Pentecost 7 Romans 7:15-25
July 27, 2014
Have you ever been in a tug of war?A line is drawn in the sand and two groups line up onopposite ends of a rope, grab hold, and tug as hard as they can. The idea is to pullthe other team across the line and win. Sometimes there’s a mud puddlein the middle to make it more interesting (and messy).
Youknow what Paul is talking about in Romans 7, don’t you? He’s describing atug of war, one that you may be feeling right now. It’s thespiritual struggle that goes on within every Christian every hour, minute by minute,day after day. Paul describes it this way:“In my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. It’s the struggle between sin and faith, and if you aren’t having that struggle there are only two possibilities: you have either lost or are losing your faith in Jesus, or you have died and gone to heaven.Our word for today is struggling.
- Our new life
Remember what we read last week in Romans 6:2-4?“We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
What wonderful words those are! When we were born we couldn't think,talk or act anything like God wanted. But through baptism we who were once God's enemies, living in sinand destined for hell, have been joined with Christ our Savior. Through baptism God counts Jesus’ perfect life and his innocent death to us as our very own. Through baptism God “works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this.” (Luther) Through baptism God gives us the gift of faith and we now live the rest of ourlives patterning our lives after Jesus’ life in joyful, God-pleasing gratitude. Like prisoners set free from jail, we have been set free from the bondage of our sin and given a new life. We are no longer God’s enemies but are now on his side, contending for him. We join Paul in saying, “In my inner being I delight in God’s law.”
How could we do anything less than give ourselves totally and thankfully to the Lordfor all He's done for us?
- Our new struggle
One spring day the small school in my first congregation went on a field trip to the Living History Farm in Des Moines and I was one of the chaperones.For lunchwe sat in a picnic area and everyone was having a great time...except for a 3rdgrader named Chad. I saw Chad sitting off by himself, so I tookmy plate and sat next to him. He wasslouched over picking at his food,so I asked, "Hey, Chad, how's it going?" As if I'd turned on a garden hose, tears started streaming down his faceand words gushed out. "I don't know why I always mess up. I get up inthe morning and I think it's going to be a good day, and then I get in trouble. Ithappens all the time. I just want to die."
Have you ever felt like Chad? You get up in the morning and think it's going to be a good day and then you mess up? Or you get to the end of the day and winceover the broken pieces in your inventory of good intentions?Chad took the words right out of my mouth and said them better than I could have. Paulsaid it, too: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”
No matter how much we wish otherwise and would like to pretend our way out of it, we need to face the hard truth that there are two opposing natures constantly wrestling within every single one of us.As Paul explains in his letter to the Galatians, “The sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Ga 5:17)If you are still on earth, you are doing battle with sin. “But wait a minute!if in baptism the sinful nature was buried and put to death with Christ, why does it still plague me?” It’s because the Old Adam knows how to swim!Just let your faith desire to do onething that pleases God and- bingo- evil springs into action to foil theintent. Paul hated and disowned that evil part of him: "but that's not me anymore!”He explained,“It is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives within me, that is, in my sinful nature.”That’s why Paul calls himself a "prisoner". He’s free from sin’s condemnation, buthe can’t stop sin from rearing its ugly head in his life.
You, too, are anew creation in Christ. You have put on Christ through baptism. You can say, “I am a new "me" and can regard yourself as a beloved child of God, a member of the body of Christ, a saint onthe way to heaven. Once youwere dead in sin, an enemy of God, bound for eternalpunishment,but God raised you from spiritual death to spiritual life. You can now count yourself dead to sin instead of living in it. You do not let go of the rope and let sin have its way.That's not "you" anymore!Like Paul you confess,“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”(Ga 2:20)
When sin grabs the rope, tugs, and uses my body as its instrument to do evil, my faith can drag it kicking and screaming to God'sjudgment seat and hear his law condemn itand put it back on the cross.Then I turn to Jesus, who nailed my sin in his body to that cross.And I'll go away free, refreshed and eager to serve. In the shadows sinstill slithers around like a gremlin waiting for the nextopportunity, but Christ lives in me putting his hand on the rope with me in my struggle.
- Our new victory
When you came to worship this morning, you brought your sinful nature to the very lastplace it wants to be. You've been feeling it tug all morning.You can't pretend it away or convert it, but you can make it face its Conqueror, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You also brought your faith with you today. You’ve felt it tugging, too. It rejoices to see the baptismal font where you were born again as a child of God. It delights to hear themessage of forgiveness in God’s Word and in the Lord'sSupper.
You've come to hear that Jesus is contending for you, too. He knowsall about your secret struggle and,as he has taught you to pray, he will not lead you into temptation.You’ve come to hear thathe sympathizes with our weaknesses andpleads for us before His Father's throne, calling out, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest...for your souls.” (Mt 11:28,29)You've come to hear the distant triumph song of heaven, where his inheritance is reserved for you.
You’ve also come to hear thatyou’re not the only one who is discouraged, confused, frustrated and tired of the struggle against sin. So are your baptized brothers and sisters in Christ. Like you, their hand is on the rope and they feel the same struggle with sin as you do. Like you – like Paul – they, too, cry out in their hearts, “What a wretched person am! Who will rescue me from the body of death?” That’s also why you’re here.You’ve come tojoin them in shouting:“Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”and encourage one another to live in thanks to God.Amen