Deadbeat to Sin for Death is Beaten
- sherryrichmond2
- Jul 29
- 9 min read
Updated: Aug 5
This entry is part 40 of 40 in the series
Broad is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shows a narrow path,
With here and there a traveler.
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity
We all begin our journey the same: dead on the side of the road. Then the Stranger approaches and sees our predicament. Compassion overflows from the mysterious Companion who throws our body on His humble mule and takes us to the inn for our revival, resurrection, and renewal.
The Lord Jesus found us on the broad road, but redeems us for the narrow Way. He scours the broad road seeking others who are thirsty, wearied, and dead on the path to destruction. We were pulled off this deceptive road to nowhere. It is the road we once ran, seeking to outrun our fellow man to death. It was a race rewarding all the same prize, regardless of who is the richest or lives the longest: death. However, Christ has saved us for a better race. A race where victory is guaranteed so long as our eyes and our steps follow in faith after the Faithful One. We are taken off the deceptive path of the broad road of death so we can begin the work of pulling fellow dead men onto the narrow path. The Lord will not allow us to die of thirst on His Way, for He provides the never-ending wellspring of His eternal Life. He is the One “who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding.” (Collect of the Day).
However, many a Christ-follower is far from a follower of Christ. We forget we were saved from the road to death and regenerated in the inn. Instead of emerging from the inn as a resurrected new man and seeking to follow the narrow path of our Savior, we return like a dog to its vomit and sit alongside the road to hell or even try to reenter the rat race that only leads to death. Our Lord saved us not to sit alongside the broad road, but to call lost stragglers to follow the One whose path is a better way because it is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Idleness has nothing to do with a Christian. The Christian life is not one of sloth, nor one of playing possum alongside the road. The life Christ pours into us is a call to follow – and that requires taking up our mat and walking after Christ our Savior.
Arise, O Christian, arise O Church, and follow after the bridegroom along the narrow path. Do not be lazy in the Spirit, but be consumed by the Spirit. Cry aloud for the Lord to strengthen your paralyzed limbs through our Collect of the Day, “Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Deny thyself, and take thy cross,
Is the Redeemer’s great command;
Nature must count her gold but dross,
If she would gain this heavenly land.
The day is short for us to walk in the Light. Shorter still is the hour for so many souls around us who know not their Creator. In other words, resolve this day no longer to slumber in the light, for far too many are entering their eternal sleep in judgment who do not know the narrow Way. How shall we live awakened in Christ? Our Lord tells us, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:20, KJV).
The standard is high, nay, it is Holiness Himself that is our call, our cry, our standard, and our Savior. Yet we are not left alone, for you have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit burning within you if you would stop drowning yourself with the rain of sin. Our calling is to surrender to the Spirit so we may have victory in the Son. It is not “good enough” to refrain from murdering another to death, “but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matthew 5:22, KJV). We are called to guard our tongue, that most deceptive and hostile of organs, as St. James warns. Douse the hellfire of sin in the old Adam or you risk being drowned by your sin in hell in the next life. Enflame and be consumed in this life by the fire cast by Christ through His Holy Spirit and dwell before the cherubim and seraphim before the Holy of Holies when Christ renews and judges the world by the fire of His holy presence.
Our witness is to be cross-bearers, cutting against the crowd heading in the wrong direction on the broad road. Our calling is to forgive those who seek no forgiveness – yea, forgiving them not seven times but seventy times seven times. (Matthew 18:22). The King’s Way requires reconciling with the person whom we have sinned against; “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24, KJV). There is no room for pride when following Christ. Swallow the pride that creeps from the old Adam and “Agree with thine adversary quickly” so you may get about the business of drawing nearer to Christ. (Matthew 5:25, KJV).
It is tough trodding by the measure of this world to follow Christ, for it means emptying yourself. It is near impossible, but what is impossible for man is possible and made manifest by God within you. Cut off and cut out the dead rot of the old Adam so nothing remains but the Holy Ghost within you. There is nothing to do, but everything to let go. Enter into Almighty God’s victory over sin, death, and the world by delivering yourself in sweet surrender to His will in all things. Quite simply, it takes dying on our part to be enlivened on His part. Get in your tomb sinner, for God has planted a seed of Life within you that shall never be plucked out and is growing even now in your dead body and this dead world. We are past mid-summer, and the harvest is drawing ever closer. I know the narrow Way has a beating summer sun but that is merely hell’s last breath before the earth cools and the harvest is upon us. Do you not feel within your soul, nay, even within your aching bones and muscles as you tread the narrow path that Christ is bound to burst forth from within you? Give in and give up, for the Spirit is doing His work within you!
The fearful soul that tires and faints,
And walks the way of God no more,
Is but esteemed almost a saint,
And makes his own destruction sure.
My dear Christian brothers and sisters who sit aloof on the road to destruction, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Epistle lesson, Romans 6:3, KJV). You died already on death’s door and were taken up and taken in by Life Himself. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4, KJV). You were raised to walk, so let’s start walking.
Do not follow after the temporary luxuries and fleeting moments of so-called happiness that the world is selling, as those wares are made of ceramic, which are brittle and shall break when temptation tries you and trials overtake you. Pour yourself not into the wares of the world but into the ground with your Beloved. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” (Romans 6:5, KJV).
The righteousness our Lord requires, exceeding that of scribes and Pharisees is indeed great. Yet our Lord is not beckoning you to “give it all you got.” We have nothing to give; we are only recipients of the endless wellspring of Divine grace that soothes the dried mouth, parched tongue, and withered heart. Drink and drink up, my friends, as you are no longer limited by your body of flesh, as “our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6, KJV). You need not be a slave to your old master, “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:7, KJV).
We are deadbeats to sin because Death is beaten by Christ. “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” (Romans 6:8-9, KJV). Therefore, take no break on the side of the broad road, but follow Christ off the beaten path of the Way and find your rest in Him. Follow Him so you may find the true Sabbath that awaits over Jordan. Make no peace with the flesh, strive after the Spirit which is Life in the midst of death. Set your heart, mind, tongue, and soul upon the One who beat back Death and emptied Himself so you may be filled up abundantly in His Spirit. Look not to yourself for your identity, instead set your eyes upon “he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” (Romans 6:10, KJV). This day forward, ” Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:11, KJV).
Ascend O Christian upon the mount. Cut against the grain of the world’s ways and the flesh’s desires. While fellow men, women, and children descend into the valley of death byway of the broad road, you catch hold of them and give them water of eternal Life. Greet them with good news that upon Zion’s hill there is a tree for the healing of the nations, bought for us on the Tree of Life where our Savior hung. Look out for your brothers and sisters along the Way. Help them up and bind their sores on their feet. Carry them, just as Christ carried you off the way of death. We are our brothers and sisters keepers and we must love them as Christ loves them, as Christ loves us. When the saint nearby starts to fall off the Way, rebuke them from erring and love them back into the fold. When another cries out “there is a another way,” show them the map of Holy Scripture that orients us to Truth, and anchors us to set our sights on the East where we shall see Christ face to face. The Way of Christ is no rat race where each competes to outdo the other no matter the cost. This is the marathon of our sanctification and will be finished when we meet our Lord and our King when Lo! He comes with clouds descending. Therefore, no matter the cost, in fact because the cost is ourselves, let us find ourselves empty and devoid of the bitter self-love we bore in the old Adam and daily be born again in the New Adam who empties Himself so His flock may find the green hills of the Promised Land.
Lord! let not all my hopes be vain;
Create my heart entirely new,–
Which hypocrites could ne’er attain;
Which false apostates never knew.
Deadbeat to Sin for Death is Beaten
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