances which may prevent you from becoming learned or wealthy, mighty or persuasive, have no force to hinder you from becoming "a new man." The obstacles to this renewal are to be sought within, not without; they are to be found in the will, which is often resolved to resist the authority, to reject the truth, and to ignore the love of God. If you take a savage from his native woods, clothe him in civilized attire, place him in a lordly palace, surround him with books and with music, with paintings and with flowers, does he cease to be a savage? Not until the mind is changed. The man himself may remain the same, whilst all his surroundings are altered. These external changes do not make of him a new man, and his life has not in virtue of them become a new life. So is it with man in relation to the kingdom of Christ. Deprive a human being of the liberty which he has abused, remove him from his evil companionships, shut out from him the temptations to which he has been wont to yield, introduce him into Christian society, constrain him to frequent the means of religious instruction; yet his life has not thereby become a new life. The old nature is still there. The Ethiopian has not changed his skin, nor the leopard his spots. The man's true life lies in the bent of his thoughts, the affections of his heart, the bias of his will; and whilst all these are toward evil, the old nature is supreme, and the new life is not yet. Love is the one only potentate at whose master-bidding old things will pass away. Before's Love's wizard wand alone, the ancient shadows will depart from the gloomy cave of the unregenerated soul, and that cave will become a temple peopled with the forms of the holy, and echoing with the songs of heaven. Divine love can make the wilderness a paradise, can change each thorn into a flower, and all the thistles into fruits. When Love smites the rock, the spring of health and of refreshing will gush forth. He who hears Love's voice shall forget the weakness and the weariness of the pilgrimage; and his footstep, erst so heavy and so dull, shall bound elastic onwards.