Grace and peace to all of you
who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Romans
8:1-10 So
then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For in Christ Jesus, the law of
the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3Indeed, what the law was unable to
do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did, when he sent his own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin. God condemned sin in his flesh, 4so
that the righteous decree of the law would be fully satisfied in us who are not
walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. 5To be sure, those who are in
harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the way the sinful flesh does,
and those in harmony with the spirit think about things the way the spirit
does. 6Now, the way the
sinful flesh thinks results in death, but the way the spirit thinks results in
life and peace. 7For the
mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to
God’s law, and in fact, it cannot. 8Those
who are in the sinful flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the sinful
flesh but in the spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit lives in you. And if someone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, that person does not belong to Christ.
10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin,
but your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (EHV)
The Spirit
of Christ gives eternal life.
Dear brothers and sisters made alive in
Christ,
Since the introduction of DNA
testing, and its application in fighting crime, numerous criminals have been
brought to justice after many years of evading punishment. At the same time, there have been a number of
people who spent years and decades in prison, and even on death row waiting for
the ultimate justice to be applied. Many
of those had protested their innocence, but it is well understood that most
convicts claim innocence. Yet, some were
eventually proven not guilty and released.
You
and I have a different story. We, too,
were once imprisoned in a spiritual death row, bound in the chains of sin and
unbelief—however, in your case and mine, the conviction was appropriate for
God’s Word declares, “For the wages of
sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) We had no legitimate defense for the sins we
had committed, and therefore, we deserved the death sentence on our heads. Yet,
like those previously mentioned, our death sentences have been overturned—however,
in our case, not because we were innocent—and not based on a technicality of
the law—no, we were set free from the penalty our sins had earned, because God
sent His Son, Jesus, to take that penalty of death for each and every one of
us, so that instead, The Spirit of Christ gives eternal life.
Immediately
before our sermon text, Paul lamented the fact that sin still affected him even
though he had been set free from its penalty.
Paul recognized that as long as we live in this world, we have to deal
with our sinful flesh on a daily basis. Thus,
as a reminder of the power of Christ in our faith, Paul wrote, “So
then, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Because
of sin’s curse, the sinful flesh is often tempted to take the salvation of our
Lord very lightly, and sometimes, we are tempted to take advantage of Christ’s
forgiveness by thinking it is okay to sin, if just a little. However, Paul is not in any way saying that
sin is acceptable. In contrast, he
addresses the guilt we feel because of the sins that daily creep into our
lives, sins which make us feel outside of God’s grace. When we become conscious of our sins, our
consciences accuse us, and we feel guilty, unloved, unwelcome, and unforgiven
by the merciful Lord who gave His life for all.
To
fight those feelings that lead to despair, and the devil’s taunting, the Holy
Spirit had Paul remind us that because of the suffering and death of our Lord
Jesus, all our sins were taken away, not just the sins of our past, not just
original sin, not just the big ones, and certainly not just the little ones,
but all sins were laid on Christ. When a
person is made a child of God through faith in Christ, all guilt is
removed. We no longer must walk in condemnation. The Christian is not controlled by what the
flesh desires; rather, the Spirit of Christ now reigns in our lives. By His gift of faith in Jesus, “the Spirit
of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
We
saw this on the day of Pentecost, for the people were cut to the heart by the
apostles’ preaching, and they asked, "Brothers,
what should we do?” Peter answered them,
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:37-38) The gift of the Holy Spirit is faith in
Christ Jesus. Through Spirit-given trust
in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, your sins are wiped from God’s record, and you
are set free. All the condemnation is
gone; your deserved death sentence revoked.
“For in Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set [us]
free from the law of sin and death.”
The
spiritual death sentence under which we once lived and were under Satan’s
control was removed by Christ on the cross, and the freedom He won is given to
you by the Holy Spirit bringing you new life through faith. What the law could not enable us to do, Jesus
did. What we had no power to do on our
own, Jesus accomplished for us. He lived
the perfect obedience required. He died
the innocent death. By God’s grace, His
perfect righteousness is now credited to you and me. By the Holy Spirit making us alive through
faith in Christ, you and I are counted completely righteous before God.
Paul
wrote, “Now, the way the sinful flesh thinks results in death, but the way the
spirit thinks results in life and peace.” When we were controlled by the flesh, the
devil was our warden, and we were dead in sin.
That spiritual death kept us afraid of the future. The sinful nature often fears what will
become of us when our bodies are laid in the dust. Until Christ enters our lives, we can only
wonder with terror, how dare we stand before God’s judgment? Who or what will defend us against His
righteous anger? The world and our
sinful flesh had no answer.
However,
The Spirit of Christ gives eternal life.
Now that we have been brought to faith in Christ, we don’t need to fear
the future or the judgment, for we have been given life that lasts
forever. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.” (John 10:10)
He said, “My sheep hear my
voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish.” (John 10:27-28) Before He left this world, Jesus comforted
His disciples saying, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not
let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) Jesus’ own resurrection from the grave proves
that God’s promise of eternal life and peace for you and me is certain and
sure.
Later
in this chapter, Paul wrote, “I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither
things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:38-39) That is the confidence
faith in Jesus gives to the believer. We
have everlasting life. What can the
world do to us? Take our physical
life? That only sends us home to be
forever with our Savior. Steal our
property? So what! Our real home and all true wealth is “in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not
break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:20)
Throughout
this section of his letter, Paul contrasts our old sinful existence and our new
life of faith. He wrote: “To
be sure, those who are in harmony with the sinful flesh think about things the
way the sinful flesh does, and those in harmony with the spirit think about
things the way the spirit does. Now, the
way the sinful flesh thinks results in death, but the way the spirit thinks
results in life and peace. For the
mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to
God’s law, and in fact, it cannot. Those
who are in the sinful flesh cannot please God.”
The
world continually tries to deny it, but before receiving faith in Jesus,
nothing anyone does is good in God’s eyes.
Sin corrupted every part of our being.
Even when we wanted to do good things, we did them for the wrong
reasons, so it was counted as sin. There
was not one good thing in us, just as Isaiah confirmed, “We are all like an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” (NKJ Isaiah 64:6) Even the very
best things we might do on our own were corrupt and offensive to God’s
righteous judgment. However, all of that
was changed by Christ Jesus and the gift of the Spirit, for Jesus prayed of His
heavenly Father, “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17)
To
reassure fellow believers of the blessings of Christian faith, Paul wrote: “But
you are not in the sinful flesh but in the spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit lives
in you. And if someone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead
because of sin, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Separated from Christ, we could do nothing,
but those who believe in Him are now credited with all righteousness. Not only that, but we now can serve our Lord. We are now enabled to do good things in God’s
eyes.
It
is important to note, here, that you don’t have to do things that are great and
mighty in the eyes of the world to be counted as righteous before God. He requires simple faith in Jesus. The monks that beat themselves, starve their
bodies, and do all kinds of works and rituals to please some imagined command
have nothing on you. Those who give away
fortunes to ease their guilty consciences gain nothing if it is done outside of
faith in Jesus. But what great joy is ours, that even though
we once couldn’t do anything to please God, now everything we do in faith and
love of God is counted for our glory.
All other religions teach ways they think will earn
God’s favor, but none can achieve it. In
fact, Paul wrote to the Galatians, “You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law are
completely separated from Christ.” (Galatians 5:4) All those who teach a salvation of works, or
righteousness by obedience of law, keep people locked up in Satan’s death-row
prison. Faithless works have no meaning
to the Triune God, and anything done to please any other god is only
idolatry.
Dear friends, Jesus left this
world saying to His disciples, "Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) As the body of Christ, true believers in
God’s Son live to grow His spiritual body.
That is an ability no one else on earth possesses, but by the power of
the Holy Spirit, we rejoice for the ability and the opportunities to increase His
kingdom by sharing the Good News of what Jesus has done for us, and for all, to
rescue people from the pit of despair which is that path to hell.
The faithful Christian lives as a beacon of light to
draw lost sinners to the saving arms of Jesus.
The great commandment says “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
strength, and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)
We love God when the Holy Spirit gives us faith to believe in His Son,
Jesus. We love our neighbors when we
share Christ’s salvation with them. We
love our neighbors when we live the good example of the faithful Christian:
walking in faith through good times and bad, making worship and praise of our
Lord the priority of our lives, serving unselfishly as we reach out to both
friends and enemies with the forgiveness Jesus won for all.
Now, you probably don’t feel like you are always serving
the Lord. Like Paul, you probably lament
your sinful nature that finds you breaking God’s commands and neglecting Him in
many ways. Certainly, any sin is
regrettable and could lead us away from faith in Christ. Therefore, we never want to minimize the
reality of our sinfulness. Rather, we
lay it all before Jesus in sincere repentance.
We study God’s Word to learn faithful obedience and to grow in His
grace. Then, dear friends, walking in
true faith, we live in the Spirit. Connected
with Christ through Baptism, we live trusting that Jesus has paid for all our
sins. Living in that faith, we don’t
serve Him out of fear; we serve because of humble thankfulness that The
Spirit of Christ gives eternal life. Amen.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you
faultless in the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our
Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all time, now, and to all eternity. Amen.