Open this Sermon in a “New Window”

4th Sunday during LENT

March 2, 2008

Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran church

Sioux Falls, SD

Rev. Norman F. Seeger

 

Romans 8:1-10

       Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,  2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.  3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,  4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;  7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.


Romans 8:1-10

“CONTROLLED BY THE SPIRIT, WE LIVE FREE, AT PEACE WITH GOD”

1.  God Removed My Guilt

2.  God Produces Righteousness in My Life

 

Dear righteous disciples of Christ,

Illinois police sergeant Peterson often appeared on national news shoes last year to innocently ask everyone’s help to find his missing wife Stacy while her relatives offered the opinion he might have murdered her, his fourth wife.  As a new autopsy on an old corpse now changes his third wife’s cause of death from accidental drowning to an unsolved murder, suspicions rise, but who knows the truth?  Who knows how this story will ultimately end?  If Peterson is guilty of murdering his wife or his wives, his conscience – like David’s conscience when the king was trying to hide his murder of Uriah -- must be tearing him up inside as he anticipates being called to account for his crime & receiving the punishment he deserves at some point in time.

Barry Bonds, Miguel Tejada & Roger Clemens proclaim their innocence in congressional hearings on steroids which may be a questionable use of our senators’ time.  Ballplayers’ words are taken at less than face value by many who assume this whole setting is a public relations ploy.  Yet, when our justice department investigates possible charges of perjury, any man who may have lied under oath must suddenly feel fear filling his stomach as he sees – several months or maybe many years in the future – he sees his lies being exposed; sees himself being convicted & sentenced to prison as a perjurer.

Despite a person’s public appearance, guilt slowly but powerfully chisels away a heart’s peace & relentlessly eliminates real joy from life as individuals wait for an anvil of justice to fall & crush us completely.  Are you acquainted with guilt?  Do you know the dreadful, foreboding feeling of a criminal waiting to be convicted even if he has not yet been investigated or arrested?  Do you know how guilt tears up sinners who, although their public image is enviable, expect God to rightly send them to hell when Jesus returns to judge us the last day?  Or is guilt a stranger?  Has guilt been rightly removed from your heart?  Are you possibly unaware of what we are talking about?

Guilty or not guilty?  Are you dying or are you living by the Spirit?  Assuring us “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Paul contrasts people controlled by the Spirit with people controlled by their sinful nature.  Explaining how God removed my guilt before reminding saints how God now produces righteousness in my life, Paul will, I pray, lead us to rejoice because -- being controlled by the Spirit -- we are alive (not dead) … we are living free (not as prisoners of sin) … we are living at peace with God (not as enemies of God) … all because “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

“In Christ Jesus” is the key to living free, of course.  If I live by the law – if I compare my attitudes & actions with God’s expectations -- guilt grows & grows & will condemn me every time angry words cross my lips or an envious thought enters my head as I hear someone singing more beautifully than I will ever be able to sing.  Even if I make my own laws, as so many in our sinful world would do today – if I just try to please myself or only attempt to live up to my potential – I still get flooded with guilt for my conscience assures me I will ultimately be called to account & I will be condemned by our Creator’s standards.  Living by the law is actually a misnomer for the law – evaluating myself by my own actions & my attitudes – only produces sin & death.

The law is “powerless,” Paul emphasizes.  The law is unable to set me free or save me because my sinful nature – which we all inherit from Adam & Eve -- cannot possibly gain God’s approval.  Notice, not only do I fail to follow God’s commands to “love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind & strength” – to also “love my neighbor as myself” – I have no hope of ever pleasing God by my obedience.  Our Lord’s law is not a test we try to ace with loving words & unselfish actions every second of our life.  No, the law is a test I cannot possibly pass because God demands a perfect score, but original sin has marked my first question wrong before I ever begin to offer any answers.  Understand, “the sinful mind is hostile to God.”  My sinful mind is an enemy of God.  I am not born free by any stretch of anyone’s imagination.  “The sinful mind” we inherit when we are conceived through two sinful parents “does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”

“Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”  Anybody claiming to embrace the Lord, as if we took the initiative – as if we chose Jesus to be our Savior instead of Jesus graciously choosing & effectively calling us to be his disciples -- is a liar.  Born sinful, we cannot possibly please God.  We are not, in fact, free to really live, for by birth we are subject to the law of sin & death – we are perishing in our own imperfection -- until God the Father sends God the Son to be born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem.

Becoming a human being – true man as well as true God – Jesus is born under the law.  Subject to the law as we human beings are -- but not inheriting the sinful nature we inherit from our sinful parents because he was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit -- Jesus is able to perfectly obey the Lord’s law as our Substitute.  First pleasing God with his perfect life, Jesus finally destroys sin’s death by suffering as our innocent sacrifice when he is forsaken by his Father while being crucified at Calvary.  As God the Holy Spirit brings us to believe in Jesus – when the Spirit gives us faith that connects us to Christ – we will live, not die.  We will live free -- free from guilt -- no longer facing condemnation sin certainly brings -- because Jesus was already punished in our place.  God condemned our sin when he crucified his Son, so no condemnation is left for us Christians.  “What the law was powerless to do,” Paul stresses – what our own actions & attitudes could never accomplish, being “weakened by our sinful nature -- God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man.”  Sending Jesus to serve as our Substitute, “God condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”

As you & I now live according to the Spirit, are we possibly perjurers or maybe murderers -- are we proclaiming our innocence on the outside while our inner peace slowly fades away in the face of impending punishment?  No.  Are we criminals waiting to be convicted?  No.  Nor are we guilty sinners dreading God’s eternal death sentence.  Living by the Spirit, we realize we are already credited with Christ’s righteousness – God is counting Jesus’ obedience as our perfection -- so we believers will not ever try to save ourselves by obeying commandments we could never keep.  Living by the Spirit, we understand our sins’ penalties were paid in full when Jesus accepted responsibility for every imperfect word or deed & absorbed God’s just punishment of death in our place on his cross, so we forgiven individuals will never try to gain God’s favor by the life we live today.

“Set free from the law of sin & death,” followers of Christ do not try to gain God’s favor by the life we live.  While we display Jesus’ love in our words or works, we do not even attempt to earn God’s praise or approval.  Our actions are not to be determined by what God’s reaction might be.  I am not to choose my words based on the way other individuals will respond to what I say.  That would be living by the law – aiming to earn approval or receive blessings from somebody based on my actions & attitudes – but we live free from the law…we live by the Spirit. 

Jesus already won God’s approval for us.  Jesus’ obedient life led God to declare us righteous.  Jesus’ innocent death moved God to declare us forgiven.  Our guilt is gone forever.  Punishment for our sins disappeared at Christ’s cross where our Savior suffered sin’s death “once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.”[1 PT 3]  Living in Christ today, our attitudes & actions flow from what has already happened rather than anticipating what will possibly occur.  “Living by the Spirit,” we saints simply respond to what our Savior has already won for us.  “Our minds are set on what the Spirit desires” – our Lord’s love is heard in our words & observed in our actions – not because we hope to earn a place in heaven; not even because we want God to bless us in eternity.  No, we live like Christ because our Savior already redeemed us.  We imitate Jesus’ loving actions -- we help our neighbor as we are able -- because Jesus’ innocent blood already washed away our guilt.  We echo Jesus’ loving truths – we expose man’s sin & reveal God’s forgiveness -- because our Savior already set us free from the law that can only deliver sin & death.  Set free to live at peace with God, powered by the Spirit, I pray the lives we live today will rightly respond to our Savior’s righteous redemption -- respond to God’s gift of forgiveness – yes, always respond to what is already ours “in Christ.”

Amen.