A, Post Pentecost 5 Proper 8 - Romans 7:1-13 A Worthy Wedding

The fullness of God’s Word dwells in Jesus Christ, because He is the Word made flesh.  In His flesh, Jesus bears the fullness of the Law: its holiness, rules, statutes, promises, testimonies, steadfast love, commands, and demands.  This is the Law we have spoken responsively in the Introit and confessed from Psalm 119.

God’s Law is His word of truth.  It exposes us and shines its light upon human reality.  Before God’s holy Law, is there anywhere to hide?

No, there is not.  We who hold to God’s Word must first be examined by the Law.  If the Law does not ask its questions of us, we will never hear the truth about ourselves.

So God’s holy Law asks, “Are you holy as God is holy?  Are you merciful as God is merciful?”  And the answer that comes back from us is sin. 

Or, to use Christ’s own words, the Law gives two answers: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37–40 ESV)

These words expose the simple reality of our humanity.  We love ourselves more than we love God and our neighbour.  When we hear the Law, we either turn away disheartened, or we reject it in favour of our own laws—laws that excuse us and condemn our enemies.

But because the Law is of God and is holy, rejecting the Law means rejecting God.  We either turn away from Him disheartened, or we stand in judgement over Him.  Either way, we make our Heavenly Father the enemy.

Jesus makes this clear in today’s Gospel reading.  Three times He says that if we love parents or children more than Him, or if we do not take up our cross and follow Him, we are not worthy of Him.  Jesus strikes hard with the Law, because He bears the fullness of God’s Word in His flesh.

Jesus also tells a parable in which the kingdom of heaven—the kingdom of God—is like a king giving a wedding feast for His son.  In that parable, those first invited prove unworthy, and another man, brought into the feast in their place, is also rejected because he is not wearing the wedding garment. (see Matthew 22:1–14)

Paul carries this wedding theme into his letter to the Romans, where he explains that in baptism we have… “died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.” (Romans 7:4 ESV)

What, then, is this fruit of God, and how are we to produce it?  These questions cannot be answered by ourselves.  When we trust our own understanding and feelings, we are tempted to return to another law, becoming a law unto ourselves.  That new law also threatens to turn us away from God and make us His enemies once again.

Left to ourselves, humanity produces the fruits of humanity.  We do human things because we are human beings; and because we are sinners, our human works are marked by sin.  Being human, after the fall, means being sinners who do sinful things. 

Yet the Law is not sin, nor are we permitted to shrug our shoulders and carry on wilfully sinning.  Paul rejects that kind of self-justification for those who take the kingdom of God seriously and understand their marriage into it through baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Otherwise, we would be like an adulteress: rescued from sin and death revealed by the Law, only to return to justifying ourselves by what we do.

Rather, the Law serves its purpose in several ways.  After the Law shows us what we are and what we do, Jesus Christ is baptised into the Law.  The Word made flesh comes in our flesh, sets aside His divine privilege, and lives in the same flesh as you and me.  Jesus is born into the same human condition, yet He does not succumb to sinful emotion, deed, or being.  He becomes what neither Israel nor humanity had been able to be: faithful to God in heaven and faithful to His human neighbours on earth—faithful even unto death.

In His birth, baptism, death, and resurrection, Jesus bears the fruit that fulfils all righteousness, so that we might flee the wrath to come and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Jesus comes so that we are blessed and invited to “the marriage supper of the Lamb. These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9 ESV)

This answers the question of why we produce fruit.  We produce it because Christ was baptised into the Law and death, yet without sin, and because we have been baptised into His death and resurrection.  But the question of how this fruit is produced still needs to be answered, lest we try to justify our way into the kingdom of heaven through our works—making ourselves worthy by churchly charity, giving, prayer, praise, and other practises.  Do not misunderstand me: these are good works, but they do not justify us.  Rather, they are works the body of Christ does for the salvation and good of others.

So how do we do them?  How does this fruit happen within us?  The Law still works within us, and in Lutheran theology this is known as the third use, or third function, of the Law.  This is why the Ten Commandments remain a core teaching of Lutheran theology.  Yet this is not our use of the Law, even though the Law still functions within us to the glory of God and for the love of our neighbour.

Paul’s analogy of marriage reaches its fullness in something profound.  He says, “‘Therefore a man shall leave His father and mother and hold fast to His wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31–32 ESV)

Notice that the man leaves His parents, not the woman.  We do not leave our place in order to become Christian; rather, in His incarnation, Jesus leaves His Father to be pledged to His bride.  In Jesus Christ, God has… “put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 1:22 ESV)

Just as Jesus was carried along by the Holy Spirit in His ministry, so for Jesus’ sake we who have been baptised into Christ… “are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:6 ESV)

The Holy Spirit is the body of Christ’s “how”.  All that glorifies God is done in us and through us by the Holy Spirit.  The new way, the new function of the Law, is the Holy Spirit using God’s Law within us so we can love God and serve our neighbour.

How, then, do we do the works Jesus did while on earth, and even the greater works He promises in John 14:12?  Jesus tells us, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.” (John 14:15–17a ESV)

By the new way of the Holy Spirit, He works this new obedience of Jesus Christ within us, because… “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2 ESV)

This third function of the Law is not one that leads us to death.  Rather, the Holy Spirit leads us out of sin and into a righteousness in keeping with repentance.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit to help us flee wrath, run to Christ, and take up our cross to follow Him, who has fulfilled all righteousness in His death and resurrection.  Therefore, as Paul encourages Timothy, we too can be encouraged: “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” (2 Timothy 1:14 ESV)

This is God’s gift of grace upon grace to those who are human upon human, sinners upon sinners.  It does not justify our sin; it forgives sin in those who know they cannot justify themselves, and who are made worthy to enter the wedding feast of the Lamb of God. Amen.

A, The Fifth Sunday in Lent - Romans 8:6-11 "To Live in Grace"

The political polarisation and personal paralysis of humanity is evident in every aspect of our society today.  As western civilisation teeters on the edge of imploding in on itself God continues to call Christendom and the societies in which it lives to repentance, turning back to relying on him, seeking forgiveness for following opinions based on human desire and personal pleasure.

The political polarisation between progressivism and conservatism is driven by our human spirit, a lust for self-righteousness, in opposition to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that not only calls God’s children to be justified by grace, but to actually live in that grace.  Rather than treat the Lutheran catch cry of being “justified by grace” like a magic pill, only to continue living in unrepentant sin as we appease every whim of the human spirit.

It seems being conservative or progressive has become a licence in justifying “my” personal opinions and feelings to negate the opposition.  But who are we really opposing?   Being conservative or progressive are both positions of the flesh, opposed to being Christ-centred.  Humanity is expert in progressing and conserving its idols to glorify itself and its pleasures. 

And you are human too!  How have you been building your kingdom?  It matters not whether it’s a progressive or conservative kingdom.  The reality is these kingdoms are kingdoms of death, because they’re centred on the flesh—humanity’s flesh, and your individual flesh!

It’s evident today that the fragility of humanity hangs in the balance.  We seem to have not learnt much post-Covid!  Humanity appears paralysed by its idolatry in building its kingdoms of death. A house of cards teetering on interest rates, fuel prices, and somewhere I can charge my dying ego-phone.

Unfortunately, the church today is not the lighthouse for Christ that it should be!  Progressive and conservative opinion now veils the light of God.  It’s a distorted death lens that you and I have been lured into believing is necessary for faith.  But it’s not faith in God, rather faith in my opinions of God.  Opposed to God’s heartfelt desire to save you, human opinions and heartfelt desires see only death.

It matters not what kind or how many biscuits you bake for God!  Instead, it depends on your reception of God’s word, his holy law and holy gospel, not to form your opinion but to cleanse you of them, and nourish you with the holy heavenly food that God knows you need.  God does not need your bites of half-baked human wrath and grace, that lead those who cook them to death, and those forced to eat the cook’s ego-biscuits, to death as well.  What God needs are receptive people who feed on his word.

Saint Paul, “a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God” (Roman 1:1 ESV) did not function as an apostle or as a disciple by the power of his opinion.  Instead, he was called and set apart by the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Paul was made receptive to the will of God so that he was forgiven and fed by God’s holy word of law and gospel.

God calls you into this receptivity as well!  Like Paul, all Christians are called into being conduits through which God’s holiness flows.  We are not in charge of this!  Rather, this is the work of the Holy Spirit.  When we usurp the Holy Spirit in his work, individually or collectively, once again we become polarised and paralysed by our opinions and desires.

Like watchmen in the night, humanity peers into the darkness of society, straining to see with the blindness of its opinions.  At some stage one has to be honest with oneself and repent of their opinions and the deadly darkness into which they look in hopelessness.  It’s then and only then by the work of the Holy Spirit through God’s word of law that we plead for his mercy! 

We learn in the law, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3–4 ESV)  Left to our opinions and feelings, we quickly realise the paralysis of our position before God and the need for him to raise up the bones of our bodies and breathe new life into our corpses.

Paul first reminds us, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6–8 ESV)

This is the reality of God’s law!  As the hymn states, the law of God “dooms to death when we transgress” (LHS 270:1)

In the second verse we’re fed what the darkness of the mind seeks to hide about the truth of God’s law, “Its light of holiness imparts the knowledge of our sinful hearts, that we may see our lost estate and seek deliverance ere too late.” (LHS 270:2)

Later on, in the last verse of that hymn we hear, “We flee for refuge, Lord, to you, who from the curse hast set us free, and humbly worship at your throne, Saved by your grace through faith alone.” (LHS 270:6) 

How does one plead for God’s mercy and flee to him for refuge in our fleshy reality?  And what is “my” reassurance of salvation?  That I am saved?  That I am being saved?  And, that finally I will be saved from the conservation and progression of my sinfulness that is the death of my flesh?

Paul continues, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:9–11 ESV)

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, lives within you despite your flesh being dead because of sin—your “human being” and its “being human” in what you continue to sinfully do!  The law not only keeps humanity’s moral compass calibrated, but it also keeps our sinful nature in check.  But because of Christ’s righteousness and because of the sacrifice of his blood at the cross, which was, is, and continues to be the cross on which we were meant to die, we flee back to his cross in repentance.  It is only the Holy Spirit that can do that within you! 

The Christian life is one of putting to death all deeds that progress or conserve our human spirit over against the Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit of God continues God’s grace within us by growing faith to allow God’s holy word of law and gospel to flow through us in our daily lives.  This is an ongoing process of being saved by grace through faith alone. 

The Holy Spirit feeds us with law and gospel, to correct and to comfort, so we know we live in “a daily grace event” of being fed and forgiven, to grow and desire more and more the holy food of God that gives peace and salvation.  The Holy Spirit wills you to continually open God’s word.  In it alone, we hear of God’s severity and kindness, where we find holy correction and comfort!

Paul reminds us of this reality, saying, “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22 ESV)

And again, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”  (Romans 6:22 ESV)

God’s grace is not a pill-popping exercise that allows us to set and forget the will of God and the ongoing sanctification of our sinful flesh, which leads us to finally being made holy in our earthly death and resurrection into the bosom of our heavenly Father. 

God sets you free from political polarisation and personal paralysis, regardless of it being progressive or conservative! Those ways are dead ways when the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus Christ are worked within by the Holy Spirit so that you are not only saved by grace through faith, but live in that grace and faith by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Dear heavenly Father, thankyou that you feed me with law and gospel.  Help me with your Holy Spirit to eat, digest, and grow in the faith afforded by the Holy Spirit within, so that I might daily die to self and allow all my sinful ways to be nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour.  May I be a holy conduit through which you work in the lives of those you have prepared in advance for me to encounter. Amen.